Stored 45 Years! 1974 Kawasaki H2 Mach IV 750
The legend of the “widow-maker” Kawasaki 750 is, well, legendary. Two-stroke motorcycles are generally quick anyway but one such as this 1974 Kawasaki H2 Mach IV 750 is stupid-fast and they can be dangerous in the wrong hands. But, come to think of it, so can a glass of water. This dusty devil is listed here on eBay in Ballston Spa, New York, and the current bid is $10,100 with no reserve.
This incredible motorcycle has 1,784 miles on it and no, the original owner didn’t have a problem with it after a year or so. He got married and started a family and the bike stayed parked, and parked, and parked some more. Unfortunately, he never got to enjoy it again and now it’s being sold by who I’m assuming is the original owner’s son. They have a fantastic eBay listing with a ton of great information and photos, check it out!
Hey, weren’t there two exhaust pipes on the other side? We all know that this is a two-stroke triple-cylinder and to say that they’re legendary is the understatement of 2021. Given everything that’s happened so far this year, that’s saying something. They were a follow-up to Kawasaki’s H1 Mach III, a 500 triple which was fast, but add 50% more punch to the mix and some folks weren’t up to the challenge. They were made from 1971 to 1975 and are very collectible today.
The seller says that this bike was put away in 1975 or 1976, given the 1976 license plate still on it. That’s a long time to be in storage and it gives me hope for a couple of my bikes that have been in storage for 34 years now. I know, not good. A question came up with the seller as to why they didn’t wash it before taking photos and they say that they wanted to show it exactly as it is, and also, a ham-fisted person can actually do damage to a vehicle in this condition by overdoing the clean-up. I paraphrased that last part. It doesn’t seem to be hurting the bid price any but who knows what it would be now if it would have been all shiny and clean?
The incredible engine is Kawasaki’s 748cc three-cylinder, a two-stroke exercise in madness. With 71 horsepower, this would make an incredible engine for a Subaru 360! Or not. The seller says that it doesn’t turn over, unfortunately, and clearly the bidders don’t care. Nice, restored examples have sold in the $13,000-$15,000 range a few years ago so it’ll be interesting to see where this auction ends up. Have any of you owned or ridden a two-stroke 750 Kawasaki of this vintage?
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Comments
I had a 1971 with a 7 in. extension and drag bar’s. Didn’t help looped it at the drags it made it through 1/4 mile I didn’t .Get on your scariest roller coaster but make sure it has a jet motor on it.The triple way more fun and a hole lot scarier
Yes I have, Scotty, and your description is spot on. WOW.
Extremely radical performance and king of the straight line crotch rockets in it’s day but not very fast by today’s standards.
I love it, just love it,,,I can hear it now, ( new wife) “YOU’RE NOT RIDING A ( blinkity blink)MOTORCYCLE CALLED THE WIDOW MAKER”,,,,( head sinking low), “Yes dear”,,,and there it sat, OR, at 1700 miles, motor just loosening up, “GOOD HEAVENS, I CAN”T HANG ON TO IT”!!! Either way, make sure your things are in order before even attempting to ride this thing, and “oh, I rode my Honda 200, how different could it be”? I believe, it was the fastest motorcycle from the factory, until the CBX came out. At 12.72 @103 mph in the 1/4, it really was a handful, not for the weak of heart, which I suspect happened here. In closing, naturally, I wouldn’t pay HALF of that for one of these death traps, but what do I know? And most importantly, DON’T Armour All the seat!
LMAO when I read your comment about Armoral on the seat I had a Honda 500 Custom and the kids decided they were gonna clean it up for me one day while I was at work they even Armoraled the damn tires drove it very gingerly for the next week :)
I was the only licensed mechanic in Alberta who worked only on bikes and sleds in the early 70’s. These were not easy to tune properly with three sets of points and three carbs but when you got it right they were pure adrenaline. The front coming up was not smooth but rather violent. At least in the the first 3 or 4 gears when in the meat of the power band. The Z-1DOHC 900 was quicker at 12.0 out of the box and literally you could live with that one. Some didn’t with the H1/H2.
