| October 27, 2024
Cycle News Archives
COLUMN
A funky and spunky play bike
By Kent Taylor
In the late 1800s, Estes Park, Colorado was the playground of one Windham Thomas Wyndham-Quinn, a stately fellow who was honorably titled as The Earl of Dunraven. Despite the haughty moniker, Quinn seemed to be a regular fellow, one who loved the outdoors and helped establish Estes as a hunting/fishing Valhalla. He would later sell a portion of his property to entrepreneur Freelan Oscar Stanley, he of the Stanley Steamer automobile. It would be Stanley who constructed and managed the magnificent Stanley Hotel, a grand old lodge built in 1909 and still standing today.
Both Quinn and F.O. Stanley loved Estes Park, so much so that locals say both men can still be seen wandering about the hotel campus—100 years after their deaths! Even Stanley’s dear wife Flora, who died in 1939, has been spotted in the hotel’s concert hall, playing her beloved grand piano well into the evening hours.
Ghosts, say the people who fancy themselves knowledgeable about such things, seek out high energy. Rather than hang out in dreary cemeteries, they return to the places of their passions. Which, for motorcyclists, begs a question. If the Earl of Dunraven walks again among his cherished hunting grounds of Colorado, does the spirit of Phillip Irving breathe in and out with the intake and exhaust of the Vincent Black Shadow? Do you hear Flora Stanley playing a sonata for her beloved Frelan? Listen carefully to the distinct note of the Ducati Pantah engine. Is it possible that Ing. Fabio Taglioni is still speaking to us through the throaty baritone of the desmodromic twin?
If so, then the next time you are so fortunate as to take in the unique two-stroke pitch of the Kawasaki 400 S-3, a snappy three-cylinder street bike from 1973, listen carefully for the heartbeat of Dr. Gordon Blair, an Irish engineer who helped the company transform a lugging 350cc dud into a funky and spunky 400cc play bike!
When the topic is speed, even the unwashed, non-riding public will mention Kawasaki motorcycles, and the company comes about their reputation honestly. In 1969, their 500 H-1 laid down rear rubber (the front was usually spinning freely above the asphalt) in sizzling style, knocking off 12-second quarter mile runs with ease. The H-1 was legendary, even earning the ominous nickname of “Widowmaker” among riders.
However, Kawaski’s efforts to build and expand on the success of that two-stroke triple formula brought about mixed results, one of which was the S-2 350. Cycle News had tested the model in 1972 and found it, at best, underwhelming.
How bad? The S-2 suffered from “a peaky power curve, some engine vibration, rotten gas mileage and a bit of high-speed woblow” with the testers, defining that term as the uneasy place between wallow and wobble. No motorcyclist who lives on the spectator side of the sanatorium would list “woblow” as a good handling trait.
The little Kawasaki was sick, and in the early 1970s, Dr. Blair was the man to see for two-stroke maladies. Blair and his team at Queens University in Belfast had designed and built their own motorcycles, which were raced first in Ireland and then on the Grand Prix circuit. Team rider Ray McCullough powered Blair-built machines to many wins over the ensuing years, including seven Ulster Grand Prix victories.
Blair’s diagnosis of the problems facing Kawasaki’s beleaguered 350 resulted in what seems to be rather minor changes. Though there were likely other revisions, Cycle News makes a mention only of the 350’s bore being enlarged by four millimeters, along with a redesign of the two stroke’s transfer ports. The end result?
“The most radical change when you ride the bike is the power curve,” CN wrote. “The huge lump we commented on last year is nowhere to be found. Power now starts in the neighborhood of 3000 rpm and goes to just under the 8500 rpm redline. Throughout the rpm range there are no jolts, no surprises. Power just flows out as you twist the throttle.”
Kawasaki made other subtle yet meaningful changes to ’73 400. Following the lead of their road racing team, the engine was mounted in rubber. A redesigned kick-start lever—no button needed when you’re essentially kicking three 125s to life—now folds up and out of the way.
Need a reminder that this was a road test of a 1973 motorcycle? CN reports that the spark plugs began to “load up,” though they never completely fouled. Riders today likely give little or no thought to the sparking plugs in their motorcycles. In those days, even casual riders knew to pack an extra set in their tool kits.
The 400 wasn’t built for touring. Its hard seat and handgrips deemed “painful” meant that this bike was made for the everyday rider, who occasionally likes to “visit his girlfriend in Poughkeepsie.”
Not as fast as the Yamaha RD 350 of its time, the Kawasaki could still easily hit 100 mph. Dr. Blair, who passed away in 2010, had cured the little machine of what ailed it, engineering the 400 S-3 into a fun motorcycle; as evidenced by the photos, getting airborne on the Kawasaki on the SoCal streets was no problem!
Assembly lines in factories may have manufactured our motorcycles, but it is right to remember the riders/engineers whose passion really made our machines or, as with Dr. Gordon Blair, made them even better. They poured heart and soul into their work, their sweat and even blood likely blending with the oil and grease that keep parts moving freely against each other. Perhaps in spirit form, but most certainly in spirit, they are thus forever with us when we ride.CN