I’m an old man now, I live alone, 4 miles from pavement, down a dirt road and 20 miles from town in rural Montana. When it rains, I get mudded in because the dirt road becomes impassable, when it snows, a half a foot of snow will make five-foot drifts across 2 miles of that dirt road, and I get snowed in. Don’t get me wrong, as an introvert, I actually enjoy being out here alone most of the time. I’ve been mudded in for the past 5 days and my mind has wandered. 

Sometimes, though, my mind drifts back to my younger years and the adventures I had back then, good memories for the most part. I would like to share a few with you since anyone I could have reminisced these stories with are long dead and gone. My cousin who shared most of these adventures, developed dementia in his final years and didn’t even know me the last time I saw him, he passed away this past February.

I’d like to talk about this motorcycle, I bought it in 1975 from a friend whose mother insisted he sell it for obvious reasons, but before I begin, I will link a short article about this machine so you will know I’m not just making stuff up. This bike was wicked fast and had a few potentially deadly flaws, you can read a bit here: www.autoweek.com/…

If you rode this “crotch rocket” the way the factory designed it, odds were good you were going to die. From a standing stop, you could easily hit the top end of 115mph in a mere 2 blocks (roughly a quarter mile) and do it in under 14 seconds. It was built for drag racing and it did it well, I never lost a drag race against anything be it 2 wheels or four. Racing Harleys was fun, I would totally blow them off the road for that first quarter mile but when I got to the third of a mile mark, I’d hear the roar of the Harley as he went by, he had a higher top end of maybe 130mph and I was at my top end of 115 since the end of the quarter. I raced a Plymouth Road Runner with a 440 magnum under the hood one time, it wasn’t even close! There wasn’t anything I was afraid to race, and I could win any bet I made, and that got me home on a few occasions. 

Now to mention a couple of flaws in an otherwise extreme ride. One, the brakes sucked, the front brake I hardly ever used because it wasn’t effective and faded away quickly. The back brake was more effective, but you had to be careful how you stood on the pedal, too hard and the back tire would lock up and toss you on your side. Two, there was a terrible wobble to the bike when you tried to slow down from top speed, you had to ease it down to minimize the wobble, slow down too fast and the wobble could potentially throw you off. I found that a 6-inch extension on the front forks helped some with the wobble, but it made the front end just a bit lighter, wheelies were easier to do.

Now my bike looked almost exactly like the picture, same color too. The only modifications I made to it were the 6-inch extended front forks, a sissy bar at the back of the seat (for my wife to lean on) and ape hanger handlebars, lowered to a comfortable level. Now I want to talk about riding on one tire, wheelies! The 6 over forks made the front lighter, to do a wheelie all you had to do was get the bike rolling then bury the throttle and hang on, when the RPM reached 5,000, the front would get light and warn you it was going to turn on, at 7,000 RPM the bike would stand up at a 60-degree angle and stay there perfectly balanced all the way to 10,500 RPM. You could then tap the shifter into second gear and the bike would drop, touch the front tire on the ground for just a moment and you would be back at the 60-degree angle until the next shift into third where the front tire would bounce twice and you were on your way, plus you were already doing 60mph when the front tire came down!

On the other foot, I once (only once!) was doing 70mph dropped the gear down into third, dumped the clutch with the throttle wide open, gave a tug on the handlebars and the bike stood up and I wheelied for over a mile at 80mph! Not exactly a recommended procedure, but I’m telling you, that bike was fast, that two-stroke engine really was powerful and dependable. In first gear it topped the bike at 40mph, second gear did 60mph, third was 80mph, forth would go to 100mph and fifth topped out at 117 turning 9,000RPM.

The bike was full of surprises too, you had to be ready for anything with this temperamental machine. I was leaving a gas station after a fill-up and the bike got the tire wet as I entered the street, the next thing I knew, I was power sliding into the road, the bike caught a dry spot and immediately stood up in a fine controllable wheelie, I felt so proud for that fine performance and not dropping the bike. Two blocks up the road there was a red light, I rolled up to it, stopped and went to put my foot down to wait for the light, but there was a problem, somehow the kick starter got up my pantleg and I couldn’t put my foot down, so over I went! How embarrassing after that fine show leaving the gas station, to fall over when not even moving! Luckly, only my pride was hurt.  

