Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

rn 51 5li:lI =-= A ra a 5li:lI ...,; g ~ g ....... ~ r,-. ~ . l{') ...c ~ .. ~ The Mach III is st ill a hot dogger, as much as an y other 500 class machine. The wheelies are fun, the sm oke is bad. If y ou're into Kawasaki 500 triples like I am , y ou've probably noticed that every year when a new m odel comes out, th e brochure promises "better handling." And if you talked to dealers they'd all tell you that "this year it doesn't wobble, for sure." At 24 least that's what they used to say. In the last two years, the dealers have begun to say, "this year Kawasaki says that they have the wobbles c ured." I t hink that they first started saying that the wobbles were gone back in '71 when I bought mine. It wobbled all right, but I've ridden 'plen t y of bikes that wobbled much worse. One of the bikes that I've ridden that wobbled worse was a 1972 Kawasaki 500 (H.IC) . Its problems were amplified by an absurd lack of ground clearance caused by super-soft springs at t he rear. I'd been thinking about buying one because the 1972 version was the first one to get a dis c front brake, but I lost interest quickly, partially because of the wobble, but also because the '72 didn't have the COl ignition. The 1973 Mach III H-ID almost became a legend in 1973, because of its "reported to be greatly im p ro ved " handling, (as one dealer described it). It actually wobbled about the worst of any of the H-Is. However, the '73 had improved ground clearance (it was adequate) and had the magneto COl from the 750cc Mach IV. That bike, if it was running fast - say 85 - would start wobbling i f you hit the slightest ripple while turning even a little. I won an impromptu speed-wobble contest on o ne at Rive rside Raceway one day by having the longest speed wobble of any one present. Hit takes your b reath away" commented o ne observer. It would , in fact , take your breath away all the way from tum one to turn six and then start u p again through turns eig ht an d ni ne. Of course, if you are tired of these cheap t hrills, you can buy my H-IR, (I'm only asking $600), and have a go at a rea/thrill. It isn't too bad except for the fact that the thing is goi ng so much faster - they'll go over 150MPH. The poin t of all this is that trusting the new model literature when it promises "better handlin g" for the 1974 H·I E m od el ' is like trusting Colonel Sanders to baby sit your chickens (or rats). I laughed when I read the '74 model brochure w hich did, of course, claim better ha ndling. The way that I initially saw t he H·I E was slower (traditionally ea ch one has been slower than the previous one). quieter, maybe more eco nomica l w ith petrol, and given to handling lik e last year's (since no major company could sell anything that handled much worse than last year's) . Imagine our surprise then when we found what we actually had. The 1974 Mach 111 is faster than the '73 , quieter, more economical (at least we got better mileage, but -tha t may reflect the new speed limit), better looking, and better handling. This is made more puzzling by the fact that it looks pretty much like last year's bike. This is unusual in itself. Every year the H-I has had big changes. There have been three separate ignition sys~ems on various years. (Magneto CDI, which although not able to spark the older model's absolutely foul-proof surface gap plug - they wouldn't fo ul even if you smeared them with wheel bearing grease - is found on this year's bike and seems to be the most reliable and cheapest to replace if it isn't.) Frames have been changed several times as have styling, tire tread designs (this yea! it got a rib up front which doesn't do the Rain Groove Boogie), cyli nder p o r t config uratio ns, combustion chamber shapes, forks, brakes, exhaust syste ms, steering dampers, and man y miscellaneous bits. And there's always the H-I R production road racer w hic h shared no th ing except maybe (I've never been able to get a straigh t answer) the cases. The H· I R had different cylinders, two different typ es of specia l heads, a dry clutch, a transmission t hat won't work in your street bike without the other parts, a spe cial crank (you can't use it either), 35 millimeter carbs which are a size you aren't going to fin d any where else, and, of course, a completely differe nt chassis. (This was legal for Al\V\ eompetition?) It was exotic but it didn't resemble the street bike much - but then does a Yamaha TZ·750? All th is n ew and differen t stuff on eac h mo d el did n't do mu ch for the dealer who was trying to keep a complete parts supply. So it was refresliing to see th is year what appeared like a bike that had so me interchangeable pieces with other years' models. They have changed the shocks on t he H· I E, though. T hey were the most obviously lac kin g thing on the bike this yea r besides the gas tank which leaked (but which would have been covered under Kawasaki's warranty) . Maybe all the m ercury that we' re d um p ing in the oceans are begin ni ng to affect the fish oil that is alleged to come in all Japanese sus pe nsion un its, because we've had a rash of "I go pogo" shocks on Japanese bikes we 've ridden. T hese we ren't as b ad as t he pogo sticks o n the Honda CB-360 that I tested recently, but they we ren't good; they were worse than p revio us years, certain ly. Which mean s that the improved hand ling has to come from somewhere else. Not the forks, they're the same as last year. Where, then? These things are difficult to pinpoint. No one has ever managed to convince me that they have the answer to the question, "How do I make my Kawasaki three stop wiggling?" Some of the suggested improvements include better shocks , gusseting various parts of the frame. a better swingann, better swingarm bushings, mo re precise front fork bushings, carefu l alignment of the wheels (c,,:,,'t hurt), d ifferen t tires, a host of d iffere n t fro nt fo rk damping fluids, tightening the swingarrn pivot bolt (This o ne see ms to work for me. ), tightening the steering head pivot (I do this, too.), loosening the steering head pivo t, and ad ding mo re wheelbase. The latter is wh at Kawasa ki says they've do ne to im prove han d lin g this yea r. The specs on th is year's model say that the wheelbase is 55.5 inches. The specs on last year's bike say that its wheelbase was 55.5 inc hes . So we measur ed . T his year's b ike was 55.5 inc hes. Last year's was 55.5 inc hes. Earlie r ones were shorter. So w hy d id t he '74 H-I E ha ndle be tte r than the last year's H· I D w he n the: former's shocks are wo rse? Beca use we go t a good H-IE and an H·ID that just wasn't as good, probably. The chassis and swingarm is th e: same except fo r the chain adj uste r and the chassis probably has a bracket changed so mew here. Anyway, when you comer hard the 11·1 E's rear shocks begi n to pu m p and make taking a precise line while going with of dig that some and raise and say s (especiallv a that we've b for a

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