The beginning of the story...

I promised a bit of history concerning the H1R last time. I´m in the process of trying to investigate as much as possible about this particular bike and H1R:s in general. I´ll keep you posted as new (old) information surfaces. It´s totally amazing to look into the life of a motorcycle like this and of course, a driver like "Esso"...

Let´s start with the obvious history that was available upon the time of purchase. The receipt when Björn Blomqvist bought the bike from Flöter (The exclusive distributor in Sweden for Kawasaki during this time). Click on the pictures for a better, readable view!

 Here we can see Björn bought the racer from Flöter in February 1972 for 14500 SEK. I will try to find out more about the races Björn took part in with the bike after his purchase. It is a whole lot easier finding information about the previous owner, "Esso" Gunnarsson... I think Björn paid a good price for the bike considering the price was 16000 SEK two years earlier when "Esso" bought it brand new.

The story of the bike really starts early 1970 when it´s clear that Kawasaki will make a production racer and that Sweden actually would get a couple of them.

Here´s an article in a Swedish magazine called "MC-SPORT" from late 1970 where the racer is introduced and described. A couple of drivers had been racing 1969 and 1970 with customized MACH III standard motorcycles and actually performed quite OK. Per-Åke Dahl was one of them.

On the picture, taken in Anderstorp raceway, in May 1970, "Esso" is adjusting his goggles and preparing to race this bike...

 "Finally! A new production racer in 500cc" says the headline of the article. You can see the extremely beautiful front drum brake with its 4 LS technology, the cylinders with the spring-mounted expansion chambers, the rather large Mikuni VM35 carburetors and the not so large stingers at the end of the chambers.

 And here´s some technical data. These early bikes had normal points/battery ignition and the pictures show how the battery was fixed to the frame with rubber straps. I need the complete battery box, by the way...
The weight is 136 kgs (empty) and top speed says 245 km/h. Not bad for 1970!

On page number3 of the presentation you can see the dry clutch, oil pump, tacho drive and the battery once again.




Further down is a picture of the three carbs and the gearchange shaft protruding through the engine making it possible to choose what side you want to put the gear lever and brake lever on.





Here the brake lever is on the left hand side with the optional, longer, brake cable going through the frame over to the right side of the bike. Kind of interesting!

 The last page is posted for you Swedish guys wanting to read the full article....

Here´s another very interesting article from "Allt om MC" in May 1970. This piece shows Hartmut Flöter with the two bikes he imported to Sweden. He wanted to buy more, but Kawasaki wouldn´t let him get more than two. This is actually confirmed by Hartmut Flöter this week over the phone. At 80 years of age he is still playing golf and has a crystal clear memory of these bikes! 

The real cool thing with these pictures is that the bike without the fairing is my bike! The other one was sold to Per-Åke Dahl (with some kind of sponsorship deal with Flöter and his business).

My bike was supposed to be raced by  a driver called Kjell Bogren in team Flöter, but was eventually bought by "Esso" Gunnarsson instead. I´ll get back to his story later on.

The picture above was taken the day before the start of the Swedish SM-series in Falkenberg 1970.

Dahls bike was race-ready and Bogrens needed the fairing mounted. I wonder if "Esso" bought the bike later this day or if it was raced in falkenberg at all? I´ll need to figure that one out!

Well, that´s it for now. I´ll continue searching for more interesting stuff to post here regarding the history of the bike and also about "Esso" and his racing history with the "Green meanie"

Please be patient as the scanning takes time and effort to get right.

Any information you guys might have concerning the bike would be much appreciated. Any parts you might have or contacts in that respect would also mean a lot to me. I need a lot of stuff, obviously....

Thanks for looking!

Documentation of the "Barnfind status".

When a find like this surfaces after so many years, it´s bound to draw some attention. My plan is to be very public with this restoration and thus I made a photoalbum on facebook and also posted a few pictures on Instagram.

An old friend of mine, Robert Laver, works as a senior publisher at a Swedish Motorcycle magazine called "Classic Bike". He found out about my purchase and talked to their photographer, Ola Österling. We agreed to meet last Saturday and make a photoshoot close to my home ( I don´t want to load the bike unnecessarily...) at another friends workshop/garage. We thought it might offer a nice setting for some cool pics of the bike in its unrestored glory...

I was also very happy to hear that Esso Gunnarssons wife, Irene Gunnarsson, would join us during the shoot. Esso himself sadly passed away in 2003, R.I.P.

I followed Ola during the session with my trusted iPhone 6 and this is what I caught. Believe me, the pictures in the magazine will be a lot better! Hopefully I may be able to share some of them with you at a later stage.

We started off with a few pictures of the bike in a solitary setting in the old washplace. It sure could use a good wash, right?

