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Ha,ha. I just woke up and thought about this again, glad I turned and tuned into our forum. Well 85RZwade that sounds about right, a truly brutal story.

Yeah I wasn't going to say it yesterday in the back and forth banter with Mark about these triples turning into "investment income" bikes. However this one I let get away with the 14k suggested price the seller was looking getting dropped to 10.5k not only was that a big entry free for a bike that had been sitting for years and still a good ways off from being completely original/unmolested but she did go on to say that it would be sold with a bill of sale. The problem with that to me is doesn't everybody sell a vehicle with a bill of sale? and is that bill of sale enough for the state of Vermont to do their issue a title thing so I can obtain that precious ownership document that the state of Ma. (my home state) would consider valid to reissue me their title?....because not only do I really need that title there is a chance that....A) Vermont is getting hip to folks doing this and they're making it harder to do. And B) what if the VIN numbers on this bike don't check out?...and Vermont tells me sorry we can't help you. Then I'm stuck with a bike I can't register with unknown history that we can only speculate on that I paid a fortune for and will need probably several thousand more if you wanna repaint it the original colors nevermind you know some seals would probably go bad from sitting so a complimentary engine overhaul is to be expected. Just too many what ifs riding on someones "retirement income" as well as my bucket list bike. The older I get the less seduced I wanna be

Yeah thats so true. The dumb thing about that bike is that it was so close to home. Taking the seller for her word it was part of a collection of bikes she bought. I can only wonder how great of a deal it was. 

Ha,ha you're not kidding...thru the roof expensive they are. I think I missed the H2 boat about a decade ago when they seemed cheaper.
Funny thing is still big money then.

Hi interesting well that posting only lasted a couple days. Sorry you fellas couldn't see it and weigh on it, nonetheless I'm glad I passed on it. I've seen much nicer for the same money and a bit rougher around the edges yet with a current registration and or a clean title for a heck of a lot cheaper. Either way I know these old triples after sitting for nearly 50 years one can expect anything to need refurbishing.

So I feel kinda silly saying this being mostly a window shopper of Ebay and Craigslist I just started browsing the Facebook Marketplace and I think I finally found a reason to like Facebook. So anyways seeing a lot of RD ads and among other things  YSR50 ads somewhat local to me. The prices ranged from as low as 1400$ for a project that looked complete but in pieces to a high of 4999$ for a all original example with less than 2k miles but not quite as mint looking as the original posting in this thread.Yeah that one is priced kinda high but it looks about as good as it gets.

Yeah I mean I hate to be that guy but it's either all or nothing with these bikes. Seems like you either get the stock look or you start modding them and I can see where a few folks would take the mods to a higher level with the cafe resto mod route and start changing out the seat and eliminating the rear fender with a more fastback look.

I do like those JL Retros. They got just the right look and I would like to keep the center stand so that's a bonus. I do have the Vape ignition and that was money well spent. I don't know too much tuning wise to make it work any better as far as adjusting the ignition curve with the Zeel although it's nice to know it's there. However I'm excited. Honestly I got the Vape the same time I got the DG's and really just did too many things at once so I'll be curious to see how far out of whack the jetting is when I finally have the stock pipes back on.

I find the RD's to be an interesting bike to look at. It's funny I've been approached by strangers with compliments on the bike and a few have said it reminded them of something from the fifties or sixties. I think that maybe something to do with the chrome fenders and tail light/bracket As well as the headlight and it's bracket. Although it is very much a seventies bike in terms of styling I can where the untrained eye would see it as much older bike, a throwback to the English bikes. In that regard I find the RD's to be a bit polarizing with all there chrome. One of my buddies even suggested there's too much chrome and possibly painting the chrome bits black which would probably play a whole lot better with something like the DG pipes. I guess where I wasn't planning on doing a repaint and just living with it's current "survivor look" I feel the original pipes will be my cheapest and most sensible best looking and I hope best performing direction for this bike.

