25 Years Ago February, 1968
25 YEARS AGO FEBRUARY, 1968
Beautifully back-lighted on this issue’s cover was the new Yamaha DT1 dual-purpose bike. This versatile 250cc Single helped kick off a dual-purpose craze that would soon sweep the nation. Within a few years, more than half of all new motorcycles sold would be on/off-road models. Today, well into the age of specialization, the genre’s popularity has tailed off, with about 11 percent of the overall market.
• DT1 riders who wanted to go racing could purchase one of the bestnamed accessory packages ever. The company’s GYT kit (for Genuine Yamaha Tuning) added 1500 rpm, 8 horsepower and 15 mph, turning “a pleasant, docile engine into a rather feisty screamer,” we said.
• Motocross was another form of motorcycling that was just taking off in the U.S. 25 years ago. This issue detailed the visit of European MX stars Roger DeCoster, Joel Robert and Dave Bickers-all members of the powerhouse CZ team-who gave Americans lessons in the art of dirtbike riding during a series of demonstration races. DeCoster was particularly stylish, wowing fans with his spectacular “cross-ups” over jumps, a maneuver soon imitated by every kid with access to a Sting Ray bicycle and a mound of dirt.
• The British motorcycle industry still had a few years of glory left in 1968, though the handwriting was on the wall, evidenced by this passage from the test of BSA’s best roadster, the 650 Lightning: “The BSA displays a severe lack of the evolutionary development apparent among other machines-from Germany, Japan and Italy.”
David Edwards
