PAUL MILES

KAWASAKI’S LEGENDARY EARLY Seventies triple, the H1B, is famous for many things. Awesome acceleration, smoking out the neighbours and just generally being a bad boy of motorcycling. The, erm, interesting handling characteristics are also well documented, so it makes sense for the owner to ensure that the basics are kept up to scratch – tyres and brakes being the obvious example.

However, a couple of years back I ended up owning a fine-looking example of Mr Kawasaki’s scariest; the owner had spent fortunes on chrome and paint spread liberally onto scarce parts he’d