1972 Kawasaki H2 750 Mach IV

The 1972 Kawasaki H2 750 Mach IV motorcycle was one of the quickest bikes of the early 1970s, but also one of the most difficult to master.

The landmark Kawasaki H2 750 IV was known not

only for its speed, but for its tricky handling
and poor fuel economy.

Founded in the late 1800s, Kawasaki has been into everything from planes to trains to shipping. It began supplying small motorcycle engines, complete with transmissions, to other manufacturers just after World War II, and began offering its own bikes in 1960.

This new segment of the company advanced -- and grew -- quickly. One of the manufacturers using those small engines was Meguro, which Kawasaki bought out in the early 1960s.

The first motorcycles to wear Kawasaki badges were 125-cc commuter bikes. These didn't sell well when the company exported them to the United States.

But Meguro had also been building a 650-cc four-stroke overhead-valve twin under license from BSA (the English company's old pre-unit model). This rather tame motorcycle met with a fair degree of success in the U.S. when introduced as the Kawasaki W1 in 1966.

But better -- and faster -- models were yet to come. First up was a 250-cc two-stroke twin called the Samurai. The Kawasaki Samurai was certainly an about-face in philosophy from the W1.

Fitted with rotary disc valves, it was a hot little number, and the temperature was raised further by the 350-cc Avenger that followed.

And then came the big one.


In the midst of numerous new "superbikes" being introduced by Triumph, BSA, and Honda, the Kawasaki 500-cc H1 Mach III two-stroke triple stood out as a ferocious performer at a cut-rate price.

Light and very powerful, with 60 horses that seemed to lie in wait and then suddenly stampede when the revs built up, rumors spread of Mach IIIs rearing up to throw their riders off on the first test drives. But in the raging superbike wars, "too much" was still not enough.

Enter the 750-cc 1972 Kawasaki H2 750 Mach IV motorcycle. With 74 horsepower on tap, it was even more fearsome than the Mach III. And not surprisingly, it inherited several of its predecessor's flaws, namely squirrely handling, a propensity to wheelie, and horrific fuel mileage.

So although it was perhaps the ultimate performance two-stroke of the day, the market -- and Kawasaki -- would soon drift toward more civilized four-strokes.

Go to the next page for more great pictures of the 1972 Kawasaki H2 750 Mach IV motorcycle.

Meguro the king of four strokes

As you read every word of this article, you will discover why Kawasaki Motorcycles were considered the Mavericks of the industry...

The story of Kawasaki Company goes back to 1924, at that time involved into metallurgy and the aircraft industry.

In 1949, they decided to enter the motorcycle industry producing engines that could be adapted to motorcycles.

FIRST KAWASAKI MOTORCYCLE INDUSTRY RELATED PRODUCTS

Motorcycle Engines

In their line you could find a 60 cc two-stroke, as well as a 150cc and a 250cc four-stroke engines developed with technology from BMW; company whom with they had had relationships since their beginnings in the aeronautical industry.

It wasn't until 1954 that Kawasaki Motorcycles produced their first complete motorcycle under the name of Meihatsu (a subsidiary of Kawasaki Aircraft Co.).

Almost at the same time, they also tried to introduce their own line of scooters to the market, but they soon realized they couldn't compete against the two giants of the scooters industry for those days: the Fuji Rabbit and the Mitsubishi Silver Pigeon.

And now before continuing with this story, I have to open a big parenthesis..

IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT THE HISTORY OF KAWASAKI MOTORCYCLES





We cannot talk about Kawasaki without mentioning another make that will definitely help Kawasaki become as well as Honda, Suzuki, and Yamaha one of the big players in the Japanese Motorcycles scene:

--> Meguro Motorcycles: better know in that time as the "senior make and the king of four strokes".

Meguro entered the motorcycle industry in 1937. Having a good relationship with the government, the people at Meguro took advantage of the army orders.

Their first motorcycle was the Z97: a 500cc rocker-valve motorcycle influenced by the Swiss Motosacoche. It's worth mentioning this model was a success for the factory and the Z97 was in production till the fifties.

Along the years, Meguro produced some very nice 250cc and 350cc rocker-valve, single cylinder models as well as high performance twins. All of them with a very strong British influence. Then and thanks to the commercial success they were living, they also launched a rocker-valve 125 cc for their low end range and a twin cylinder 650cc to accompany the already existing 500cc.

But it was in 1958, when Meguro tried to get rid of their British influence, when things started to go wrong...

Based on a winning prototype of Mount Asama (one of the biggest races that time), Meguro Motorcycles produced three nice and elegant machines with overhead camshaft: the 125cc E3, the 250cc F and the 350cc Y A. Unfortunately these bikes turned out to be too heavy and didn't get the buyers' attention. Meguro will soon return to rocker valve models.

Meguro Motorcycles remained as one of the top 10 manufacturers till 1960, but due to some bad decisions, as the ones mentioned above, the company started to decline and was soon bought by Kawasaki.

In 1960 Meguro signed an initial agreement with Kawasaki Motorcycles, and in 1962 they had completely disappeared.

And this brings us back to our story...

In 1960, the company decides to give a serious push to the motorcycle division of Kawasaki Aircrafts. They take out of the market the Meihatsu brand, they build their own plant of low end and low powered machines and buy Meguro.

These brilliant moves and decisions made Kawasaki Motorcycles have one of the widest range of models in the market. Kawasaki Motorcycles could offer at that time (1960's) from a 50cc moped-scooter to a powerful, high end and beautiful 650 cc twin cylinder motorcycle.

Its also important to mention that due to their very own nature, Kawasaki Motorcycles has always played the role of Maverick in the industry and that a feeling of independence from their main competitors has always been present.

Since then, many stories have been written, many models have been produced and many races have been won, the truth is...

Nowadays Kawasaki Motorcycles is one of the major players in the industry and following their tradition, they nowadays offer a wide range of products for all kind needs and likes.

You can also take a look at Kawasaki 2006 line-up . Check this page (The link will open in a new window. Don't forget to come back to keep learning about Japanese Motorcycles:-):

Kawasaki Motorcycles line-up.