25 Years Ago April, 1976
25 YEARS AGO APRIL, 1976
ROUNDUP
When he spotted the photo of the Honda CR125M2 Elsinore on the cover of this month's issue, CW Executive Editor Brian Catterson spun a donut in the doorway to my office. Apparently, the blood-red motocrosser had made a real impact on the "Catman" during his teenage years. "It was the first long-travel Honda, and everyone wanted one," he told me. "Mine was a year older, but I painted it red and modified it with forward-mounted shocks, like everyone did."
• As if that wasn't enough, CW edi tors also put the u~imate Elsinore, Marty Smith's FMF-backed racer, to the test. Which prompted Catterson to recall that even though he grew up on the East Coast, he and his peers spent much of their youth trying to emulate Californian Smith. "He was every kid's idol, like Jeremy McGrath is today," Catterson recounted. "We all wore red-white-and-blue Team Honda jerseys, painted our bikes to look like Smith's and ran the closest number available to his #522 plate."
• Suzuki's RM100 MX related more closely to my own early motorcycling expe~ence, as I rode my cousin's TM75 at every opportunity. And the action-packed photos of 11-year-old Donnie Griewe (whose father Ron would later serve as CW's Senior Ed itor) remain impressive even today.
• Another Suzuki, the two-stroke GT500, rounded out this month's testhikes. "By today's standards, the 500's performance is no longer an eyebrow-raiser" read the copy. "But the bike remains a reliable bargain, in spite of a price increase to $1295." Reliable bargain? Price increase? Sounds like the kiss of death to me.
-Don Canet