So a few weeks ago and what kinda prompted me to take action with putting the pipes back on was that I accidently had parked the bike on some unlevel parking lot with not enough lean on the side stand. This is partly due to the HVC stand bracket mod giving the bike less lean onto the stand. Well unfortunately after a second or two at rest the bike fell on over on her right side, I was bummed. Not too much damage, bent the brake lever, scuffed up the brake reservoir cap, put the head light brackets all outta whack and bent, put a small dimple in the right front turnsignal chrome bezel and of course smashed it's plastic lens to bits. I dunno I know I spent some dough but that was few years ago and I had fun with it doing the chambered pipe thing. It's ok in the scheme of things it wasn't a whole lot of money. I did learn something after the bike fell off the sidestand as when I bought the bike it always had these symetrical strips of paint missing and replaced with ages of rusty patina on the headlight brackets. More than likely because this wasn't the first time she fell off her side stand. I always thought they were present because someone had maybe put and took off some kinda front rack on the bike which doesn't really make as much sense. And that's another question I have where can I get a nice set of original straight headlight brackets?

I was one of the suckers who paid about $500 for a set of new DG's to mount on my RD250B. In my defense they were still some of the cheapest readily available chambers for our bikes. However I had to learn the hard way. These pipes are way to loud with no real power benefit for my bike as far as I can see. Sound cool at idle and just ripping thru the gears for the first ten minutes and then get annoying with more riding at least in my opinion. I did have to lose the centerstand and I spent another I dunno 80 or $90 bucks on a fancy side stand relocating bracket with a bad return spring that I resolved by combining half of it with half of the original spring, it was from HVC Cycles (Economy Cycles competitor). Lastly I lost a lot of ground clearance with the chambers that I actually find kinda useful as I do sometimes take the bike just a bit off road around my yard so yeah I put some minor dents in it. What I found is that I like the look of the stock pipes better and the other thing is if your not gonna invest in some rearsets $$$ which are spendy then the chambers will look terribly out of place with the stock footpegs and bracket. Oh and I really do miss my centerstand. So I am actually reverting back to stock. Just acquired a spare centerstand and spring and ditto for the side stand and it's spring to replace with. Part of the reason why I took a chance with the chambers was my original center stand had one foot rotted out so it needed to be replaced anyways, curiosity too about chambers and also I was just happy to throw stupid money at my bike in the dead of winter with nothing else to spend it on. For example I have no kids or girlfriend

The asking price is expensive but at least it's in really nice shape. Actually someone can correct me if I'm wrong but I think these are silly collectable? I wanna know how even an average size adult male can even fit on one of these without feeling ridiculous?

Well I did find the video but it's posted to there Instagram which I don't belong to and it wants me to sign up despite trying to just see it with my Facebook account which is pretty useless to me and I have no interest in. What's wrong with that site?...I know it's where you just gotta be to get connected with the world. Because they don't trust your really you?....and that's a whole other conversation.

FWIW I don't have a pic of myself on Facebook and I don't use my real name and I will sign up to it periodically just to see something like this and then delete the account because I just don't like being on that site.

Yeah so the owners bike shop is called Madhouse Motors out of Boston, Ma. it's interesting to me being local to me and me not knowing anything about it. I guess they offer quite a bit of services as well as classes and a place to store your bike for the winter offseason which and be a bit long here in New England. I couldn't find a video of the H2 running on her site. Probably doesn't matter anyways as I figure the bike to be just too much money to start with buying it nevermind whatever else down the road.

What I do find interesting as the owner stated that the collector out of Japan that acquired the other triples had a collection of over 500 motorcycles and it sounded like they maybe some kinda Japanese bike resto shop themselves. I guess I'm with Striker and few others her that just get blown away with the thru the roof pricing for these no matter how much love they may need to get be a bike that in my case is a solid running, legally owned registered machine. In more ways than one I kinda wish I lived somewhere else other than Ma. where it's not such a hassle to find bikes like this and just put them on the road with minimal effort to prove legal ownership never mind trying to find one locally. I also find it interesting that the bike was part of an estate collection here in Ma. which makes me wonder if there are more bikes like this local to me that are just sitting "hidden" in barns waiting for that day to be released for our consumption. You just wouldn't know unless you were put in touch with the right people.

