Kawi2strokes.com Forum

Jim, there is room for both designs, pending the ability of the modifier.

Myself, for a nice street engine, I'd 6 speed, dry clutch, liquid cool, case reed from the front, EFI, reverse the cylinders on the cases, lots of work. But, that is what I like to do, and have the ability to do, although I have no time to do it.

I also rode another street bike prototype in Japan, before coming to work for Kawasaki, triple, air cooled, dry clutch, 6 speed, dual rotary valves. The company closed before it got to build 'em, they had already built 350cc twin cylinder, air cooled, dry clutch, 6 speed street bikes, and their triple was a 550cc rotary valve design.....Bridgestone. thank Honda for closing the Bridgestone Motorcycles part of Bridgestone tires down and out.

Others don't think that would leave an H2.......an H2, and that is fine, to each, their own. Nice to "dream", that is usually where creative thought, and neat new mods come from.

Many do not know about one prototype that a bunch of us in Road Racing rode in the early summer of 1973 in Santa Ana, a street bike. It was "deemed" an H-3 street bike, 750cc, rotary valve square 4, 6 speed, liquid cooled. we didn't build one for consumer use, Suzuki did some hears later, when its primary designer moved from Kawasaki to Suzuki, it was later made into a smaller engine size, and called the RG500. We rode that Kawasaki prototype to give input on making a road racer out of them, to replace the H2R's. We got the KR750 instead.

I'll second that. Even a hack like me can put a set in.

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74 H2B with reeds and 34mm carbs
75 S3A Ram Air with reeds and 30mm carbs
73 S2A (wife's bike)
71 Yammi RT1B
83 HD Sportster
03 Yammi R1
06 Kaw 750 Vulcan (wife’s bike)
12 Yammi vstar 250 (wife’s bike)

would love one day seeing a picture on the net

I don't know of any pictures of the 550 Bridgestone triple. Back then, I really wasn't into taking pictures, too much of a hassle getting the camera loaded, setting aperture, exposure, so, no pictures. I never really have liked getting my picture taken, kinda camera shy, you know.

I don't know where all the remainder of the Bridgestone stuff went after the final blow hit, but it was reported to have gone to the city of Chiba. Tora, Taka, and Chiba bikes were built by the old guard for about 5 years after that, all small bikes, no twins, triples, though. After that, NADA on anything from Bridgestone, except tires that slide all over the place.

If I had known then, what I know today, I would have appreciated taking pictures of lovely women so much, I'd have paid one heck of a lot more attention to cameras, and photography over the decades........yowsa.

The factory H1-R/H2-R 6-speed cluster is presumably a copy of the 6-speed cluster developed by a Signor Achille Rossi of Milan in 1970-71 for his H1 and H1-R stable; the ratios are identical. 1st gear is standard H1 (2.20), 6th gear is H1 4th (0.92), the others are spread in between. Signor Rossi had a pre-production batch of 10 sets tested extensively, after which production supposedly started. I have no idea whether many sets were made and/or sold, however.

No economy of scale on something like that. If they sold twice as many maybe it would be $650. Might get to a point where this is the only option when H2 trans no longer available in any reasonable condition.

I love the daydreaming about crazy mods as much as the next guy but by the time we go that far, might as well graft a 150 HP sled engine onto something like an R6 trans. Would be dead reliable, if done right, as well. Those sled engines are made to run at near redline for thousands of miles.

I would love to do something like that, maybe one day. It has been in the back of my mind ever since I saw the Tularis in cycleworld many years ago.