Kawasaki 1972 S1 S2 Triple road test

Still high from the Suzuki road test, decide to give the bewitched triple a go… of course I shouldn’t have!

It was the first bike I bought to restore, 12 years ago. I caused me no end of troubles. I got to meet the worst parts suppliers in my life. I got  to discover the lack of honesty of a lot of bike shop. I also learned a lot from the  bankrupcy law (one shop closed on me while the bike was inside). The paintjob screwed up twice and the side decals are all skewd and varnished of course… so I can’t ven remove them. The frame was powdercoated and then we discovered a crack in the footrest plate when we kicked it over… the peg just fell on the floor.

The list is endless. The one good thing is that it put me in contact with the world of internet forums. You’ll find on almost all the two-strokes inclined forums under ither the nick “spike” or “motowasabi”. I couldn’t have finished this bike without their help.

Motor has been rebore to over over over S2 bore, the liner is so thin I am not sure it won’t distort and seize the super expensive pistons (from Brétille, a F1 piston maker). Everything mechanical is new, it’s got a Boyer ignition and this made us discover the stator was bad. Even with all that it still hasn’t got a new crank… It is a bad joke. I have the blinkers but didn’t bother mounting them… they need chrome and I’ve already spent a fortune on stuff like that. I mean the bike is jinxed!

Of course even with a fresh battery the bike wouldn’t start… I should have known better. I pushed it down the avenue and it started like a charm… The sound of them triples is very addictive! The oil lines check valves had obviously let a fair bit of oil, so the thing smoked like a Nebelwerfer. I thought the ace bars looked good (don’t they?) on the bike, but I had hard time adjusting to them. Thank God, the brakes, after all the time spent on them, allowed me to stop at the red light at the bottom of my San Francisco style avenue… major crossing ahead. There was a bit more taffic at this hour, so thought it better to go into the industrial zone to warm the motor and get it rid of the oil. I thought it was a smart move…

My tach is slightly-delic, it would go past the red zone. One more thing to check. Motor, even not run-in, would pick up revs and launch you down the road. The sund gets really crisp and is like nothing else in the world. I was starting to enjoy my new found Triple Owner status. For a moment, I thought the jinx had disappeared. I was wrong.

Of course as I went up and down the road, I didn’t notice a silver Kangoo parked… on my return trip, up jumped a policeman… Radar… 74 in a 50 zone. Cursed, I tell ya. After 12 years of work (on and off, I got so pissed at the bike), countless dosh splashed at it, a 1’000$ fine and the loss of my license, it’s only done 5 kilometers… I’m going to torch it!

Needs to be done:
General check all over the bike.
Repair tach
Fit blinkers for safety’s sake.
Fit new non-rusty acebars.
Get the motor to spew out the oil, I mean it needs to be ridden.

This one will get plated chop-chop… so I told the policeman.