The curse of the green motorcycles

jimbo


told me that he never rides his kawi to the local biker gay bar ,,,,says it's been bad for his luck.....dont know what color his was...i think pink.....


said he does better when he takes a cab...then gets a ride home from one of the guys......

I've heard it before and usually from the same people that have gremlin bells on their bike.
I haven't crashed since I painted it green, and I'd rather ride a bike with balls than bells, but to each his own :laugh:

I've actually heard a different story of how Kawasakis got green. This was told to me by Bob Hansen, who ran the Kawasaki USA race program from 1970 on. He's deep in his nineties now but still pops by the shop once in a while. Last time we repaired a CR750 fender for him his dog chewed up :huh: This guy has got some AWESOME racing stories I tell ya...
In the late sixties Kawasaki two stroke racers, like the A1R were painted different shades of blue, red and white, along with most other bikes out there. When Bob was taking over the racing program in 1970 they asked him what color he wanted the team bikes painted, and since the obvious blue, white, silver and red were already "taken" by Honda, Suzuki, Triumph and Yamaha, he told Kawasaki (in a stroke of marketing genius if you ask me) he wanted the bikes bright green, "the color of the Sparkles water truck". So they did, it made the bikes really stand out and people liked it, so it stuck.

Is it true? Who knows, but it's a cool story!

I had heard it before and then when I bought my KZ my Girlfriend is like You know green is an unlucky color for a motorcycle. I was like how in the hell do you know? You don't even like motorcycles. This is from the same woman who told me that if I ever bought a bike she'd leave me...LOL That was 3 years and 2 Bikes ago. I guess it's time to start shopping for another one.

dejavoodo41 wrote:

...I guess it's time to start shopping for another one.

That's just great --- leave us hanging! :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

Good Fortune!

Oliver wrote:

Since Halloween is coming up I thought I'd ask about this.

When I was young and started riding in 1985. it was an urban legend in my area that it was bad luck to paint your bike green or ride a green bike. Something very bad would happen to you.
This was a well known and commonly observed superstition for many years in my area. There were no green road bikes around until it started showing up on plastic bikes in the late 80's and newer riders started coming along.

I have kept this superstition to this day mostly because of tradition. But, I will admit that another part of it is not wanting to jinx my luck. (25 years with no major events) I have never ridden and won't ride a green bike.
I do however think that green is a pretty good looking color for a bike. So no disrespect for the people with green bikes.

So my questions are.. Has anybody ever heard of this superstition and what are some of the other motorcycle related superstitions you have heard of?

Yeah.Old motor racing superstition-no green cars allowed on race tracks for a long time.Not sure where it came from,but prolly spilled over into the bike world from there.Japanese companies didnt make a black car for a long time because black is the color of death in many Asian countries.bj

Oh I'm never getting rid of my KZ I used to have dreams about these things when I was a kid. I'd really like to take a Dyna Glide or some similar frame and put a ZX-10 or ZX-12 engine in it. That would be fun for Bike Week and Biketoberfest....LOL

I've crashed a few times, but never on the green bike I had for a couple years.

I believe that in Korea they only write in red when there is a death. I know that there are a lot of customs like that though.

Oliver...what part of the county are you from? I definitely heard the green is bad luck thing when I was a kid....early to mid 80's....in the Cleveland, OH area. A very good friend that I used to ride dirt bikes with told me that.

trianglelaguna wrote:

i have heard of this...in the early 80's green bikes were bad luck....for suzuki,yamahas,hondas......really bad luck........

they knew if you saw a green bike that they were gonna have bad luck all weekend....and nightmares

:laugh: :laugh: Now that's good :laugh: :laugh:
Kaws Rule!

79MKII wrote:

Oliver...what part of the county are you from? I definitely heard the green is bad luck thing when I was a kid....early to mid 80's....in the Cleveland, OH area. A very good friend that I used to ride dirt bikes with told me that.

I live in Clarksville Indiana, Right across the Ohio river from Louisville Ky.

Great discussion guys!

Thanks for that link Patton.

I've actually heard a different story of how Kawasakis got green. This was told to me by Bob Hansen, who ran the Kawasaki USA race program from 1970 on. He's deep in his nineties now but still pops by the shop once in a while. Last time we repaired a CR750 fender for him his dog chewed up This guy has got some AWESOME racing stories I tell ya...
In the late sixties Kawasaki two stroke racers, like the A1R were painted different shades of blue, red and white, along with most other bikes out there. When Bob was taking over the racing program in 1970 they asked him what color he wanted the team bikes painted, and since the obvious blue, white, silver and red were already "taken" by Honda, Suzuki, Triumph and Yamaha, he told Kawasaki (in a stroke of marketing genius if you ask me) he wanted the bikes bright green, "the color of the Sparkles water truck". So they did, it made the bikes really stand out and people liked it, so it stuck.

Is it true? Who knows, but it's a cool story!

+1
think Kevin Camron tells a simaler story in his book about someone running to a hardwear store for green paint.

I have wiped out riding every colour bike…someday I should just learn to stop doing that.:woohoo:

:blush: