Cw 25 Years Ago September, 1964

CW 25 YEARS AGO September, 1964

ROUNDUP

IF A MAD SCIENTIST INVENTED A time machine and on his first test he blasted back to a newsstand in 1964, he might think his

invention a total failure. That’s because the September, 1964, issue of Cycle World reads very much like a modern motorcycle magazine.

For one thing, the American Motorcyclist Association was under fire. Sound familiar? In Roundup, Editor Joe Parkhurst, who had already incurred the wrath of some AMA

officials by calling for reforms within the organization, made a half-hearted attempt at defending the AMA against charges of “serving to harm motorcycling rather than help it” leveled by a group called the Voice of the Membership.

Then there was Tech Editor Gordon Jennings’ story on supercharging, in which he wondered why. when there was so much emphasis on performance in modern motorcycling, weren’t more manufacturers experimenting with

supercharged engines. A good question still. Perhaps the most interesting feature in that issue was a retrospective on the Moto Guzzi V-Eight, a bike called “the most fabulous racing machine ever built.” Cycle World did a strikingly similar article in April of 1987. Another similarity was the number of pages in the 1964

magazine—84—which is about the size of a modern issue. Of course, there are many giveaways as to the old magazine’s true vintage. One would be the motorcycle prices quoted in the 1964 ads, ranging from $200 to $600. And the ultimate giveaway would be the pictures of Joe Parkhurst. Back in 1964, you see, he had hair.

Ron Lawson