Rode a friend’s 900 Kawi, that had a shaft drive. Clutch slipped alot, but once it grabbed, you better be ready. The front end unexpectedly came up, and I hadn’t even got off my street. probably 300 yards. Didn’t want to ride that one anymore.
Actually, Kawasaki’s Z1 came out in 1973 and the first edition was faster.
Having ridden one of these, I can honestly say that, this is one bike that should of had a seatbelt. lol Heck of a ride.
I rode as a passenger on the back seat of one doing 135+ mph as a kid. Scariest ride of my life! The acceleration on those beasts was insane.
I have ridden dozens H2’s and H1’s as I was a mechanic at a Kawasaki dealer. Yes they were a handful for a unseasoned rider!
Owned ‘74 h2 tripps and used as daily driver back in ‘76-80
Bot it for $400 sold for $700.
Rounding a corner at speed on one of these was like turning a battleship .
Spent plenty of time in cardiac arrest in ditches avoiding culverts.
Even put it down at rear of deliv truck making surprise Left turn . She popped right up and I kept on my merry way (minus a few yrs off my life)
. A monster in a beautiful legendary sort of way that I miss every day ..
I rode one once, but never owned one. I didn’t care for it because I felt like I was riding a barrel.
First 2 years were insane fast, detuned next 2 years as people were flipping them but still fast. Had a power band like a dirt bike. After 6000 hang on! Not the best handling but sure was fun!
I had the 1971 500 H1. I always said it would go as fast as you could hang on. It was hard to keep the front wheel on the ground at 360lbs and 62 hp. On the drag strip I turned 111.6 mph at just over 11 seconds.
I had an H1 500 that almost killed me. Fastest bike I ever owned.
I bought an H1 in my teens and almost killed myself just driving it home from Va to MD, with my girl on the back. I didn’t know what we were on and was a dumbass kid. It flipped over and hit the shifter gear, screwing up the shifter pawl inside. This damage probably saved my little 110 pound life. Never rode anything again. Yes, needed a selt belt…..
Had a friend who had a performance modified one (I know, why!?). Was racing a very built up Camaro (again, why). Camaro was fast and kept up through the first two gears, baffling my friend…then the rear wheel hooked up! :)
BTW, to an above comment, I believe Kawasaki’s own Z1 was faster than the H2 when it hit the market (albeit at twice the price) and was several years ahead of the CBX. Regarding the “just loosening up” comment, the rumour was that tolerance quality control was so bad that technically, most of the H1 and H2’s would have qualified for a rebuild right off the showroom floor.
According to a source the H1 in 1971 was the fastest production motorcycle in the world.
I remember that, although the H2 came the next year (72) and that, as they say, was that.
I went to the local Kawasaki dealer in ’73 to look at the new Z1. There were 6 of these two strokes in the back with flattened front ends. I bought the Z1, it was scary enough as it was….
I remember seeing these bikes at the drag strips on Sunday.
This should be an easy resto, and with the low milage it’s worth whatever a motorcycle purist care to pay. There’s no “deal” here but this may be the lowest mileage example in existence.
A friend of mine has an H2b with 1mile on the clock, yes one mile!
I had one of these and they are really fast. I bought mine for $290 and a stack of reel to reel recording tapes. The guy I bought it from was in the army in Germany when he wrecked it. The OEM pats were so expensive that he turned into a cafe racer with fiberglass fairing, gas tank and seat with tail fairing and expansion chamber pipes. It was great fun on the interstate, but if you cornered hard it would weave so hard it felt like you were riding a great white shark.
