GIANT STROKERS: KAWASAKI H2 & SUZUKI GT750
Cue the swirly music and the wobbly screen. You’re about to warp yourself back in time, a full 45 years to 1973. America was claiming a draw in the Vietnam War and the oil-producing nations were doubling the price of crude, while Britain was lurching towards a three-day week and signs saying ‘Sorry, No Petrol’ were sprouting up on forecourts across the land. Ah yes, it was a great time to be alive. Given such desperate circumstances, what other choice would any self-respecting bike nut of 1973 make other than a giant, fuel-slurping two-stroke? They didn’t need to choose a stroker at that time. There were new and exciting four-stroke options such as Honda’s CB750 and Kawasaki’s Z1, heavy-metal four-cylinder bombers that had been unveiled to a goggling world press corps in 1970 and 1972.
KAWASAKI AND THE NEED FOR SPEED
In 1973, Kawasaki was the devil on your shoulder. They had decided that they weren’t quite ready to drop the all-conquering straightline performance reputation that the crazy-quick but uncompromising 60bhp Mach III 500 two-stroke triple had built up since 1969. Running a pioneering electronic ignition system that made your telly screen snow over, it left every other production streetbike for dead. It left a few riders dead, too. One American bike mag described the Mach III as a modern new way to commit harakiri. But more was to come. Even as Kawasaki’s engineers were putting the finishing touches to the twin-cam Z1, the company was bringing its ring-a-ding-ding programme to a suitably shattering climax.
