Purple Haze!

Far out, man. This 1973 Candytone Purple H2 750 has totally blown Jeff’s brain

I hate to use the M word, but I have to: the ‘Modern’ H1 supercharged beast was a highlight of my testing tasks a few years ago. Hell, I thrashed it so hard Kawasaki made me buy them a new rear tyre, rear fender and inner guard as there was so much melted rubber up the rear end of the Ninja. After the test, I just had to ride an original, but I wasn’t so keen on the 500 H1, it was the H2 Mach IV 750 I wanted to try. I wasn’t born when the bike came out, but I have read enough about them to get the picture. Wild, unpredictable, uncontrollable, insane! Or is it?

I’m fortunate enough to have access to a private test facility that is near my home. I use it for all of my performance testing of modern bikes. It is a 22 corner, 3.6-mile track that is out of this world.

A while back I organised a huge two-day test fest of 20 classic bikes and was so lucky to have Erik Soetens bring along this H2, along with a mint Jaffa 900, custom Z900 and an Eddie Lawson Rep. It was, however, the KH I was really keen to ride.

Erik was a mate of my old boss Len Willing and was a racer in the 1970s, growing up with the Willing brothers and Mick Doohan and Kevin Magee’s old mechanic, Dudley Lister.

Erik has a neat collection now and has a soft spot for old Kwakas. He could not find the right condition Mach IV here in Oz so he decided to bring one over from the USA where there seem to be quite a few around in mint, low mileage, unrestored condition.

“I’m not going to tell you what I paid for the bike, but it is one of the best examples I’ve ever seen,” smiles Erik as we chat trackside pre-ride. “It still has the original paperwork of sale under the seat, along with owner’s manual and related paperwork. You don’t see that very often.”