Tag: old Kawasaki motorcycles
Brief description of what to expect from posts here.
MZ’s Moto Memories: Kawasaki W650
I guess you could say I am a “Kawasaki Man.” Out of the hundreds of bikes I’ve owned over the last 55 years, a bunch of them have been Kawasakis. I just like Kawasakis and always have. I owned two 2001 model Kawasaki W650s, both of which I kept for several years. I didn’t know much about them when I discovered a low mileage, custom-painted W650 for sale in a nearby town advertised on Craigslist. I got that first W650 in late summer of 2005, and then I picked up a second one just a few months later in St. Louis. I think I paid $3200 for the first one and only $2800 for the second one (it was such a deal I just had to buy it) and neither of them had more than 3000 miles on the clock nor a single scratch.
Read More
The Long Way Home
One mid-December afternoon, the wife sent me on a short “honey-do” run up town for some Christmas gift cards. I of course chose to ride, this time selecting the small Honda SCL500 we still had on loan. The perfect bike for negotiating small town traffic, the little scrambler is also ideal for detours on the way home. Riding back out of town, I veered southeast away from the suburban sprawl and out into open country still dotted by gently rolling hills covered in horse and cattle pastures. I passed a small neighborhood at one point and noticed what appeared to be a father and daughter decorating the front entranceway with lights and wreaths. The little girl turned and waved enthusiastically as I rode by, so I gave her a wave back and a beep on the horn, to which she clapped as I viewed in my left rear mirror. Returning home, Lisa quipped, “That took longer than expected. Have any trouble finding everything?” I replied with a wry grin, “No trouble at all.”
Read More
MZ’s Moto Memories: 1976 Kawasaki KH500
I don’t remember why I went in there in the first place but I do recall seeing a super low-mile 1976 Kawasaki KH500 on the showroom floor. It was a metallic orange color and didn’t even have 500 or 600 miles on it and looked brand new. They wanted $995 for it. So I worked them down to $895 and bought it.
Read More
MZ’s Moto Memories: 1972 Kawasaki 750 H2
Bobby had some of his own motorcycles. One of them was a fantastic 1972 Kawasaki H2 750 triple. It was an early H2 with matching frame and engine numbers (I always heard the first four months of production were the fastest H2s and his was one of them). He painted it dark green with Kawasaki lime green stripes. And although it was pretty much all stock otherwise, it did have some black painted expansion chambers on it and high-compression pistons. I was in love with that bike.
Read More
MZ’s Moto Memories, Part 1
While Frank and I were both into Kawasaki triples at that time—he had the ultimate mint blue 1972 750 H2 I always wanted—we made our money from buying up the “skid row” trade-ins that the new motorcycle dealerships in our area didn’t think were good enough to sell. That meant we had plenty of tired Yamaha Enduros, flogged Honda 750-4s with mini-apehangers and “king and queen” seats, thrashed Honda Elsinores, and rusty Japanese twins to sell. But one time, we bought a pair of really nice 1976 Kawasaki KH500s from a local Honda dealer who didn’t want to deal with them. They were orange and identical other than one of them had a sissy bar on the back.
Read More
Get Rob’s Newest Book
Law Tigers
MotoAmerica 2025
Iron Horse Motorcycle Lodge
Cycle Gear Products
J&P Cycles Products
RevZilla
The Crew
Recent Articles
Recent Videos
The Road Dirt Podcast
Recent Comments