Yes, this one has ridden one of these insane motorized killers of the unsuspecting, I was used to riding 750 Hondas and a friend came by my house on one of these. He offered to let me take it for a spin which of course being the self assured type ( already a rider of motorized two wheeled vehicles) this one said OH sure, I left my home easily enough went to a long stretch of road where their were no homes and having no fear did as my friend said I ought proceeded to stop and start off again with the idea of seeing what it was capable of compared to a Honda 750. All was well until I went to 2nd gear and rolled on the throttle, the demon rose up under me like it had a mind of its own and needless to say even as an experienced rider this one was almost unprepared for how quickly and smoothly this happened. I very sedately rode back home and told my friend what I thought of his endeavor to promote me killing myself, but that it was evident his scooter was in a different league than my 750 Honda !!
I had one these in 72 nicer colour I think myself. Very fast 1599.00 plus tax is what it cost back then. I think I blew it up at least 10 times. It sounded great with chamber pipes. Another fact from these old killers my key worked in everybody’s H-2 lol
I also had 1 or two of these except they were the 500c,c Model H-1. One was that beautiful turquoise blue/green and the other a burnt orange color which to me was rolling artwork. The best part about these bikes was the noise they made which tended to scare the average elderly 4 wheeler that you were in the process of passing. Especially if they had their windows down you could intentionally ride really close as you pinned the throttle and wait for the expression on their face go to immediate fear as their bodies jerked to attention. Unfortunately their weak link ( one of them anyway) was their ignition system which tended to burn out Stators or magnetos or whatever they used for Spark. I never got to ride mine that much because they would fail to spark and few mechanics I knew were able to figure it out. Price is steep but Low milage originals allow their owners to set the market. How many can be left this original and complete??
Life begins at 6000rpm
Had a 750 triple like this as a 20 year old back in the late 70’s or so…. power was just explosive! When that thing hit the power band… the front wheel immediately shot skyward! Never had another motorcycle with a power band like that! It’s a wonder I lived to tell about it.
Looking back though, was a neat time to grow up … muscle cars, etc.
I have ridden 3 models of triples . My oldest brother bought a 750 new and quickly became known as “the hinge”. I was too young to get to drive that one before it was stolen . 2 years later another older brother bought 500 triple and I did ride that one also brother in law owned a 350 triple and that bike whole lot fun light and nimble I could carve thru the canyon like a pro and wheely on the straights. Fun fun! Later he bought a 400 triple and rode that one some.
If I remember correctly the power band on the 500 H1 started at about 7500rpms. When you hit it it was like flipping a light switch. If you didn’t back off quickly you were looking at the sky. I think full Rev was about 11,500 rpms.
I had a friend in college who had a 900 kawasaki with a lot of speed modifications of all sorts; and he let me ride it one day.
I started out of the parking lot and tweaked the throttle a tiny bit – – and the bike almost ran out from under me.
I immediately turned around after that 75 foot ride and said Nope !
matt
In 1975 and 1976 I was assembling these new from the crate at Stich’s Honda-Kawasaki dealership in Sioux Falls, SD. I test rode every bike I put together and these were my least favorite in the whole inventory. Crude, ill handling, smoking ring a ding ding beasts that deserved the “rice burner” epithet. I much preferred the Honda 750’s and the Kawasaki Z-1’s of the time. When the Suzuki GS750’s and GS1000’s came out, they were the best and put everything else to shame. I owned a GS1000 Sport, one of the first Superbikes, which was known as the Wes Cooley Replica and was styled like the race bike. I wish I still had it but I think the young man I sold it to in the 80’s still owns it. I also owned a Kawasaki Z-1R at the same time, and it looked cool but wasn’t nearly as good as the GS1000S and I sold it pretty quickly.
I rode 750 Hondas back in the day.
Never had one of these but always wanted the 500 H1. Talk about bang for your buck.
And there was that sound. As Frank Barone would say, “Holy Crap!”
I had one back in the late 70’s in NJ.. It’s was like a open motocross bike with street tires ! Loads of fun.
I tested a 500 that was for sale and it was apparent I had the wrong hands. I did not buy it and so I am here today to type this. I stuck to doing stupid things in fast cars.
