Features

1972 and 1975 Kawasaki H2 and H2C triples Many things have been written about Kawasaki H2s over the years. The majority of articles tell stories of vicious power deliveries, unintentional wheelies and handling that can leave even the most stoic of riders with something to mutter about. And to a certain degree, they’re all true.…

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Lemon? No one who wanted a Super Dream was ever lining up an RD, GT, KH etc in their sights and given the other four-stroke offerings on hand (Yamaha’s XS250 or Kawasaki’s Z250) perhaps there was a modicum of logic in their choice. The sad thing was that the 250N was just as tedious as…

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Yamaha YR2C Yamaha's YR2 with it’s new five-port engine was another step in the development of fast, reliable two-stroke lightweight roadsters and its stablemate – the YR2C – joined the Stateside fashion for street scrambler models. In reality, the differences between the 'road' YR2 and the 'street scrambler' YR2C (also known as the Grand Prix…

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Kawasaki Z1300 With the launch of its massive six-cylinder Z1300 in 1979, Kawasaki triumphed in showing how Japanese design ingenuity alone could never succeed in overcoming the dynamic necessities of a motorcycle. The late, great Vic Willoughby, technical editor of Motor Cycle, said it best in his description of the factory’s biggest bike of the…

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Yamaha RD350 YPVS Yes you did read that right: one hundred and fifty six thousand. Owner Peter Spicer takes us through the ups and downs of the long-term ownership of an icon. “In the time I’ve owned the bike it’s had a fresh set of barrels at 60,000; these motors will run past this figure…

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The original 300 series Honda 750/4 UJM; it’s become a term of derision aimed at inline-four-cylinder Japanese motorcycles that supposedly are all the same. Which is, of course, piffle. Go back to 1967 or 1bCB (before CB750) as we like to call it and you’ll remember that a sporting motorcycle was lucky to have two…

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Measuring camshaft clearances We tend to take camshafts for granted, or at least I did until quite recently. Coaxing a little more power out of our Suzuki Katana meant that, like it or not, I had to get to grips with a little cam technology. But before we plunge too deeply into the strange world…

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Ducati 900SS FE It’s 1991 and the Bologna SuperSport machines feature a white frame which sets off the blood-red colour scheme perfectly, I thought it couldn’t get any better, but fast-forward seven years and my ultimate incarnation of 900SS is born – the FE or ‘Final Edition’. The FE was built to celebrate the last…

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Suzuki GT550 – often overlooked Suzuki wasn’t the first on the market with modern two-stroke triples but for many their arrival four years after Kawasaki’s H1 represented time well spent within the R&D Dept. Rather than compete head on with the banzai nature of the competition, the Hamamatsu boys produced three well considered machines under…

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Suzuki 250 was popular In 1968 Yamaha launched their ground breaking DT-1. A Japanese company had finally invested in developing a reliable, well mannered and economical off-road machine. Until that point the only competition had mostly been big and heavy British bikes. The only alternatives came from Greeves, Montesa and Husqvarna, but they were all…

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