There are two things everybody should know about the big K's 750 H2 triple. It had a monster engine and it had a Frame made out of wet spaghetti. So who 'd be mad enough to run mid-I0s on it?

 

 

Wow! Check out that paint I gotta get a pic of this. Oh shit -quick, pass the ear-muffs. That thing is loud.

That thing is Eric Shepherd's 750 H2 dragbike and, with Auckland-based drag racer Ken Stolpmann behind the bars, it's good for 10.49 at 124mph on the Meremere Dragstrip.

Eric, from the quaint fishing village of Oamaru in NZ's South Island, started off with a stock H2 triple and ripped off the top end from the base gaskets up and sent the lot direct to Matt Park, a top US dragbike wrench. While that was happening, Eric got stuck into the rest of the bike.

TheH2 runs three 40mm Lectron Pro-carbs pumping C14 race fuel, fired by a Dyna ignition set-up. Three FBG chambers from the States take care of the exhaust.

The gearbox is a five-speed H2 unit with an air-shifter. Eric has hidden the air tank in the cavity inside the swingarm. The clutch is a lock up drag item.

The frame started life as a H2, but has been lowered and lengthened by some 20 per cent. The front end and 18-inch front wheel were pinched from another Kawasaki triple - the 250cc S1 road bike. A steering damper has been fitted, and it's bloody useful! The rear wheel is an 18-inch comp wheel carrying a seven-inch drag slick. The body-work was fabricated by Eric, too.

In the hands of Ken Stolpmann, the H2 scored a second in the National Drags at Meremere 2000, with a run of 12.325s at 121.13mph.lt also won the Best Presented Drag Bike Award at the 2000 Nationals.

So far so good, but until Performance Streetbike comes in audio-rama, that's all you get. 'Cos nothing is gonna prepare you for when Eric walks over and kicks the thing in the guts. It fires, it begins to rattle and it begins to make the most unbelievable noise from the three spannies. No wonder he moved from Auckland to Oamaru-the Antarctic penguins ignore the colour-scheme and can't complain about the noise!