25 Years Ago November, 1972
25 YEARS AGO NOVEMBER. 1972
Fight Those Traffic Tickets!" insisted this issue's main cover blurb. Plugging the first of three citation-oriented articles authored by a retired cop, the crim son lettering contributed to the red, white and green Italian-style cover. A fitting flag motif, as a tasty Benelli 650S pushrod-Twin was this month's road test. Inside, the text read, "The Benelli 650 is defi nitely worth a try for the person who is willing to look at things dif ferently." Unfortunately, the 650 never caught on in America-neither did Benelli, come to think of it.
• Ordinary fare was on the menu, too, in the form of Honda's ubiquitous CB350 roadster. Declaring it a "hard motorcycle to beat," the editors put the popular parallel-Twin through a year-long, 4500-mile test. A "pnority of the good life," it was called, right alongside "a pickup, a new stereo, some new threads, a dirtbike." Sim pler times, the Seventies.
• Elsewhere, readers with a taste for the truly bizarre were satiated by the "Schatzi," a one-off Porsche-powered BMW. This unique custom mated an op posed-Four S-90 engine to a BMW transmission and chassis. Grant ed, the 1638cc engine nestled surprisingly well within the Beemer's frame tubes, but the overall appearance was pretty goofy, what with an apehanger handlebar and upholstered seats bedecked with tall, pointed back rests resembling the Cone Heads from "Saturday Night Live." Of course, the Schatzi's automotive passenger accommodations did lend credence to the term "back seat rider." Don Canet
