Kawasaki KH400
THERE ARE A few things that seem to sum up Kawasaki two-stroke triples. The buzzsaw whine and off-beat crackle from the silencers, the questionable handling, the some might say slightly deranged look of their pilots. But one of their more unusual features sits under the seat, where Kawasaki, in arare example of a motorcycle manufacturer acknowledging its product’s weaknesses, put a small box to hold three spare spark plugs for when your current set inevitably fouled.
The triples were born in 1968 with the 500cc H1. Kawasaki had been working on Project Blue Streak, a plan for its new flagship two-stroke, since 1964. This was to provide a complement for its 250 Samurai and 350 Avenger twins, which at that point, were only just heading for production. Kawasaki chose an in-line piston-ported triple design over an enlarged version of the
