Like many of you I have had a queer fascination (horror) with the legendary (notorious) Kawasaki H2 750 triple (Widowmaker), dating back to my high school days in the smoky 70s. By the end of the decade EPA had all but signed the death warrant for the entire 2-stroke subspecies, and the marketplace was by then indicating its preference for the somewhat calmer and more...survivable character of the silky 4-stroke 4s from Japan. Kawasaki departed the 2-stroke field with relative dignity, having somewhat detuned and calmed the snarling H2 by the end of the run in 1975, as they released their own mighty 4-stroke Z1 - a worthy successor to the quirky Widowmaker.
Like most small towns in the USA mine had the usual nutters that owned and rode these things, including one dude that stuffed the H2 motor into a shorter H1-500 chassis, the better to pull lurid wheelstands with I suppose, and the Boston Post Road near my house was frequently dosed with the acrid smell and sight of a cloud of blue Castrol 2-stroke in the air, the air rent with the shrieking sound of a two-stroke "on the pipe". The Widowmaker? They should have nicknamed these things "The Skunk". I knew back then that sooner or later I was going to have to own one.
I had a brief dalliance a few years back when a friend and collector thinned his herd and sold me a pretty substantial collection of bikes and bits - 2 full chassis, NIB chambers, spare motors, and much more. I started collecting parts for a resto-mod project I had in my mind including a GSXR front end, braced swingarm, plus builder notes from back in the day about chassis stiffening that would be needed between these modern components, but a coast-to-coast move intervened around this time and I was forced to liquidate the project before it really began. There's a really nice dude in Hampton NH with a garage full of Triples parts right now, including my old stuff, and I hope its on the road by now.
Fast forward a few years and I was in California, browsing Craigslist for no good reason as we do, when up popped the bike you see here.
So I took it home, tripped over it for a year or so, avoided looking at it, humped it to Arizona when we moved here last year, and finally a month or so ago it had earned its spot on the lift for a quick going-through.
It was simultaneously better and worse than it looked. It was mostly there, although sporting several incorrect parts for a purist. The tank was rusty inside, and naturally both brakes and the master cylinder were well stuck. The steering head bearing was shot, fork leaky, swingarm pivot dry and creaky, and most of the rubber bits throughout were dry-rotted and punky. The carbs were surprisingly clean, but still needed a full clean-out. Cosmetics "not bad", paint is a cool purple/green flip-flop, chrome and alloy and wheels "not bad".
So a few weeks ago I tore in.
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