Kawasaki Heavy Industries Motorcycle & Engine

Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R, una de las motocicletas deportivas más populares de la compañía

Las Motocicletas Kawasaki son fabricadas por Motorcycle & Engine que es una división de Kawasaki Heavy Industries con plantas en Japón, EUA, Filipinas, Indonesia y Tailandia.^[1]

Historia

Archivo:Kawasaki logo 1961-1967.png

Kawasaki logotipo de 1961 a 1967, el cual aparece en motocicletas de ese periodo.

Kawasaki Aircraft inicialmente fabricó motocicletas bajo el nombre Meguro, having bought out an ailing motorcycle manufacturer called Meguro Manufacturing Co. Ltd with whom they had been in partnership earlier, but later formed Kawasaki Motor Sales.^[2] Some early motorcycles display an emblem with "Kawasaki Aircraft" on the fuel tank.

Durante la fusión de 1962, Kawasaki engineers were developing a four-stroke engine for small cars which ended in 1962 when some of the engineers transferred to the Meguro factory to work on the Meguro K1 and the SG, a single cylinder 250 cc OHV. In 1963, Kawasaki and Meguro merged to form Kawasaki Motorcycle Co.,Ltd.^[3]^[4] Kawasaki motorcycles from 1962 through 1967 used an emblem which can be described as a flag within a wing.

Work continued on the Meguro K1, a copy of the BSA A7 500 cc vertical twin.^[5] and on the Kawasaki W1. The K2 was exported to the U.S. for a test in response to the expanding American market for four-stroke motorcycles in which case it was rejected for a lack of power but by the mid-1960s, Kawasaki was finally exporting a moderate number of motorcycles. The Kawasaki H1 Mach III in 1968, along with several enduro-styled motorcycles to compete with Yamaha, Suzuki and Honda, increased sales of Kawasaki units.