1974 Kawasaki 750 Mach IV H2B - 8-Page Vintage Motorcycle Road Test Article

Description

1974 Kawasaki 750 Mach IV H2B - 8-Page Vintage Motorcycle Road Test Article
Original, vintage magazine article
Page Size: Approx. 8" x 11" (21 cm x 28 cm)
Condition: Good
KAWASAKI 750
MACH IV H2B
Il's gelling tougher all lhe lime io be
a superbike. The pressures of environ-
ment, economy, and riding comfort are
causing motorcycle manufacturers to
make their street machines quieter, less
polluting, less fuel-thirsty, and more com-
fortable. That means less power and, quite
often, a heavier chassis. And that means
a slower, although less offensive and more
comfortable, motorcycle.
Look around: it has happened every-
where. The Norton 850 is slower than the
Norton 750. The new Honda 750 is slower
than the original Honda 750. The Harley
Sportster is a stone slug compared to its
predecessors. Performance-wise, the Ka-
wasaki 500 is a mere shadow of its former
self.
That leaves bikes like the Triumph Tri-
dent (although Triumph's economic situ-
ation is still sori of touch-and-go), the
Laverda 1000 (if you can even find one
to look at), the BMW R90 Sport (if you
have lhe bucks), or the Kawasaki 903 and
750. The 903 Z-l started life as lhe proto-
type of lhe New Superbike; it was com-
fortable. quiet, had a system of controlling
crankcase emissions, and got decent gas
mileage. And for the time being, at least,
the Z-1 isn't in danger of having lhe “fun”
removed for lhe sake of “nice.”
The Kawasaki H2 is a different story.
The first ones were as quick as anything
around, but they smoked a lot, gulped gas,
and vibrated heavily. And there were
complaints from some quarters about the
handling. The solutions to just these kinds
of problems were what turned Detroit’s
13-second muscle cars into 15-second
sleeping pills.
Kawasaki didn’t release the 1974 750
triple to its dealers until late May, after
several prototypes had been tested and
sent back to Japan for revamping. When
the bike was finally released, the big
question was whether or not the perfor-
mance had been left out when the other
niceties were installed.
THE BIKE: Although the subject of this
lest, the Kawasaki H2B, is the same basic
motorcycle as previous H2s, there have
been many changes made.
The three-cylinder, two-stroke engine is
pretty much the same, and the bore and
stroke remain unchanged at 71mm and
63mm, totalling 748cc. The 7:1 compres-...
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