KAWASAKI H1 MACH 500cc Triple Restoration & Buying

THE IDEA - EVERYTHING STARTS WITH AN IDEA - for Kawasaki's big triples came during the late 1960s. The Kawasaki company, a large, diversified concern even then, desired a larger share of the lucrative US market in motorcycles. After spending several decades supplying smaller capacity two-stroke machines, the only way was upping the cubes.

So, as legend has it, the design project was handed over to the very same chaps responsible for the Japanese Bullet Train and jet aircraft. The result was two of the fastest bikes on the planet: the Hl 500cc two-stroke triple and a little later its bigger sibling, the 750, also a two-stroke triple.

The new, lightweight 500 Mach III would then, on test, howl its way through the quarter-mile in just under 13 seconds - this is 1969 by the way - and it would leave every BSA, Triumph, and even the latest Honda 750 Four as a dot in