Ola working his magic...

And a couple from the side. Hard work lifting and moving the bike with that stand. Takes two people!

During actual shooting the lights are off... This bright light is on just during testing. News to me!

You also need some close-ups. I think it looks cool with Olas camera measuring the distance or light or whatever it´s doing that puts out that red light... FYI, you can always click on the images to make them bigger! Took me a while to figure that one out...

This picture is very emotional.... Irene finally agreed to be in a couple of pictures with the bike and Essos old helmet (She still has it and brought it to the photoshoot). Here she´s looking at the bike her husband raced on....















And here´s one with just the bike and the helmet....

The "Three-leaf clover", so typical for Esso.

After these solitare pictures Ola wanted some shots in a little more "working environment" Off to the car workshop....!

Here it is... with the two flash umbrellas waiting to light up the scenery!

And here´s what happens when an iPhone-photgrapher manages to sync the flash of a CANON EOS....!! Pure luck,
 or unluck, whichever you prefer!





















The last pictures of the day were taken and I had to push the thing back up the hill to my garage. Luckily it rolls easy!  All-in-all a very pleasant experience and a really nice way to make sure the "Barnfind status" is well documented.

Last picture of the day. "Working on a racer?"

My next post will be about history around the bike. I´m working the scanner with a couple of very interesting items. One is the Original Service Manual and Parts manual, the other a much more personal thing with lots of stories concerning this bike (and others...)

Hang on!

Picking up the Kawasaki H1R.... And bringing it back home to Stockholm.

Last Saturday was the big day for the pick-up of the Kawasaki-racer. The owner, Anna Maria Pettersson, met me at her son´s house where the bike had been sitting since I last saw it in the barn.

Now it was time to load it i my car and get it back to Stora Essingen in Stockholm where I live and, by coincidence, Esso Gunnarsson also lived during his racing days. The bike, sort of, returns home!

Volkswagen Sharan up to 2010 is an excellent car for motorcycle enthusiasts! Just remove the five rear-most seats and you have a small truck!  I love it!!

All the parts that had been found were easily loaded into the car. Great care was exercised not to remove any dust or dirt. I was pretty sure myself and maybe some other people would be very interested in documenting the "Barn-find-status"

The three expansion chambers, the front brake drum plus the box of parts disassambled from the engine.

There are not very many parts on a racer like this. When I pick up other triples the car usually gets quite full with all the street-legal- stuff needed on an ordinary motorcycle. Rear-view mirrors make them too high, rear fenders make them too long etc, etc...

What was really nice with this find was the extra crank.... One of the conrods are shot, but that´s an easy fix!

The tank and top fairing resting nicely on the parts box. The engine secured behind the passenger seat. Such a little gem!

It was time to say Good bye to Anna Maria and start the (not so) long journey back to town... I´m pretty sure we´ll meet sometime in the future. Both her and her children are all very interested in following the restoration up close. You are more than welcome to!

The bike loaded and Anna Maria saying Good bye for now..... 

Well, I can tell you, it was a very happy man driving his car from Mariefred to Stockholm that day! One of the most sought after triples in the world sitting right there in the back of my car. Wonderful, absolutely Wonderful!!

Happiest man on earth or just a tru nerd with his rare find?!

I actually felt real good when we exited the freeway and turned on to Stora Essingen where we live. The bike returned home! Getting it offloaded was no big deal at all. Our daughter, Wilma, came out to see here father´s latest acquisition. She is used to me bringing home rusty old bikes and bits of this and that so this one barely made her rise an eyebrow until I explained what it is.
-  "Chill,  Dad. Cool bike!"
That´s a very nice verdict....!

Wilma holding teh front fairing. It is surprisingly light! 

Once the bike was offloaded from the car I couldn´t resist putting it back together. Just to get the general picture of what was ahead, what might be missing in parts and to see what it actually looks like. It is a very nice way to start getting to know your project, getting a feel for it. You find out a lot just by crawling around trying to fit pieces together that you really have no idea about. Like a big puzzle in 3D.

The bike has a nice, stable stand. Looks to be the original. Once the bike is on the stand getting the engine into the frame is not that difficult. Getting the small rubber parts on the engine bolts between the frame and the engine was not, so I left them out. There will be another time when I will have the plesure of dealing with them...

Engine in the frame and the seat in place! 

Now I could have a closer look at the engine... Some severe rust on axles and primary drive. Shifter linkage not moving a lot. Carb slides move free and had the covers on though. I´m planning on letting my friend Ebbe Parnestål in Malmoe restore the engine for me. More about that later...

Rust, rust and three expansion chambers...

