1972 Kawasaki 500 H1B

[Skub]

Arrived today about 1.30pm. Early opinion appears to be that's it's more or less what the photos showed. It feels a little smoother and better suspended than the H1a,but the front disc is no better than the A's drum front.




Miles shown since the bike was rebuilt. I've put on about 50 of that today!

[Yorick]

Gizza go mister?

[ChrisW]

Congratulations! Looks immaculate, lovely colour, too.

Is that the actual mileage…?!

[Skub]

Congratulations! Looks immaculate, lovely colour, too.

Is that the actual mileage…?!

That's the miles since it was rebuilt. The clocks were rebuilt at the time too,so they were zeroed.

[ChrisW]

That's the miles since it was rebuilt. The clocks were rebuilt at the time too,so they were zeroed.

I should have read your original post properly. Enjoy.

[KungFooBob]

Lovely.

Did they ever do a C model, if they did you need a green one

[Skub]

Lovely.

Did they ever do a C model, if they did you need a green one

There was an H1C which is pretty rare. It was a mongrel cross between the A and the B to use up old stock of the H1A. The bike looks like a B,but with the stainless front and rear guards of the A. Not many were made and I don't think any officially made it to the UK. Mostly Japan market.

You need to go a year later to 73 to get a green one,the H1D,the first with the tail unit.

[KungFooBob]

Skip the C then and go straight for the Green D

I just googled, there's a E and an F too, you need one of each!

Just not a brown one.

[Skub]

Just not a brown one.

Tch.

Candy Gold for those in the know.

[KungFooBob]

Blurrgh!

[Yorick]

Blurrgh!

It's nearly beige.

[Skub]

One of our apprentices had that colour in 75. We were all sat at the light and when they changed he stood it vertical. I still remember his out of control trailing legs and the smoke over the Queens Bridge in Belfast.

[weeksy]

That looks a proper lovely build job.

Sweet

[Ian]

That's gorgeous! Yours not the brown one obvs.
Yeah the brakes aren't great... Even with 2 disks

[MyLittleStudPony]

Have you ganned it up on t'back wheel yet?

[Skub]

Have you ganned it up on t'back wheel yet?

It even does that on the mainstand.

[Screwdriver]

Bumped into a chap the other day who was riding past on a really tidy H2 750. Gave him the "give it a blip sign" and he did. Sounded awesome.

Since he parked up just a few feet away, I strolled over for a chat. Long story short, I invited him over to the MotoGP Shed™, which a couple of days later he did. I'll probably end up welding a subframe for his CX500 project. Obviously I'll be angling for a blast on the H2...

[mangocrazy]

Lovely job. It looks absolutely immaculate. Is it going to bena either/or, or will you be keeping both? If it was me I'd keep them both.

Here's a triple themed pic from the Crich Classic Bike day in early July:

DSC_6555.JPG (624.46 KiB) Viewed 1046 times

[Skub]

I was looking the bike over this morning and I noticed the air adjuster screw and spring were AWOL on the r/h carb. I can't see that working it's way loose,so I'd imagine it's never been there.

I stole one off the H1A to get a run out today. I imagine it's a bit less fluffy really low down,but I want to sync the carbs and get it set up right anyway.

[Skub]

The offending item. 10p piece for scale.


I'd recommend Motocarb for genuine Mikuni parts. Steve is very knowledgeable and posts out really fast. I ordered yesterday and received them today.