Empty your wallet

[CINDERS]

The Honda 750 4 cyl was one of the best kept industrial secrets ever it blind sided Kawasaki which had a wooden mock up of the Z1 and it took them back a bit it also made the release date of the 900 Z1 stagnate for a bit whilst they digested the Honda I should imagine they had an employee buy one so they could evaluate it.
As the 500 Mach III's and the 750 H2's were lethal in a straight line not so good with cornering, in late 1976 I rode a fully worked H2 with the view of racing it after looking at the beam of the headlight pointing skywards I took it back. And proceeded to shelve the boy racer as I rode my 1976 Z900 home.

As a footer Kawasaki have announced they have a fire breather for the street next year 2019 a 243Hp monster which will probably smoke the Panigale V4's and maybe the BMW HP4's it is getting to the stage where the rider is the limiting factor for these bikes even with all their electronic aids and believe me they have plenty.
With my new bike my physical capabilities of hanging on at full power acceleration is the limiting factor as thats what allot of the test riders have said about Ducati's V4 your struggling to hold onto the grips under full dynamic power. Gad's have to give it a go once or twice just to see what its all about I just had a medical with a grip test so at 63Kg's & 62Kg's respectively I should be right..........

[JimF4M1s (Deceased)]

Next thing might be stirrups on the grips to keep your hands on.

I thought 243 HP on two wheels was a lot.

Then I saw this:
Kawasaki Ninja H2R is the fastest production superbike to date. Though a track only motorcycle. With a whopping 300 H.P, 326 H.P. with ram air the supercharged Ninja H2R can hit over 249 miles per hour. From a 998 cc supercharged DOHC inline-4 engine. The motorcycle screams all the way up to 249 mph – an indicated 400 km/h – in roughly 26 seconds.

Watch a Kawasaki H2R race bike hit 249 mph on a public road - Autoblog

[CINDERS]

I think they have a $60,000/Au price tag and cannot be licensed for the road although I priced a Ducati V4 "Speciale" that was $65,000/Au +ORC of which I graciously passed on and purchased the V4 "S".

[Gil Boyd]

All great but after my experience give me a shaft drive anytime, especially at that speed

[JimF4M1s (Deceased)]

My Ultra is a shaft drive. And you are correct, very nice and smooth.

[Gil Boyd]

Jim...................and it don't snap either at speed

[bigduke6]

The designer, Massimo Tamburini has quite a pedigree, also designed two of the most desirable motorcycles ever. The Ducati 916 and the MV Agusta F4.

The 916 and 748 are in my opinion the nicest bikes ever produced, When I was working for Chevron there was a 748 in a local bike shop, hefty price tag at the time as it wasn't that old, £16,000.00 ............. very tempted at the time too, I even had the money but decided against it, but not all was lost I bought the Suzuki GSXR 750 Slingshot he had instead for a 5th of the price..... it was a lovely example and in red and white, not a common colour scheme at the time as the tank was nearly all red and the fairing with white and black dividing lines........ I was very lucky one time, I'd joined a ship up in Scotland and could keep the bike on board for the two weeks, on my time off did some routine maintenance and adjusted the chain as it was looking a bit limp.

On the Journey home the bike just didn't seem right at the back end, average speed was 70-80 Mph, the rain started to come at me Horizontal and then my lights started to play up as I only had full beam and no dip....... after getting blinded a few times by Truck Wa...rs, I decided to pull in and see what was wrong, couldn't find anything and the lights seemed to fix themselves so took it down an A road at a gentle 30mph, then a sudden increase in revs and no power.........the chain had snapped..........It played on my mind some time after that, the bike received new sprockets and a high priced chain and replaced the oiler. It was the end of any lengthy motorway journeys for me.

Thats one good thing about the one below you can't go too fast as you know you can't stop fast....

[Gil Boyd]

Geoff,
Had one of them, whats it worth today? I suppose its what people will pay for them. Sold mine for £150 a lot of years back, lovely bike though!!

[bigduke6]

Gil, Prices vary as you say its what folk will pay, I would say one in very good or restored would be around £2500, they were not very popular at the time it was introduced, its a Model 8 (350) and same as G5 Matchless, only difference is the badge.

I paid well under half of the above price........

[Gil Boyd]

Geoff,
Nothing pretentious about the old AJS 350/8 breeze in your hair and no rushing around like the big bikes, people give you room..........and respect. Nice buy mate