25 Years Ago September, 1971
25 YEARS AGO SEPTEMBER. 1971
Times certainly change. The cover of this 116-page issue featured a lightweight new Kawasaki sportbike. Nothing out of the ordinary there, except that this one was a 350cc, three-cylinder two-stroke dubbed the S2. The editors loved this downsized H1, calling it a “delightful hot-rod.”
• There was also a road test of a new Ducati. Again, nothing unusual, except that this was the 450 RA a single-cylinder desmo fourstroke dirtbike subtitled, “A set-itup-the-way-you-like-it charger.” Sold wearing racing numberplates, the 285-pound machine could be made street-legal in some states by bolting on the included lighting kit-a predecessor to today’s barely legal dual-purpose bikes.
• Speaking of things Italian, a “History of Aermacchi” traced the former WWII aircraft producer’s roots from the semi-step-through Convertible 125 of 1951 to the 136-mph 350cc roadracing Single of 1970. Owned by Harley-Davidson at the time, the company was later purchased by Cagiva, which today also owns Ducati.
# Elsewhere, a two-page advertisement publicized the so-called “Superbowl of Motorcycle Racing.” This included a roadrace with a $40,000 purse and a moto-cross race on “the toughest course you’ve ever seen right inside the big 2.5-mile oval.” Daytona? Nah, this event was held at the now-defunct Ontario Motor Speedway, a stone’s throw from Pomona, where today’s L.A. Superbike promoters are trying to re-create such an event. Times certainly change, sometimes just not a whole helluva lot.
Brian Catterson
