Yup, I'm the dood that bought the 69 H1 engine that bounced around CL & ebay. While most kats would run screaming from a set of bridgeport cylinders with the edges cut off, they are just what I wanted.
I was sure that whoever shaved those cylinders was making a statement. That statement, along with the mis-spelled stickers on the heads, announced that this was a heavily-modified engine. I assumed they were aggressively, and probably hap-hazardly, ported and bored.
That didn't bother me a bit. I would like to build a period-correct retro dragbike, and the shaved cylinders with gaudy stickers are perfect just the way they are.
Someone spent a lot of time and money defacing one of the first triples into the country, and their work should be honored, not restored. This engine isn't 'just like the way they used to do it.' It
is the way they used to do it, only not particularly well thought-out or successful. It is a piece of triple motorsports history just the way it is. Not every triple was a National Record Holder, some were just hacked up and raced by people that couldn't even spell 'Kawasaki.'
The good news, is that forensics revealed that the bike wasn't ported at all. Instead, the speed secret that the ruined cylinders trumpeted was merely the removal of the second rings. Since the bores are STD, clean and extremely low mileage, it might make the milling of cylinders seem even more of a waste, but I look at the engine as a step in racing development.
If you have either a frame or a tip on a frame from around this engine number, please let me know. I don't need anything special or mint. This bike will never be original, and it's for me to keep, not for resale.
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