Cw 25 Years Ago December, 1966

CW 25 YEARS AGO December, 1966

ROUNDUP

SURELY, THIS ISSUE'S COVER, which showed a Hodaka Ace 90 splashing across a Baja creek, stirred the adrenal glands ofCW's readers. Inside, we detailed the cross-country exploits of Frank Wheeler and Marvin Foster, as told in the feature “Baja and Back." Another feature, titled “Ducati History," traced the Italian marque’s rise from the post-war ashes to its status in 1966 of being “one of the most modern of all motorcycles being produced today." Little did we know at the time, but the vast majority of European makes that filled the pages of this issue would fade into history, with Ducati among the few still cranking out motorcycles into the 1990s.

Included among this issue’s road tests was a report on the Kawasaki 250 Samurai. We were impressed

with the Samurai’s very compact rotary-valve, two-stroke Twin, saying, “Performancewise, the Samurai is a match for most motorcycles around, regardless of displacement."

Nowadays, Kawasaki builds the KR 1, a streetable, 250cc twostroke Twin, and it, too, is a match for most motorcycles around. Though such twostroke street machinery is forbidden in the United States, all is not lost: You can still fire up your favorite two-stroke dirtbike and go smokin’ through the creeks of Baja.

Don Canet