Getting the chambers in place was not too bad. Well, that´s easy when you don´t have to worry about twostroke oil leaking out of the exhaust port! You can see damage to the right chamber from an accident. That will need to be taken care of. One of the toughest things to deal with is probaly the rust on the axles and the dry clutch housing. I hope I´ll be able to fix it.

Frame and crowns. Lots of dirt and rust... 

A little bit higher up in the frame, triple trees, handle bar and the instrument. Just one revcounter,
that´s it! All you need to keep track of your power output so as not to overrev the engine and damage it. As you can see there is a lot of work needed here also. The rubber mount for the revcounter is broken. I need a new one! Anybody got a spare to sell?  :-))

OK, lets put the tank on... First time I see it with the tank in place! Wow!! Now it suddenly looks very potent and hungry. This will be a very, very nice build, that´s for sure.

Tank with original paint....

The original seat cover is still intact. Approx 1 cm of padding goes beneath it (for comfort) and this is what it all look like...

Comfy seat, grass and hay included!

Time to get the fairing on.... Just another pic as a naked bike.

Naked bike, such a small thing!

The fairing seems to be in quite good condition. There is a slight mismatch in colour between the tank and the fairing/seat. I will have to research that a bit more. The fairing goes on with just a couple of screws and a rubber band (that is missing, of course...) so a bit of wire fixed it for now.

Now, It looks like a racer!

There are some damages to the fairing as well, but all-in-all I´m very happy with the condition of the plastic parts. They are a bugger to deal with and I´m no good at it! The top fairing isn´t really fitting nicely to the green and white part. May have to address that also...

Front view.

I´m really surprised over how extremely light and thin the fairings are on this bike. No doubt Kawasaki did their best to make a real good racer.

Here´s another nice angle of the bike. You can see the stand, the very special foot peg rubbers (only used on the racers...) and the stinger pipes from the chambers. Imagine the sound......!!

Side view. Comfy seat, for sure! 

Well, it´s time to roll it in to the garage and on to the lift... But I cannot spare you this view of the "cockpit":

The "cockpit" of the H1R.

Imagine running down the track with the revcounter straight up at 9000, going 255 Km/h towards a sharp 90-degree turn..... Yikes!!

Now it rests on the lift until the next thing happens. We´ll see what the future brings for this old fighter...

Hemma.

This all took place last weekend and during the week nothing happened at all, except for me working and getting stranded in Oslo due to the major computer fuck-up in Swedish air space last Thursday.
Now it´s another weekend and maybe someting cool will take place.
We´ll see...

The finding of a holy grail, KAWASAKI H1R 1970.

As far as I know, there were only two Kawasaki H1R:s imported through official channels to Sweden during the early years of the seventies. This one, sold by the importer, H Flöter Försäljnings AB, to the famous racing legend, Esso Gunnarsson, here in Stockholm, and another one sold to another famous racer (I´ll get back to his name later...) somewhere in Sweden.

This particular bike were seen at many races during 1970-72 with Esso in the seat. I will post more information about these races as I find out more. It was returned to Flöter in 1972 and bought by yet another racer by the name of Björn Blomqvist from Åkers Styckebruk. He drove it quite a few races until 1974 when his son were born. The bike was placed in a barn, where it sat for more than 40 years...

Last year, Björn sadly passed away, and the family retreived the bike from all the rubble and dust and it finally saw daylight again.

Well, what to do with it? Restore it? Sell it? They posted an ad on the Classic Kawasaki club of Sweden´s discussion forum asking for help with a value and potentially finding a buyer. That´s where I found it...

                                      This is where it was located from approx 1976 to 2016...

In need of some TLC, for sure!

Thick layers of dust and grime.

Some severe rust on stanchions and other parts.

Engine turned over freely, but will need lots of work.

Fairing hanging over a beam.

Out at last.

The dry clutch, So typical for the racers.

The three Mikuni carbs, lids intact!

Original paint on the tank and fairing. Nice!

The bare frame, still on wheels.

                                 These pictures taken by Mikael Berglin, friend of the family.

Well, as anyone with the slightest interest in old motorcycles can understand, my heart jumped a few beats at the sight of this "Diamond in the rough". I needed it, Needed it bad....

The family decided to limit the prospective buyers to very few in numbers. Actually we were only two seriously interested in buying the bike when it all came to happen. The most important thing being the family´s possibility to follow the restoration up close and that the bike would stay in Sweden. All of this could be met by both competitors...

All in all, when it was all finished I was the buyer and a happy one! The other speculant was actually a good friend in the bike restoration business and we will be working closely together on restoring the two H1R:s officially imported to Sweden. Yes! He his the owner of the other one!

My next post will cover the pick-up and initial investigation of the bike.

Stay tuned!