Letters

LETTERS

CB750 Four-ever

Your articles, “The Four: The Birth of a Legend” and “Riding the Legend” (CfF, January 1989) brought to mind many wonderful memories for me. When the CB750 hit the market, I was a mere 20 years old and had been riding “real” motorcycles (Harleys and a variety of English bikes). The new Honda’s exhaust note was really different from anything else on the street. . .quite a hysterical howl compared to the Singles and Twins I was used to.

In the spring of 1970, I hocked my soul and purchased a new goldand-black CB750. Never in my life have I owned a motorcycle that drew attention like that one did. Young people, old people, women and children would stop to gawk at the four pipes and gleaming paint.

My closing testimony is this: You are fortunate to have ridden one of the purest motorcycles to come out of Japan. It truly was the first bike that would go fast, use little oil, start every day, stop well and had lights that worked all the time.

James Buck

Helena, Montana

I enjoyed your “Riding the Legend” story on the 750 Four. When that bike came out, I had a 1967 BSA 650 Spitfire, a piece of crap. I tested a Honda but didn’t like how heavy it felt. But it was fasti Christopher Kneer Mawahawkin, New Jersey

Has it been that long? Twenty years since the CB750 ravaged my adolescent senses, pitting me against a stingy bank loan officer until I could finally ride out of a showroom with my very own fire-breathing, “take a Triumph out to lunch” machine?

Your articles not only showed us all that Cycle World knows where we came from (and where we are going), but you grabbed my soul firmly enough to well up that place deep in my memory that never sleeps.

Stan Chiras

Story, Wyoming

There are probably more than a few of us who have been riding 30 or 40 years who think motorcycling took a giant step backwards in 1969.

I rode one of the new Honda 750s when they first came out and all I can remember is that it was cumbersome and very heavy up front. There’s no way that I would have preferred that hyper-Honda to an agile, lightweight European big Single or Twin.

Eiden Carl

La Mesa, California

Who’s fooling who

I read with some amusement the editorial, “Tools for Fools,” by Steven L. Thompson in the November 1988 issue. Let’s see, a new 1986 Concours can still be found at most dealers for $5000, inadequate manual and cheap tools included. A new K100 would set you back about $10,000. That comes to about $5000 for a decent book and tools, and you wind up with an inferior motorcycle by any objective assessment. I guess “tools for fools” sums it up pretty nicely.

Steve Moseley

Bremerton, Washington

Well, Beem us up

Shame on you, Peter Egan! You, of all people, should know that “Bimmers” (Leanings, November 1988) have four wheels and “Beemers” have two.

Steven Reynen

De Pere, Wisconsin

For better or verse

I’ve ridden Fours from shore to shore, I’ve had Singles that give you tingles, but now I’m back, as a matter of fact, I’m grinnin’ ’cause now I’m Twinin’.

Jack Parsons

Akron, Ohio