Ten days with a 1975 Kawasaki S3 Mach II
(Page 3 of 7)
January/February 2008
Staff
Getting familiar with the 400, the first thing you notice is how small it isn’t. Its 30in seat height is only two inches lower than the 500cc Mach III, and its raised, wide handlebars pull back slightly for a comfortable, upright riding position. Instruments are simple, with a 140mph speedo to the left and a 12,000rpm tach to the right. On a panel between the two are the customary lights for turn signals, high beam and neutral, with the ignition key at the bottom.
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Turn signals are on the left cluster, which also houses the horn button, the choke knob and the high-low headlight switch, while the right cluster holds the on-off switch for the headlights and the three-way off-on-off switch for the ignition. You’ll note we didn’t mention a starter switch, and that’s because the S3 doesn’t have an electric starter, and was never offered with one.
Fire in the hole(s)
Starting the S3 is a simple matter of fuel on, ignition on and full choke (holding the choke since it doesn’t lock in place), followed by a lazy swing of the kickstarter. You have to be in neutral, clutch out, as the engine doesn’t have primary kickstarting. Starting on our bike was rough at first, the engine sputtering and requiring a number of prods before it would finally agree to run, and then needing a good two or three minutes before it would idle on its own.
The cable-actuated clutch is smooth and light, and shifting down into first produces a barely audible "click." In our early rides, we found pulling away from a stop to be a trial, the engine immediately faltering unless we built the revs up over 2,500rpm, and even then the bike would bog heavily until we were in motion. At first, we thought something was wrong (something was – more on that later), but a period report in Cycle citing the S3 as "sluggish at low revs, but when the tach needle moves past 5,500rpm those triple cylinders come to life in a large way" had us thinking it was just the engine’s natural character.
Shifting is excellent, and whether you’re going up or down a cog, the S3’s five-speed gearbox is just plain fun to row through. Once on the move, the S3 feels light, almost like a bicycle, and the ring-ding rasp from its exhaust sounds like a chainsaw on steroids. It’s a good thing all that noise is behind you, because if the mufflers outlets were any closer to the rider we think it would get pretty tiring, pretty fast.
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