Kawasaki Triples Bible

27th June 2016

H1 500 | KH250 | KH400 | Veloce Publishing

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It ain't new, but it is new in paperback. Written by motorcycle author and journalist Alastair Walker, this tome on Kawasaki's classic two-stroke triples manufactured between 1968 and 1980 was first published in 2010 in hardback. But now Veloce Publishing has taken another bite of the cherry and has produced this "soft" version. But between the sheets, this book isn't soft at all. Instead, it's a pretty hard-nosed insight into everything from the seminal H1 500 series through to the KH250s through to the KH400s. And there's an interesting insight into the models that preceded the triples.

The book's full title is: KAWASAKI TRIPLES BIBLE. And it's easy to see that for many riders, the content will be akin to a religious experience. We should confess that we've had very little direct experience of these motorcycles. But if we were in the market for an oily threesome, we'd probably start right here with this publication. Even at first glance it looks pretty convincing.

In terms of design, however, it's fairly uninspiring. But that's normal enough for Veloce. This firm knocks 'em out at a pretty fast rate, so you have to be realistic about how much time and money (which is largely the same thing) you can afford to spend on polishing the production. That said, there's a lot of pertinent information here from road tests to general specifications to model identification to model development to marketing material to engine design to chassis issues to colours and racing plaudits.

The writing is workaday and gets into the material without much ado. It's clear that the author has a real passion for these bikes, but he doesn't treat them with inappropriate reverence.

The racing section, which accounts for about 25 to 30 percent of the book, whizzed right past us. That's because at Sump we're road riders. Consequently, the best we can say about this section is that it looks pretty informative. Yes, that's pretty limp. But that's all we can offer.

Beyond that, it's hard to talk intelligently about a family of bikes that you've little or no experience with. Nevertheless, it certainly strikes us as a decent book, honestly written, acceptably designed and priced reasonably.

There are 183 images in this publication (including B&W and colour). The page dimension are 207mm x 250mm. The page count is 160. And the book number is: ISBN: 978-1-845849-81-8.

Veloce published the book in the UK in May 2016, and in the USA in June 2016.

www.veloce.co.uk

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