Bitter Sweet Day New N1K

[Guth_imp]

If I were to buy a Kawasaki I would insist that it be green if that were one of the available colors. Etched into my mind from my youth, a Kawasaki in any other color almost seems wrong.

I definitely associate red with Hondas — "Ride Red!" (even though I own a blue Hawk GT). I also associate yellow with Suzukis and Yamahas (although blue has crept into this equation more and more). But Kawasaki, with its green, trumps them all when it comes to color/brand association. It works both ways: I really liked the antifreeze-like green that Honda offered the 919 in a decade or so ago. But it seemed so strange to me that it wasn't a Kawasaki.

[url=http://accelerate.presspublisher.us/issue/issue-6-2010/article/green]How Kawasaki Got Its Green

[CIP57_imp]

I like Kawasaki's, but not that green. Enjoy!

Shhh, Eddie Lawson may be listening.

[the Ferret]

I think the color thing came from the early years of motocross, where it was easy to identify bikes simply by the color of the plastics Honda went with red, Kawi green, KTM orange, both Suz and Yam chose yellow early on, but Yam changed to blue, Husky white, and it eventually bled over into street bikes, especially when sport bikes started wearing lots of plastic.

[Ack-CB11_imp]

Love the green.

[CIP57_imp]

Here's a pic with a real camera:

[url=http://s1034.photobucket.com/user/cipolla57/media/DSC_2788_zpso3x1ozwd.jpg.html]

[furious_blue_imp]

I think the color thing came from the early years of motocross, where it was easy to identify bikes simply by the color of the plastics Honda went with red, Kawi green, KTM orange, both Suz and Yam chose yellow early on, but Yam changed to blue, Husky white, and it eventually bled over into street bikes, especially when sport bikes started wearing lots of plastic.

I remember reading, way back when, that one of the reasons why Honda chose red was that it was determined that red was a color that still looked good even after a bike has been splattered with mud in the off-road arena..

(it was written in Cycle magazine somewhere in the early 70's (?))

sounds plausible !