Where has the year gone! Here we are in December and summer has finally arrived and the riding season is well underway. To celebrate the crossover from spring to summer, the 31st of November saw a very healthy lineup of bikes at Memorial Park. It was good to see more than a few pre 80's bikes brought out of their sheds to enjoy a spin around the country block. A new bike amongst this lineup was a Kawasaki H1a, just like the Revell model kit I had back in the day. (It was my first model kit with real chrome!)
The Kawasaki H1A has a Legendary reputation in the minds of many. It is often known as the original Widow maker and for many young men at the time the transition from a humble BSA Bantam or Suzuki M15 certainly challenged their mortality. One has to remember that it was at this time the word Superbike was gestating as bikes like the H1 and Honda 750 burst onto the scene. They represented a quantum shift in motorcycle markets around the world as the Japanese applied there growing engineering and mass production expertise to the motorcycle market. The Kawasaki H1 was primarily designed for the American market and going from stoplight to stoplight. For those of us in New Zealand we certainly had a lot more corners readily available in our countryside and its chassis limits were soon found. It was great to have one along for our recent end of month ride this last November. It has been a while since we have had one out on a run with us. It is good to see that he is doing the bike up to ride and making it look the part as and when needed or when parts become available at the right price. Sounds a lot like how things were back in the day when budgets were tight.
Alongside Steve's H1 we had Warren on his Suzuki Cobra, resplendent in all its black and chrome glory. Definitely a contemporary and it just predates A perfect companion for Steves H1a and Allan and Kim on their H2's certainly added to this as well. The H2 is very much the epitome of this with its fearsome reputation for being the 'other widow maker' as it tore through fuel and dominated senior production racing for sometime. This was even after the Z1 arrived on the scene. Definitely the apex of large 2-stroke air cooled development and along with the Suzuki GT750. Two stroke development did move on for a while and Bruce S's RG250 is a wonderful example of this from the early 80's with the use of water cooling allowing for even more power to be extracted from the 2 stroke engine configuration. It is not often one sees such a group of motorcycles of this ilk out on the street these days and it does provide a very special nostalgia experience that others came along to enjoy on the day.
Along for the run we had a great supporting collage of bikes and riders. There was definitely something teutonic in the lineup of support bikes for the ride with John on his trusty R60/6, Dave on Grant's GS100 Dakar, Grant on his R100R, Ray on his recently acquired R850R and Gary on his F650GS. The Suzuki Bandits were also well represented with Max, Stuart and Bruce C wafting along on there steads and Rich and myself rounding out the modern Suzuki contingent on a GSR 750 and a Vstrom 650
Our run for the morning took us from Memorial Park out to Hiwinui, Colyton, Valley Rd and finally to our first stop at the Ashhurst Domain carpark. After a regroup and natter we were on our way again to our final destination, Shannon, and a much anticipated cup of tea or coffee. It was just as well sir Al phone through to the Horsemans Cafe to warn them that a large group were coming through. there were fifteen of us overall with some leaving early and others coming later in the ride, but a great turnout for our final outing of the year.
And what a year it has been, with another round of Covid lockdowns. We have managed to fit in some great EoMR's amongst this and the usual weather challenges. Our Tuesday nights at The Cobb are still proving to be popular, so it looks like more of the same for next year.
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