This was the motor my dad selected for his Wasp motocross sidehack. It used a couple different expansion chamber setups: one for “low rpm” and high torque and the other for maximum hp and high rpm. The pipes were spec’d by a guy at Ohio State University who had written a Fortran program for his 2-stroke flat track bike. My dad attempted to chassis dyno it at work (the AZ State emissions labs haha) but, no matter how tight he strapped it to the rollers, all it would do was smoke the tire.
My mom was racing a 74 Yamaha 500 with a sidecar at the time as well. She attempted to passenger for my dad at one race and was thrown from the rig within the first lap. It was that much faster than the 500!
Sidehack racers are a very rare breed, even among motorcycle racers, and you had two of them! You must have had the coolest parents in school! I’ll bet the parent-teachers conference must have been interesting……We need to talk about your son, he comes to class and tells us these crazy stories about you……
They both showed up to parent teacher conferences with broken limbs one time. Dad in a sling, Mom in a leg cast.
But that Kawasaki triple was absolutely king for power-weight at the time.
As some of us have owned them – it was also that sound they made even with the stock pipes – but add some chambers and just listen – I ran Denco’s on my last one. And on the price – for an original not messed and garage one let’s just see where it goes – that’s a rare find.
I’m a Yamaha guy, having worked at a Yamaha/Kawasaki dealer from 1968-1973. Power on the 750 was deceptive The 500 actually felt quicker than the 750, as the power band was quite narrow on the 500.The 750 felt mild compared to the rush of the 500. I actually thought the 500 was quicker., until I squared the 750 off against a 500. The 750 walked away from the 500..very deceptive power on the 750 compared to the 500.
Too bad the owner(s) couldn’t afford a small tarp and/or a bench brush. Or does dust and detritus add to an old scoot’s value?
My neighbor had one of these and made the local news in small-town Ontario in ’77. Blew by the police being interviewed by a reporter, on their new radar equipment. On 2-lane blacktop at over 120 MPH, he couldn’t be caught. He repainted it and left it in the barn for a couple of weeks.
I almost bought a H1 500, but after the test ride decided to go with the KZ-400. A little more my speed for a first bike.
I rode one that a friend owned. Reed valve carbs, ported engine, with expansion chambers. That was the quickest machine I ever touched!
Have a 1973 S2 350. Crazy fast!
Had and restored a 69 H1 and a 70 H1 lucky enough to have kept a mint little 76 KH400 the H2 is a hoot to ride , you need to respect it ,had chambers on mine and jetted , sounds like three chainsaws in harmony ,quickest bike in the day . was fortunate a few years back to have restored a very nice 75 Z1 now there is a smooth quick ride coverted to dual disc front brakes and she could stop way better than the H1 or H2 ;O
Great bike. I still have my 1972 mach IV 750.
Nobody mentioned the “death wobble” on these. It’s why they had that steering dampener, which was useless, at best.
“…owned or ridden a two-stroke 750 Kawasaki of this vintage?…” nope mine was a robins egg blue 500 (H1). Never got the oil injection adjusted right so no tailgaters (o0OP!); All the co made them 250 – 900 I think (suki, kawie, etc) and so just like the Brits (BSA, Try, etc) competition assisted in upping the game for the consumer.
Mine was too buzzy (hi revs all the time, no relaxed cruiser) 4 me and I like its replacement more my KZ750B (4 stroke, 1 less cyl, 4 yrs newer, known as “lowest maintenance” bike).
At 16 years old, I worked as a mechanic at a Kawasaki dealership for the summer, and the owner gave me a brand new 74 H2 750 to ride as a “demonstrator”. The first time I rode it, the torque caught me unprepared, and I almost lost my grip on the handlebars! After I learned to control it better, it was a blast to ride.
What a gloriously fast engine. But between the wispy frame and spaghetti swing arm, if you dumped the clutch who knows where the thing is actually going to end up? This particular unit is going to need a complete engine tear-down. If it isn’t locked up, the rings are most likely stuck in their grooves and the crank seals are toast. all from sitting.
