Kawi2strokes.com Forum

Nev asked a great question on a thread about my reed conversion development, and I thought it would be cool to see how others got into the sport and into triples.

And I haven't heard much on Nev's very long racing/tuning career and why he got into it, I hope you give us some history Nev!

I have told my story many times through the years, but there are always new guys on the board, so I will do a "refresh".

I got into triples in 1978 (I was 21) when some guys I was working with at Holloman AFB (a few miles outside Alamagordo NM) decided they wanted to get motorcycles for the 140 mile round trip to Las Cruces where we lived. So we went into Alamagordo to check out the used bikes. The first shop was a Honda shop, so we stopped their first. I didn't care about the Honda's but you never know what used bikes they would have. Looking through the row of used bikes, I saw a dark candy green bike with a sleek tank, I knew what it was right away! Taking a closer look, it was a very cherry 1973 H1. They wanted 600.00 which I thought was a good deal, so I bought it.

As with any kind of vehicle it didn't take long before I wanted to make it faster and change the looks. (I hate stock....lol) So the usual upgrades, chambers, pods and H2 carbs. That worked for a while, but I wanted more! I got a hold of the Denco porting specs , went way overboard, and I pretty much made her useless as a rider, and quickly got tired of her, she was sold.

Off into 4 stroke land I went, but never forgetting the simplicity and power of the triple. My buddy's big brother had an RD and it had reed valves and a big power spread, so I knew there was a way to make a bunch of hp and have it still rid-able. That had to be the reed valves.

Life and work took me all over the country, so no real time to have a motorcycle. Until 1994, I found a 1975 H1 for 200.00 that was all there but partially taken apart. It didn't take much to get her going, And that rekindled my triple fascination, and my quest to convert a triple to reed valves......

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Twist the throttle, tilt the horizon, and have a great time. What triples are all about...........

My first triple was a 1975 H2, which had belonged to my brother-in-law. I got it for $400.00 in 1998 and had it running in a day. Unfortunately it was a money-pit with an appetite for pistons. After several attempts and even another engine, I got tired of blown engines, and got rid of it. A couple of years later, I wanted another two stroke, and found my first Buffalo (Pinky).



Lane

February 1972, a good friend told me his Dad had just finished an electrical job for a guy opening a motorcycle dealership in Huntington NY.
The day they opened, the town sent an injunction forbidding motorcycle sales in that community. Locals petitioned against him so he had to move 170 new bikes and around a million in parts inventory.
OVER THAT WEEKEND.
So I offered to help and hoped maybe to get a break on parts for my G3SS.
Learned that the owner, Buddy Dalton, had been good friends with my oldest brother in school. They went in the service around the same time and were both in Nam. Only Buddy came home alive.
We moved it all in 2 days and all the mechanics and my friend and I got to be good friends.
Then a bonus, I started working / hanging around the shop and got work uncrating new bikes and working in the parts dept.
At the time, "Kawasaki of Glen Cove" was the largest dealership on the East coast. Rode that little 90cc Kaw about 35 miles each way to work and back. Right out there on the L.I.E. drafting semi trucks and stuff.... lol
So I took my 1st ride on a charcoal grey 500 and have been hooked ever since.
It had even 10" oversized fork tubes, a chopper no less.
Loved taking the bikes out to National Speedway on "Sunday, Sunday, Sunday".....
Rode a brand new H1A with a dazzling ETA of 13.5 which I am still proud of.. Hey I was just a kid...
Got married in 1980 and had kids starting in 1981 and riding pretty well vanished from my life until the kids got older.
Sold my H2B in 1984 for a huge 600 bucks.
Around 10 years ago, I decided I needed to ride again, so I got back in to my favorite bikes of all time.
KAWASAKI TRIPLES.

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Bad decisions make the best stories.

In 1980 when I was 18 I had a old ratty 72 H2. I think I aquired it by trading a RD 350 for it. It was a Fast bike, many drag races on Friday/Saterday nights on the outskirts of town. . Me nor anyone else appreciated it back then. Only owned for a short time, I was into RD 400's. I don't remember ever seeing another triple till 2012. Stumbled across a KH 500 a mile from my house, bike had been sitting in the back yard for 25 years. I reluctantly offered $200, the seller said yes so fast, I knew I over paid. After that, it's got a little out of control.

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Current bikes: H1 69,71,72,76 KH 500, H2 72(2),73,74,75(3) , 77RD 400, 08 KLR 650. 76 KZ 900, Yamaha RZ 500, ihave so many triples gave up listing them.
Have seversl tons of H1/H2/S parts for sale, http://www.triplestuff.net dhg1337@gmail.com

I was 18 and a friend of a friend consented to run about a quarter mile on his '73 H2 on a deserted side road while I watched. I had heard it was very fast, and wanted to see. It was mildly ported, with chambers. When he took off, it looked to me like it had been hit from behind by a train. I immediately wanted one someday, and two years later, in 1978, I bought the '72 I have now. It was my first motorcycle, and I took my license test on it. It was also my only motorcycle for the next 35 years, but I've recently bought some others. I guess I figured I owed it to myself to try some other bikes before it's too late, but I'll never get rid of the H2.

For the guys who know me and the H2, the engine is black mainly because the '73 I watched had a black engine and I thought it looked mean as hell. I had mine black a short time after I bought the bike. There's also the NASA engine paint study that I occasionally cite when someone says paint makes an engine run hotter.

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If it surges, that's normal, upshift.

