Back in the seventies I ran a series of Kawasaki triples, cumulating in a race-tuned 750. The stock 750 was relatively mild by Kawasaki triple standards but responded well to a bit of back yard port work, spannies and open carbs. Engine life was minimal, vibration excessive and handling suicidal, but along the way I had one hell of a lot of fun that hasn't since been repeated. I eventually destroyed its engine, cracked the frame and rust got into most of the cycle parts.
The complete front end was almost perfect, though, as I'd rebuilt and uprated it. A mate had one of the short-lived 350 triples with a smashed up front end sitting in his garage, and it didn’t take too much thought to work out that I should buy this for £150 and add my front end. This was 1984, but it wasn't until 1992 that I actually got around to the transplant, the joys of marriage and the first kid taking precedence over old motorcycles.
The engine had been filled with oil so I hoped all I'd have to do was kick away on the starter. An hour later I decided that a new set of spark plugs was necessary - they are ridiculously short-lived, as little as 500 miles! Half an hour later the engine rattled into life.
Anyone who’s never heard a Kawasaki triple in all its rattling, slapping and screeching glory would’ve assumed my motor was about to seize up or expire from blown main bearings. But I soon recalled that, yes, they’re all like that, even after a re-bore and crankshaft rebuild (every 10000 and 20000 miles respectively on a stock motor).
It took a while for all the old engine oil to burn off - the wife was receiving complaints from half a block away about laundry ruined by the smog. Even after clearing out its tubes, there was still a perpetual cloud of smoke hanging over the bike. Any modern bike that emitted the same level of pollution wouldn't get past the bureaucrats, these days, and it’s probably just as well that the triples never sold in the millions as all motorcycles would have ended up being banned.
Noise, burnt oil, vibration and, yes, one hell of a kick in the guts as the power poured in, were just as much in evidence in the 350 as they were in any other Kawasaki triple. After a couple of days reminding myself of my youth, having a kind of retrospective ball, I decided that nostalgia sucks and I didn’t really want to die just yet!
I'd become used to the way modern bikes went around corners in a neutral and stable manner, to their sensitive braking and to the way they would canter along on a modicum of throttle or blast my mind away with a twitch of my right wrist. Not so the. Kawasaki, which on the one hand needed maximum throttle abuse in each and every gear to avoid an oiled motor or stuttering engine, and on the other needed to be treated with kid gloves through anything with the remotest resemblance to a corner.
The non-standard front end didn't seem to help matters, the extra mass of the heftier front wheel upsetting the precarious overall balance of the chassis. Bumps would send that front wheel into a frenzy that the forks, probably because the rake was different, didn’t seem able to control. In its way I could’ve dismissed this as merely amusing but once the front started going berserk it didn’t take the back end long to join in.
Kawasaki triples have notoriously weak swinging arms that let the back wheel twitch around quite madly when the throttle is backed off in curves (sometimes on the straights, as well). With the front wheel trying to leap out of the forks and the back trying to swing around until we were going sideways, the last thing I needed was a screaming three cylinder stroker engine that just demanded that the throttle be wound open hard or else it'd gum up on me!
The back end almost stabilized under heavy acceleration but the front went skywards, which turned the twitching wheel into twitching handlebars and brought me out in a cold sweat. Most people when subjected to this kind of madness would scream then slam the throttle shut, which caused the front end to come down like a ton of lead and the back go into some hysterical oscillations.
I knew from past experience that it was a complete waste of time replacing the swinging arm bearings, shocks, tyres, etc. There might be the slightest of improvement in stability for the first couple of miles then all the insanity would return, seemingly even more outlandish than before.
There is a qualitative difference between the way a 350's power comes in and the 750’s or even the 500’s, the 40 horses never so extreme in their application that they actually threatened to snap the frame in two, a feeling I always had when letting loose on my race spec 750 triple. A bike that needed exquisite skill to control, a wild heart to enjoy and the complete collapse of imagination to survive for any length of time!
Even within this perspective the 350 had its share of the craziness, a stroker inheritance it just couldn't shake off. Even when Kawasaki were forced to take the guts out of the later triples, due to emission, noise and, er, social requirements, they still used to go wild in the country with a vengeance.
Had the 350 engine been able to run smoothly at low revs, or not needed constant revving to keep going, then I may have been able to adapt to its way, but too much time and too many modern bikes had passed through my hands to make it a compulsive experience. Also, the 350 lacked the blistering, heart breaking acceleration of the 750 and 500.
There was no way the 350 could be considered as a serious motorcycle. 30mpg and 100mpp saw to that. Tyres went west in about 10000 miles and brake pads lasted a long time but drive chains were wrecked in 3000 to 4000 miles and the motor needed a full service every 500 miles. Failure to do the latter led to poor running and the likelihood that one or more pistons would be holed.
I did about 3300 miles before any nastiness turned up (except for five sets of spark plugs, of course). A drastic fall off in power made a top end strip down compulsory. A few stripped threads later revealed that the piston rings in the centre cylinder were gummed up in the piston's grooves and that the whole engine would benefit from a decoke.
I had a box full of Kawasaki triple engine spares which included a couple of piston rings - just as well, because the 350’s the rarest model in the range. After an afternoon’s worth of hard graft I was back in business. The engine had lost some of its low rev stuttering and was inclined to put 120mph on the clock! Not that it was the kind of speed that could be held for any length of time - too much vibration, handling weirdness and the general feeling that the whole bike was about to disintegrate. I didn’t like cruising at much more than 75mph, although the bike could hold 90mph without blowing up the engine.
After about eighteen months I'd had enough of reliving my youth whilst the wife was making sarcastic comments about hair loss, shaking hands and impotence (that seat and the vibes). The bike looked neat, gave an initial blast and sounded righteous - some forty year old turned up with 1200 notes. Maybe nostalgia ain't so bad after all. Or maybe not, I’ve just bought a Z1 with OE suspension!
H. L.