Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1545207
CNIIARCHIVES P152 BY KENT TAYLOR T hey were Kawasaki's "mus- cle bikes," these 750cc, 500cc, 350cc and 250cc two-stroke street bikes. They were "quick, agile and gutsy," be- cause it said so right there in the two-page spread in your favorite 1970s motorcycle magazine. Three spunky adjectives for four motorcycles, which means some- body missed out. The 500 Mach III was definitely "quick," while the extra cc's made the big 750 H-2 "gutsy." The 350 (which became a better motorcycle when it grew 50 more cc's in 1974) was plenty "agile," so where did this leave the S-1 250, the runt of the litter, in the name game? Cycle News offered a sugges- tion in their June 11, 1974, issue. Their headline christened the little Kawi "A Reasonable Motorcycle." Stare at the floor in silence. The little brother of some of the fastest two-strokes around was a wimp. This apple not only fell from the tree, it rolled far away, until it hit Jim Belushi, Tommy Cash and Stephen Baldwin. A Kawasaki 250cc triple street bike probably sounded like a good idea in the early 1970s. Motorcycle manufacturers were getting into the act of making small versions of big successes. Honda had a 350cc version of its mighty CB750, and Suzuki had two-stroke triples in many configurations. Kawasaki's big triples were fast and fun, so why not make a 250, sell it for under a grand, stand back, and let the good times roll? "This 250 is pretty swift off the line," wrote the CN crew, "if you start with the tachometer needle above 7000 rpm." That's not a misprint. To get the little Kawasaki moving, the rider needed to rev it to the moon. This was just 1500 rpm short of the motorcycle's 8500 red - line, which, by the way, was the staff's recommended rev range before even shifting into second gear. "The powerband is some - A REASONABLE MOTORCYCLE OUR ASSESSMENT OF THE 1974 KAWASAKI 250 S1B. 250 S1B. The 1974 Kawasaki 250 S1B, little brother of some of the fastest two-stroke street bikes around, was, well, a wimp by comparison.