25 Years Ago December, 1975

25 YEARS AGO DECEMBER, 1975

ROUNDUP

Cosmic cover art honored Yamaha's forthcoming 1976 model line as CW took “A Look To The Future.” What did the future bring? A hot new RD—the first 400—and a bit of XS, in the form of the shaft-drive 750cc Triple, the bike that editors declared to be the tuning-fork company’s “first true Superbike.”

• A definite look to the past was the ’75 Norton 850 Interstate, which was labeled a “dinosaur” and an “anachronism” in the test. And that was only the second sentence (the first was “Norton.”). No wonder: Finicky Amals still needed tickling, and the parallel-Twin’s lineage could be traced back generations.

Staffers also wondered if this blast from the past was to be Norton’s last, and reported in detail ailing Norton-Villiers-Triumph’s financial and labor woes.

• Labor woes of a different sort were reported in, “Which Bultaco is Better?” The story pitted a motocross-modified Frontera against an “enduroized” Pursang. It was decided the Pursang was too much work to ride and cost “cubic dollars” to tweak to enduro spec, so the Frontera got the nod.

• Talk about nods: “The TM is dead; long live the RM” was the subtitle in the test of the new Suzuki RM370. Editors felt the bike was so good they thanked Suzuki for finally building a bike like Roger DeCoster’s. The RMs live on, and DeCoster still helps build them for Suzuki.

Mark Hoyer