25 Years Ago July, 1972
25 YEARS AGO JULY, 1972
"Is Harley-Davidson’s Super Glide for real?” That was the question Cycle World editors asked on the cover of this issue. The Shovel-head-based cruiser was defined as a “what you see is what you get” motorcycle, and what you got, apparently, was a shortcut to a chopper. Who would have guessed that the Super Glide’s styling was so forward-thinking that you can buy a near carbon-copy from any number of manufacturers today? Certainly not me: I was mastering the finer skills of assembling Leggos.
• Remember motorcycle daredevils? CW did, with a profile of “Super Joe” Einhorn, a motorcycle jumper who out-Knieveled Evel with a 144-foot leap, breaking the latter’s then-record 129 feet. Like Knievel’s proposed Grand Canyon leap, Einhorn had a dream, his involving “a Bonneville-type streamliner and two ramps set up on the Utah flats at some absurd distance.” Ah, motorcycle jumperstoday, all we’ve got is a bunch of sand dune-jumping Seth Enslow wannabees defying death for videotape immortality. At least their baggy pants would have been stylish in the Age of Funk.
• Swedish motorcycles have always fared well in desert racing, and the 1972 Mint 400 was no exception. Rolf Tibblin and Bob Grossi won overall on a Husqvarna 400, and a Monark 125 finished third in class. CW tested the latter machine, and called the $900 enduro “expensive.” If they think that’s a lot of money for a desert racer, they should have seen the KTM rally bike I rode in this year’s Tonopah300. -Jimmy Lewis
