Don Terrill’s Speed-Talk

I like watching odd things like this, seems like a ton of work just to start it for a ride....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McSikBdGghU
Tom

interesting. It appears it never left the shop in the last 6 years.

The Home Owners Association had an emergency meeting concerning donkey engines being started at 6:00 AM.

Dave Koehler wrote: ↑Tue Nov 17, 2020 7:31 pm interesting. It appears it never left the shop in the last 6 years.

Fresh tyres mandatory.

Rode my mate's tuned H2 a few times and it was mad enough ....... that thing would most likely put you in a box even quicker, if it ran properly

Probably do about three trees to the mile, a gen-U-ine rolling mass extinction event judging by the exhaust

Might be wrong, but I think that guy has history for welding up old Kwak crankcases and the like to create, well, monstrosities

An example of a man with good skills.....The bike is a freak show .....
A Kawasaki H2 with some suspension upgrades and a good rider who is aware of its limitations is not a death machine. New 600 cc 4 stroke inline 4 sport bikes with a experienced rider can run high 10's in the 1/4 mile. The one liter bikes are faster with over 160 hp at the rear wheel on the show room floor. They have more stable handling and far better brakes than an H2 but in the hands of fools they are death machines.

Truckedup

My post was mostly TIC, but .......

I said 'tuned' H2 , however slowly you rolled the throttle on it was, nothing .... nothing .... nothing ..... front wheel up. The chassis was standard but 'tired', the money had been spent on the wrong things, proper nasty handful, easy to chuck down the road for the unwary

Couple of years later, different H2 (another mate who still has it ..... what is it with old blokes and H2s?) mostly stock engine but with pipes and money spent on the suspension ..... casually requiring your full attention most of the time, exactly as it should be ...... shiver down the spine howl on full chat

I've plenty of time around bikes that just didn't handle, and annoyingly made them go, so chances are I'm possibly not one of those 'fools'

BCjohnny wrote: ↑Sun Nov 22, 2020 2:23 pm Truckedup

My post was mostly TIC, but .......

I said 'tuned' H2 , however slowly you rolled the throttle on it was, nothing .... nothing .... nothing ..... front wheel up. The chassis was standard but 'tired', the money had been spent on the wrong things, proper nasty handful, easy to chuck down the road for the unwary

Couple of years later, different H2 (another mate who still has it ..... what is it with old blokes and H2s?) mostly stock engine but with pipes and money spent on the suspension ..... casually requiring your full attention most of the time, exactly as it should be ...... shiver down the spine howl on full chat

I've plenty of time around bikes that just didn't handle, and annoyingly made them go, so chances are I'm possibly not one of those 'fools'

If you survived you are experienced.. A stock H2 that runs properly is not all that nasty
when ridden with restraint.. I was surprised the engine had a lot of torque and less of a violent powerband like the H1 500...But for sure snapping open the throttle in the lower gears was an instant wheelie...And the power overwhelmed the poor stock suspension .
A good example is the 1973 Cycle magazine comparison test of the fastest bikes.Cook Neilson was the editor then an an excellent bike racer on the track or dragstrip..
The track roadtests are revealing that with pro riders the H2, Z900 and even the Honda 750 were as fast on the track as the Norton, Triumph Trident and 750 Ducati..But for sure the European bikes were much easier to ride at the limits and had no bad habits...
Neilson was the man who first complained about the poor H1 and H2 handling. He actually had some Kawasaki engineers on a well known curvy section of California highway. Neilson made repeated passes through the curves until The H2 hopped around so badly the bike threw him off....Kawasaki did makes a few changes after seeing that..