1971 I was 14 and one of the local hoodlums bought a brand new blue 71 H1. He used to fill it up with "High Test" gas at the country store across the street from our house that I still own today. He used to scream by on it and pull big wheelies leaving the store right in front of the house on the same patch of road I turn on today. I thought he was the coolest person on the planet and hung on his every word.....My Daddy hated the influence he had on me and told me if I bought a street bike while I was living under his roof and worried momma he would make sure I was sorry for that decision. 14 SEP 76 I left for USAF basic training. 11JAN 77 I arrived at Eglin AFB, FL and promptly bought a ratty 72 CB 450 Honda for $ 500 from a guy in barracks. 6 months later I found a classified ad for a 71 H1 in the classifieds in Niceville, FL. I sold the Honda for what I paid for it and bought the H1 for $ 450. It had a horrible rattle can Ford dark blue engine enamel paint job on it and was all stock. I kept it. 6 months or so and flogged it unmercifully until I broke a shift drum during a drug and alcohol fueled friday night burn out session on Racetrack Road in Fort Walton Beach. I limped it to the local bike shop stuck in 3rd gear where I met my future mentor Tim Jenks the owner of the Biker's Stash Motorcycle Company and bought a motor complete for $250. He said I could use his tools and shop and helped me change the motor on the spot. I apprenticed under him for almost 7 years by day and crewed F-4E and later F-15s by night. He had a 73 purple H2A with Dencos and clubman handlebars that I finally talked him out of in late 1978 I rode it like I stole it until I got the big 4 stroke fever and traded it and some boot for a 74 Z1A, which I later traded in on a brand spankin new 1980 silver Suzuki GS 1100 ET for 3 grand out the door with my trade. I burnt the bridgestone off the back of it in 500 miles and the rest as they say is history....

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I Love the Smell of Blue Marble in the Morning!!!
Tim Steele in Front Royal, VA
Home of the Phoenix Project
Stay in it when it comes on the pipe, no need to be scared...

I still have the Feb. '68 issue of "Hot-Rod" magazine with a test of my dream car Pontiac GTO, and also a Suzuki T500. The Suzuki was faster in the 1/4, and I thought, "I'm never going to get a GTO on apprentice wages, but I just might find $825.00 for a Suzuki", which is what happened. Gorgeous bike, and about as fast as a '69 Triumph Bonneville, I was king of the road! One night we are sitting in a café, when a friend took off from the lights full-throttle past us on a white '69 H1 he was "demo-ing" for the dealer.....and I started saving for a H1 that day! Just missed the white H1's, got the first red one, and started racing bikes and trying to do something with the front brake at the same time, and for the doubters, you CAN lock up an early H1 drum brake, and we did win a few races on that bike!! Then came along the Fabulous H2, and it was pure luxury after the H1. It was utterly dominant, street and track, and I loved it, and with all the high performance Kawasakis' I have had over the years, I still do! At the time it was all "Jap crap" and "hinge in the frame" etc. etc. (You Know! ) but we H2 guys would just keep quiet, and occasionally "point to the score-board". The first H2 I had was raced, fallen off, and abused unmercifully, and did a zillion street miles with, dunno, maybe 1 set of rings. Used to rattle a bit, tho....... That is how I got started on triples! Now I have a ZX10r , and for all the talk about 'Plastic squid bikes', whatever, everybody needs to pull the trigger on a bike like that, at least once!!

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"One day, your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it's worth watching." : anon.

10 years old: 24 hours of Le Mans 1966. Ford against Ferrari gave me a great interest about cars racing (was for Ford), began to buy racing car magazins.
one of the mazine was half car and racing cars half bike and race bike. At first glance read only the car side and then thought why hadn't a look at bike side, then began to read bike side at first.
And one of my best friend was two years old as I've two years in advance at school. this mean in 1968 he got a moped (14 years old to ride one) and was just passenger. On 1970 was 14 years old and took my mother moped as she just got her car driving licence (and bought a 100 000, or 200 000 or... kilometers -as the speedo came back to 0 each 100 000 kilometers VW beetle split widow 1949 I think). My friend, the bastard, came the month after with a 125cc Honda CB 125 K3 as he got his bike driving licence (16 years old).
1972 16 years old I got my bike driving licence and bought a Yamaha 125cc AS3 Europa and my friend a GT 380 Suzuki (he went to car two months after!).
1973 had bought a Honda CB 350 twin K 3, an other friend a Kawasaki 500 H1 1969, try it in Paris: incredible but no brake and so a year after came on the triple side after my Yamaha RD 350 which replaced the hondu has been stoolen.

When I was a kid (probably 6th grade to 10th grade circa 1973 to 1977); in southern Arkansas; we used to line up and watch all the older kids leave campus when school was dismissed. I attended a small school with grades 1-12 at one campus. The buses were the first to leave campus, then the motorcycles, then the cars. It was basically a drag race in front of the school daily.
I am not even sure if we had school zones in Camden, AR.
Anyway, I will never forget the crazy guys on their H1s and H2s leaving in a uncontrolled fury of noise and smoke and wheelies. I thought they were the baddest dudes around (like fighter pilots).
I have always had two strokes in one form or fashion (a few RDs bust mostly Yamaha Dt Enduros). I finally landed an H2 last year after searching for a long time for the right combination of goodies (including John's reed conversion).
Cannot wait to get her all sorted out and put some miles on her.
Scott

At 14 yrs old: I needed my own way to get to school.

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Busy doing more riding than wrenching.......