Those were the first and forerunners of today's Japanese crotch rockets - amazing performance for the day. I remember a shootout between the Kawasaki 500, the new three cylinder Triumph 750 Trident and Norton 750 Commando sometime around the early 70's. The Kawi had the fastest time through the quarter mile, the Triumph had the highest top end and the Norton was in between both of them. - second fastest quarter mile and second highest top end.
I'll be 65 this year and a few months ago bought a bright red Yamaha FZ07 700 cc twin (689 to be exact), so I'm not exactly helping Harley's longevity.
Yep; had a bored out 350 Kawa- in the early seventies that you had to hang on to or it would leap out from under you.
Just got a used Yama- V-Star 650 Classic after forty years of four sedentary wheels. It's some kind of sublime to hit 65 on a lonesome, hot summer day, back road.
