I heard somewhere that lime green is/was a 'bad luck' colour for motorcycle racers and that Kawasaki deliberately and bravely chose to go with the colour to prove the superstition wrong. (?)

Quote by: David

I heard somewhere that lime green is/was a 'bad luck' colour for motorcycle racers and that Kawasaki deliberately and bravely chose to go with the colour to prove the superstition wrong. (?)

The year was 1968. And the Daytona paddock was buzzing. Kawasaki had just rolled out their A1R racer – and it was painted a scandalous shade of green. At the time, racing was very superstitious, and green – considered extremely unlucky – was a color everyone avoided. By deliberately choosing to use Lime Green, Kawasaki announced to the world that conventional thinking would not be a barrier to the pursuit of new challenges.

Kawasaki's history is a history of challenges, so yes you're right about the Lime Green color being unlucky...

More about Kawasaki's motorcycling history can be found by reading Kawasaki Motorcycles and the Forgotten 50-years Celebration and the latest article about Kawasaki's racing history The History of Kawasaki on the Race Track.

Excellent reply, thank you.
Here's to Kawasaki and their bold thinking

I love the race bikes of the old days, the main difference is with current motorbike races is that then you had no idea who was going to win. Nowadays, before a race starts you can already select three names and know that one is going to win

when restoring my kh400 i changed the colour from blue to lime green and promptly dropped it after hitting cowpoo on my 1st ride out.......so there may be some truth in the unlucky thing.