Hi everyone and thought this maybe of interest to you as well as me. I hope I cut and pasted this link correctly as it's in my local to me craigslist city which is about 35 miles south of where I live. The H2 mostly but also I would say H1 is my sorta dream/bucket list, "Eleanor" bike amongst bikes. So just got off the phone with the owner of this bike and inquired about it. She stated that she acquired it thru an estate sale. With a number of other Kawi triples, there was a few other H2's along with an S3 and oddly enough they all got sold to a major collector in Japan. I asked why they didn't buy this one and she stated that they just didn't and just as well as she wanted to hold onto it and share the wealth so to speak by seeing if other collectors for it maybe of interest. I don't consider myself much of a collector in that regard although I do already own three motorcycles one being my RD250 and a honda ruckus. I will say that you never see these on Boston Craigslist. So she stated that the crank seals checked out ok ditto for the compression check and the bike does run good with video to prove it although I have not seen the video. I guess she owns a mostly British bike resto shop in the Boston area and Japanese bikes are of less interest to her. I myself am mostly interested in it as a roadworthy registered rider and would more than likely If I were to own it would have the bike repainted in original blue color with decals to match. The bike is missing the white VIN sticker but she claims it's numbers matching. There is no title with the bike but she did go on to say the usual spiel about obtaining one thru the state of Vermont, (this is a stickler as it's a nuisance to title bikes in Ma. and not exactly free and time consuming anyways not that I am an expert on the Vermont title thing). She said thru her contacts of folks that collect these bikes that she could get almost anything for the bike such as the original airbox which I noted was missing. I guess last but not least upon asking me if I would like to make an appt. to see the bike which I politely declined she stated that she already had an offer of $10,500 for it over the phone of course. I thought that maybe a reasonable offer myself but then I still think that the bike would just be a money pit to get a title, repaint it and whatever it may possibly need to be roadworthy. These bikes get so wicked expensive (I know they're money pits,  LOL) so fast that to start with over 10.5k into it seems like one should just go and get someone else's restored bike. I guess that's my feeling about it. What do you guys think, like I said it took a long time looking to see one local to me. 

https://boston.craigslist.org/gbs/mcy/d/roxbury-1972-kawasaki-h2-750-mach-iv/7400785047.html

I agree, isn't one of the positives of listing on EBay to attract a bigger audience of prospective buyers? For example I hardly ever see these bikes up for sale locally where I live. So I jumped at the chance to buy my old RD over priced basket case that was 10 miles up the road from my home, LOL. Btw I actually got to ride it home too.

watch for that H1 to make a repeat performance. kaplan bikes have a habit of re-appearing very quickly. I wouldn't buy a refurbished toaster from that guy.   

Yeah I thought it was a beautiful bike but on the other hand just a few too many details lacking about it and really kinda big money for it. I'm amazed the auction ended so early, don't think it even last much more than 20 hours so I guess somebody just had to have it.

Is that a high price for that? Seems like a really pristine example. I will say I just noticed a Kaplan Cycles auction last night on Ebay for a really nice reconditioned non stock 1975 H1 500. Not sure if it was numbers matching as the ad didn't specify but the buy it now price was 11,500 dollars. So as of last night there was zero bids but as of an hour ago the opening bid was met at $ 7,500 and two bids later the buy it now was exercised and bike sold for the $ 11,500. I thought it was kinda a high price but just low enough that I guess it would sell at that, such a sweet bike. But no title, not sure if that matters and the odometer stopped working at 7k miles but they did claim a complete motor refresh/overhaul and it was piped, jetted and pod filters fitted. I dunno I think that price may have been more appropriate for a stock example with definite matching numbers and clear title but yeah me thinks a strong two stroke market and another one I let get away. I wanna kawi triple bad but the only ones I really lust for the most are 69 to 72 H1's and of course any h2.