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Took a short ride over to Piqua last Saturday to the Piqua bike fest, There is a historical pic taken in 1914 in front of the local HD shop at that time, and they were conducting re-enactments of the shot. Got in line early, and was in the second pic staged...They carefully counted bikes to match original pic ( 56 bikes IIRC). I was expecting to be in the minority, but I was the ONLY "UJM" there...I saw one kz1000P, and a KZ 1000 motor in a hardtail chop...Made a new riding buddy, we were hanging out on our bikes uptown later in the day, when an older fellow walked up to check my bike out ...the usual "I used to have one of those" type things...He made an unusual comment, and I kinda wanted some feedback...He said " you gotta be careful with those 650's, they will rear right up and throw you off the back". Now, if I "feather" the clutch while going through the gears, I can get the front wheel up mebbe 6 inches, but nowhere NEAR what he described, Not looking to snap my frame being a stupid "wheelie king" , but I certainly want maximum performance...do I need to "raise the bar" a bit? How well do these old girls actually run? Just looking for some frame of reference...Thanx, all!

If you give it too much rpm from a dead stop and let the clutch out quickly the front will lift, but I think you would have to be going berserk to bring it straight up or over. As far as the front raising up when shifting between gears; it may come up just a little if given a full power shift, but certainly not enough to throw you off the seat. Ed

Thanx Ed! I thought it sounded like hyperbole when I heard it, but thought I would ask ....I love a good concensus!

I think he probably confused your 650 with the 750 H2 aka the widowmaker - I've never ridden one myself but from what I've been told they would easily rear over if you got too fresh.

Lots of myths and legends surrounding old Kawasakis. They've somehow gotten faster with age. I've owned 3 H2's with some minor performance work done to them. They would carry the front wheel thru the first 3 gears with no problem, but I never had one just jump up and flip over backwards. Being 2 strokes, they did have a little peak when they came on the pipe. I guess I was always just ready for it.
My favorite line: Nice bike...my buddy/relative/neighbor had one of those...He was killed riding it.

A friend of mine accidentally went vertical on my 550. He popped it up,then came down forward, out of control, but when it rebounded, he took off again and it went over backwards. It surprised me (probably not as much as it surprised him). The pogo affect helped it go vertical. Lost a couple turn signals and I think a clutch lever.