Ninjas are supposed to be stealthy. There’ll be nothing stealthy about the two-stroke how of today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Kawasaki H2C however, and maybe its price will have you howling too.
Sharks don’t howl, nor do they growl, or roar. They are in fact probably the most SBD alpha predators on the planet. Yesterday’s shark-nosed 1983 BMW 633CSI was equally stealthy, swooping in and earning itself a landslide 90% Nice Price win. Heck, it was even painted a stealthy shark-like blue!
Speaking of colors, the seller of today’s Kawasaki H2C says its purple people eater paint is the bike’s rarest, and most desirable color from 1975.
What the hell is it? Well it’s the bike that once earned the title of King of the Streets, and started a long line of sport bikes known as Ninjas.
According to the Wiki that peed on ya,’ these bikes were sold between 1972 and 1975 and offered a 748-cc two-stroke triple that pumped out 74-bhp (early on) and 71-bhp by the time this end of run ’75 H2C came to market. The exhaust note on one of these is like The Flight of the Valkyries as performed by a phalanx of africanized bees.
That rowdy mill sits in a traditional steel double cradle frame with your standard telescoping forks up front and a swing arm on tube shocks in back. Brakes are a single disc up front (a second one was optional) and a drum bringing up the rear.
The styling of the H2 was naked sport bike, featuring two-up seating, low-ish bars, and a cone in back capping the rear fender and housing the brake light. It still looks sweet today, but keep in mind the whole damn thing is ‘70s tech.
Okay, but why might someone want one of these? Well, as Jay Leno notes, these are legendary motorcycles. The original H2 was the fastest accelerating production bike ever upon its introduction, and is a fitting predecessor to the present-day H2 disco bike.
The seller of this one says its as perfect as they get, perhaps even better than when it left the factory. The video he provides is less fun than Leno’s, and someone in the background says that he wouldn’t ride the bike owing to its legendary loosey-goosey-ness. All the guy with the camera wants to do however, is ride the wheels off of it.
Of course, who wouldn’t want to strap a piece of history like this under their ass and see what a bike with less than seven pounds per pony can do? Before anybody could do that, we’ll need to see if its $16,000 price tag would do, I mean for anyone other than Leno.
What’s your take on this classic bike with a well-earned mythos and its $16,000 price? Does that seem like a deal to get a couple of strokes in? or, is this a Kawasaki with a price that won’t let the good times roll?
You decide!
SFBay Area Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
H/T to Ulrich for the hookup!
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