The sound of this bike was unlike most I’ve ridden, if you wound the engine up and let it return to idle it almost sounded like: Wrrrring, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding! I had a friend that had an identical H1 to mine, both bikes were bought at the same time by two of my friends, then I bought one and another friend bought the other. When we were riding side by side on the highway, around 60-65mph the two bikes would start rhyming, they would generate a most pleasing pulsing tone that seemed to come from everywhere, I so wish I had a recording of the sound. I haven’t found that sound on the web, but here is a good ride on one that was 4 years newer so you can hear it. Watch the instruments, he gets it to 7,000RPM a couple of times, but compared to how I rode it, he’s pretty easy on the throttle. Give a watch!

 I’ve had a lot of fun on this bike, and I had some scary moments on it too, It’s funny though, I don’t remember so much of the scary stuff but the general feelings of riding this machine are as fresh as yesterday. The bike was designed as a road bike, but I can tell you, it wasn’t that great for a long trip from Montana to Texas and back. When fighting a strong headwind, I needed to drop into 3rd gear to maintain highway speed. There was a 70 mile stretch in Nebraska that turned sideways to the wind. Not only was I in 3rd gear, I was also leaning heavily to the left, so much so that when I hit a bump and the bike bounced, the foot peg would touch the road! A semi traveling in the opposite direction would shut off the wind as he passed me, requiring me to stand the bike upright and as soon as I hit the wake of the truck, I was back to that heavy lean. That was the most tiring 70 miles of my life and the motorcycle ate 4 gallons of fuel to go that 70 miles. So, it wasn’t great for a long-haul highway bike, but it was excellent for running around the county raising hell.

I also got off road with it. There are those who will tell you that a 450-pound motorcycle is not a dirt bike, I proved a lot of dirt bikers wrong. I did cross-country BMX style racing against many dirt bikes, in the twisting corners, they would slowly gain on me because it was 450 pounds to toss around the corners but given a straight stretch on the course and I would be at the next turn leaving them starting down that straightaway. The bike was a drag racer and straight line was what it did best.

Hill climbing? Sure! I had little trouble hill climbing unless the course was really rough and if it was, the other bikes were having the same problems. The thing was, the H1 being a 2-stroke engine, didn’t have a lot of lugging power, to get up the hill, you had to get a run at it and sometimes you got to the top with a bit too much speed and the bike became an airplane! I’ve had 30 feet of air under this bike and pulled off the landing. No brag, just fact!

I’m still looking for a drag racing video, but I found this one and the guy actually topped out the bike! It would go that fast from a standing stop in 2 blocks if you knew how to get it out of the hole. Be sure to watch the instruments as he does this and yes, it was a thrill to go fast on the H1. Also note how quickly the engine revved after 4,500RPM, 5k to 9k RPM was quick and if you were in first gear when it hit 7k, you were on one tire! This video brought back a flood of feelings.

Here is a private collection of Kawasaki triples and I wish I could go there and ride them. Note that the triples came in a 250cc, 350cc, 400cc, 500cc, and the 750cc H2. Any of them would surprise anyone who had ridden that same engine size of any other make of motorcycle. This guy even had one still in its shipping crate! I am so envious!

I found a drag race video, it’s a 750 H2, but the sound and the method are similar. When I was racing, I would bury the throttle and ease the clutch out, never letting the RPM to drop below 7,000 and I would shift up at 10,000 RPM. That net me mid-13 seconds and 115mph. Enjoy!

The feel of a triple between your legs is unlike anything else. With a V-twin you feel every slam of the pistons when they fire, with an inline 4 or 6 cylinder the power is smooth and even, but a triple fires every 120 degrees and although smooth, the vibration it generates gives a wonderful massage to the hands, feet and your spine. I really don’t know how to describe it, exhilarating, thrilling, tingly and yet soothing, still even that doesn't seem adequate.

I rode this bike for 18 years and I admit that I dropped it a half dozen times, repaired it, rebuilt the engine once and bled a time or two, but nothing serious, no broken bones, however I Hamburger'd my knee a couple times. With all of the things I did on this wonderfully frightening machine, on road and off, and many flying lessons, I consider myself fortunate to have survived. I can only credit the fact that I was riding Honda 90’s before I got my first bicycle, my stepdad built a car for me when I was 4 years old, so I’ve been driving almost as long as I’ve been breathing. All those forgotten, yet ingrained skills have gotten me through life with very few accidents and surprisingly few traffic citations. I rode a Widow Maker and I lived to tell you my story.

One last thing, arguably the 750 H2 was “officially” given the name Widow Maker, but in 1971, the H2 hadn’t been built yet and the H1 500cc ruled the road and earned the title too.