Definition of insanity … look into the “Purple Haze Racing” web site … dedicated to squeezing out more horses out of these triples …
OMG the thing went for over 15k. That’s insane!
Old 2 strokes have a issue with crank seals drying out and leaking when they sit for years, pretty sure whoever buys it will be doing the seals, big job.
Kawasaki has always and will always produce the funeral directors pick for motorcycles no matter what the magazines like cycle world or sport rider state. I’ve always ridden Honda Yamaha from grade school but got a job in High School couple days a week at local Kawasaki dealer, riding my Honda 900rr into lot turn heads but long story short I worked with and helped older Kawasaki mechanic who was like the wizard of sport bikes in general. He’d get into trouble by the owners son for talking young idiots outta buying bikes he knew they couldn’t handle which was all of them but there’s another story… this listed bike is legendary and like the Ninja line today it’s true HP is beyond wrong. I took my ZX9 and spanked a Busa so badly the guy after 2 more losses asked if we could swap for the mile run and do it again but no money this time. It was first and last time I’ve lost. In 98 the ZX6r reported on factory slip something like 89 to the rear tire and in fact it was more like 130 something!.. in nutshell Kawasaki is the unapologetic grim reaper that doesn’t demand respect it just takes it and unfortunately 99.99999% of the folks you’ll see riding are beginners never having had dirt bikes or experience in anything other than trying to look cool until it’s bag time. I stopped riding all together 4 years ago having lost 3 friend’s in 3 years time ALL by texting drivers 2 of whom were charged other wasn’t. It’s off story base but important to note even today’s best most experienced riders are rolling dice even more so.
Yes, I agree with you this one quit riding 15 years ago after two close calls on the way to work one afternoon, As I said before I rode a 750 once but I neglected to say that I once after that I also was dumb enough to mount a 500 Kaw it could be a killer also because it came on all of a sudden just like the 750 only not as gradually it if I remember correctly came on really sudden and to this old boy who was used to 750 Hondas it was down right unsettling!!!
Dwight Snow
In 1973 my friend bought a 500 with chambers. At the time I was racing motocross in expert class and flat track. I rode the bike many times. It was exhilarating to the point of a drug. I rebuilt the top end of a 74 750 h 2 and got to break it in, I had it for 8mo. From 6000 on it’s like hitting the turbo. What a rush. I now own a 74 750 and it gets more attention than anything else I have ridden. I tell people if you have ever ridden a kaw 250 motocross bike, and they are rocket ships, try 3 of them tied together. By the way there’s a man in Great Britain who puts two more cylinders on that bike, wow!
Yep I bought a 1974 750 mach IV when i was 15 years old for $500 (1979) and rode it through college. It is a great sounding beast. Give it some gas and either the rear wheel would spin or the front wheel would come up. Sadly it sat in my mom’s garage while i entered the employment world and was sold. Wish i still had it.
I kick myself in the rear every time this bike comes up. I bought a used one in the early eighties for $500. Rode it for a year then sold it for $500. It went as fast as I could shift the gears. Nobody looked for motorcycles back then and many cars pulled out in front of me. Wanting to be around to see my children grow up I sold it.
Had a friend buy one used back in 1975. The middle cylinder sort of burned out before he bought it, yet every time I rode it I would think of that Vincent picture where the guys legs are flapping in the wind, behind the bike. That was a fast, scary bike. I remember getting it going close to 70 mph, in a half of a block.
I had a 1971 H1 500. I would like to see a head to head race with the H1 and heavier H2. I always said mine would go as fast as you could hang on. In 1972 I had it on the drag strip at Donneybrook speedway clocked at 12.2 seconds/ 114 mph. Later on the track I saw a top long straightaway speed (speedometer) of 126 mph. The bike was unstable between 90-100 mph but smothed out after that. The only complaint I had with the bike was the centerline plus constantly fouled.
Mark Busta – Minnesota
The H2 is faster, look at the road test specs.