my buddys kz900 9.20 1/4
- Thread starter NIGHTFLIGHT
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Sounds like good times back then
Draco, great info and you are very historically accurate! I've been through all the bikes you've mentioned and even one that you didn't speak of (1980 Yamaha XS-11 fully modified including an early NOS system...ran 10.7 @ 138mph...with a driveshaft!). Thanks for your time in posting, made me remember my Kaw H-2 with Wirges chambers and 36mm flatslides!
Raydog
Raydog
Draco1340
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I have to appologize for being off topic, but the thread is mostly about older bikes.
Back in Europe in the 70s, the origin of the drag bike (believe it or not)was the enduros out of Spain and Italy and some of the smaller Japanese 2 strokes. My father wired me $500 in 1978 to help me get settled in with my friends in southern Belgium. I was 13 going on 14 thinking I was 35 and probably not going to make 40. I did the only responsible thing I could think of. I purchased the badestass bike of the day; The Bultaco Fronteria 250. This was a photo of her before I chopped her down to 3" of clearance, and swapped in a 500 CC cylinder and race tires. She eventually ended up with a Kawasaki powerplant in a 200 lb chassis and ran low 6s in the 1/8 mile before I crashed her hard in 1980. I'm still looking for photos of the 3 cylinder Kawataco. 1980 turned out to be a bad year; the Pope was shot, John Lennin was shot, Aids was out, and my bike was a twisted pile of junk.??? I came back to the states and bought a Z1.
Back in Europe in the 70s, the origin of the drag bike (believe it or not)was the enduros out of Spain and Italy and some of the smaller Japanese 2 strokes. My father wired me $500 in 1978 to help me get settled in with my friends in southern Belgium. I was 13 going on 14 thinking I was 35 and probably not going to make 40. I did the only responsible thing I could think of. I purchased the badestass bike of the day; The Bultaco Fronteria 250. This was a photo of her before I chopped her down to 3" of clearance, and swapped in a 500 CC cylinder and race tires. She eventually ended up with a Kawasaki powerplant in a 200 lb chassis and ran low 6s in the 1/8 mile before I crashed her hard in 1980. I'm still looking for photos of the 3 cylinder Kawataco. 1980 turned out to be a bad year; the Pope was shot, John Lennin was shot, Aids was out, and my bike was a twisted pile of junk.??? I came back to the states and bought a Z1.
NIGHTFLIGHT
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THOSE OLD 2 STROKES HANDLE LIKE PIGS BUT THERE MOTOR WOULD SURPRISE LOT RIDERS. IF MOTOR HAS BIGGER WISCO PISTONS+ELECTRON CARBS AND TRICK PIPES BEWARE
Draco1340
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Those are GREAT photos! You might meet the nicest people on a honda, but Kawasaki's were badazz. They were loud and rude and smelly and rode like crap. You had to keep a pint of 50:1 oil in your backpack because the oilers never worked. They weren't more complicated than a typical chainsaw. BUT, It was all about the most horsepower and the least weight, and they were the king at the dragstrip or the industrial parks at 3 AM.
Damn, this thread is making me need to track one of those old things down again.
Damn, this thread is making me need to track one of those old things down again.
I have to add....I had a Kawasaki H-2 two stroke triple and drag raced it a little. It wasn't about bigger pistons, it was about better pistons, porting, higher compression (via milled heads), bigger carbs (couldn't afford Lectrons, I think they were 36mm Mikunis/flat slides weren't in production yet) and three expansion chambers with tiny end baffles. I also remember adding a couple of cross members to the frame and S+W rear shocks. I've had so many bikes but I think I went 11.2 at its fastest (118mph trap speed comes to mind). Of course I rode it to the track then the next day would be up in the twisties! Things were so simple back then! Raydog
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V-Max 2 Busa
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Kawi triples were a blast, In high school I rode a 1974 S3 400, just like the pic below, actually still have it and maybe someday I'll finish restoring it.
NIGHTFLIGHT
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