classic japanese motorcycle Archives

Clubman’s Corner: cover your Kettle!

23rd January 2024 RowenaH Features, News

Members of the Kettle Club – which caters for Suzuki’s iconic 750 two-stroke – now benefit from a bespoke insurance scheme, specifically tailored to meet their needs… Launched in 1971, the water-cooled inline triple established itself as a smooth, comfortable grand tourer, unique in a world dominated by identikit four-cylinder four-stroke sportsbikes. At 550lb, the GT750 was never particularly frisky…

Yamaha TZR125

13th March 2022 RowenaH Buying Guide, Features, Retro Classic, Reviews, Road Tests, Workshop, Your Ride

Phil O’Hara wanted to make his learner-legal Yamaha stroker go faster. He also wanted to stop it oinking like a pig. The results of his experiments were a revelation… It was 1990 and I’d sold my car and required transport. These days one car generally replaces another, but this was then, not now. To substitute the metal box that had…

Kawasaki or Commando?

25th January 2021 RowenaH Features

They may both be 750 twins but there aren’t that many other similarities between the Kawasaki Z750 and Norton’s Commando. However, it turns out that many RC readers have experience of both, as Colin Leighfield reveals… It was great to see John Hunter’s letter in RC195 about his Kawasaki Z750B twin. With the short rear mudguard it looks like an…

Kawasaki W2 650

10th July 2020 RowenaH Buying Guide, Features

RealClassic reader Kevin Lemire is a fan of Kawasaki’s 650 twins, built back in the 1970s. He’s so enthusiastic about them that he owns half a dozen different types of W2… Kawasaki had every right to expect success in 1966 when they took the plunge with Japan’s first large capacity twin, the 624cc W1. After all, the entire postwar British…

Honda CB400F

17th January 2018 RowenaH Features

Honda 400/4s are popular, relatively plentiful and commonly spotted at classic bike shows. So it might’ve been easy to overlook this one – but Marion Thirsk went back to double-check and discovered that its subtly different to the standard 400/4 you might find on British roads… Closer inspection reveals subtle differences to the normal UK model. Black sidepanels, a sidestand…

Honda Black Bomber

13th December 2017 RowenaH Features

In 1968 Soichiro Honda rode his firm’s 10 millionth motorcycle off the production line. That bike was the ground-breaking CB450 Black Bomber – notable not least for its use of novel valvegear with torsion-bars ‘springs’ in its top end. It wasn’t long before racers transformed the CB streetbike into a world class competitor, and the Drixton Honda was born. They’re…