Team Green vs the Bumblebee

Submitted by Rich Fowler on September 7, 20095 Comments

Ever wondered how racing Kawasakis ended up green, or where Yamaha’s “bumblebee” graphics came from?

Well I have found the answer! A long time Kawasaki and race team employee named Steve Johnson shed some light on the story when he spoke about origin of the of the famous Kawasaki Green in an early issue of Motorcyclist Retro, now called Moto Retro Illustrated.

Here is the extract as it appeared in the mag.

“We’d sent some H1-R [a Kawasaki road racer based on the H1 triple] bodywork to a local painter by the name of Molly near Kawasaki R&D’s Santa Ana, California, shop, ” Johnson said. “This was probably in 1970, when Kawasaki R&D was basically Kawasaki’s service division. Molly had painted plenty of race bikes and prototypes for us, and he called back saying he had a cool green colour used by AMC (American Motors Corporation) for their Pacer that he wanted to use. We were after something different, something that would stand out, so we said, ‘sure.’ “The parts came back in what is now known as Kawasaki green, and they looked pretty good. “The colour obviously stuck,” Johnson said, “as it’s remained in Kawasaki’s line up till this day.”

Molly’s California based business is still going strong, trading as Molly Designs and is equally famous for creating the black and yellow Yamaha paint scheme used to great effect in the 70s and 80s. Molly’s success was not limited to bikes, as he also created the yellow, orange, and red color scheme that was used by Toyota racing cars for over twenty years.

Nice work Molly!

Speed54

Great story. In racing plumeage, especially motocross, Kawasaki was lime green, Honda eventually became red (Dick Mann’s CB750 at Daytona in 1970 was probably the first all-red Honda, although its GP bikes had red tanks and seat cowlings), and it’s interesting that Yamaha assumed yellow in the early ’70s, because Suzuki probably had dibs on that from the late ’60s. It was only later (much later) that Yamaha became the ‘blue’ brand.
http://twitter.com/farcepest Andy Dustman

The AMC Pacer was only produced from 1975 to 1980, but the Pacer’s predecessor, the Gremlin, was around in 1970, and I do remember that green color. So that Kawasaki green is most likely Gremlin green. Google up some pictures of green AMC Gremlins and you’ll see.
retromotor

To speep54. Yes you are right it was an interesting choice for Yamaha to choose yellow when it was already so linked to Suzuki. Of course here in Australia (and Europe?) the Yamaha motocrossers where white, red and black. Personally I thought the white Yamis looked much better than the yellow American bikes.
Speed54

Yes, I think Yamaha MXers went red/white/black in the mid’70s in Oz, and other markets, as they were the colours for their TZ road racers throughout the ’70s, and the official colour of Agostini’s ’74 Yamaha team. I think yellow remained in the US MX market throughtout the ’70s.
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