Nico's stories - Kawasaki 500: the evolution of the Mach III, exaggerated but legendary
The three-cylinder two-stroke, which appeared in '69, lasted only a few years as the world began to consider ecology. But it left its mark: the most exciting, excessive, exuberant of its era. In the video all the series, from H1 to A and B: the evolution of the species
Some called it the “coffin”, or even the “widows' factory”, but the Kawasaki 500 Mach III (three times the speed of sound...) was no more dangerous than many of its contemporaries although it braked poorly and was unstable on fast roads. It was the Americans who asked the Japanese for it and wanted it exaggerated: three-cylinder two-stroke as in racing, 60 horsepower, light (170 kilos or so), the engine set back in the frame for easier wheelies. The result was a monster, which at sprinting left the 750 behind.
It is collector Giorgio Sarti, author of numerous books on the world's most beautiful motorbikes, who introduces us to the Mach IIIs in his collection. The colour variations, the aesthetic retouches, the change from the front drum brake to the disc, then the progressive depowering to the more correct weight distribution. The bike gained in safety but lost much of its special charm. In the video we talk about the Mach III and dispel some of the legends surrounding it: it is not true, for example, that it seized the central piston...
