Little Gem

Scoop samples a cute little Kawasaki B8S and comes away most impressed.

- Steve Cooper

If you are of a certain age and still riding, chances are you first saddled up out of necessity. From the mid-1960s through to the end of the 80s, socio-economic circumstances meant cars were financially beyond the reach of most of the working youth so it was either shanks’s pony, a push bike or a commuter motorcycle. It’s my contention that if the kids of the period had been able to access machines such as this month’s subject matter, Kawasaki would have had a much larger fan base and significantly earlier than it did.

In camera we have an exquisite example of what the Japanese factories were offering en masse to the average commuter of SE Asia and sporadically to the USA. It’s simply light years ahead of anything being offered in Europe at the time with the possible exception of more expensive machines from Italy and Germany. Possibly a supreme irony of post Second World War reparation was the fact that the Allies ’profited’ from bikes derived from DKW’s pre-war RT125 while the defeated countries sought to design new motorcycles from scratch. These latter machines tended to be up to date and modern. Our Kawasaki B8S Super 150 came with full-on 12V electrics, indicators, effective full-width water resistant drum brakes and even an electric start: compare this specification to ‘home grown’ machines of the time.

The humble little Kawasaki was conceived, designed and built to offer near flawless commuter transport and to run faithfully for years. In contrast the combined, moribund, offerings of BSA, AMC, Norman, Velocette et al were made as cheaply as possible with little real thought to customer satisfaction let alone enjoyment!