25 Years Ago March, 1978

25 YEARS AGO MARCH, 1978

ROUNDUP

Crazy times, the late Seventies. The Japanese inline-Four was in full swing, and one of the finest examples of the time, the Suzuki GS1000, took top billing this month. Testers called the 536pound machine “light,” and praised its handling.

• Next up on the power platter? Honda’s new CBX inline-Six, previewed with tech photos and specs. It’s still cool seeing six header pipes all in a sparkling row. Another Six, Laverda’s much more exotic, dohc Veemotored endurance racer, was topped with downdraft Dell’Ortos and velocity stacks. It must have made such music...

• There was an oddity in Roundup, the Van Veen OCR1000, a twin-rotary machine capable of a 3.8-second 0-to-60 time, which is pretty stout even by today’s standards. Of course,

I haven’t seen too many Van Veen dealers around, so the bike must not have worked out to plan.

• As usual, it wasn’t all streetbikes. Racing made the pages in the form of the Trans-AMA motocross series. This was still a huge deal and, as the story subhead said, “It’s still DeCoster country.” If you don’t know about Roger, then shame on you. Ever heard of Bob “Hurricane” Hannah? He hadn’t earned his nickname yet (it wasn’t in the story, anyway), but won the most motos in the series. It wasn’t enough to top DeCoster though. They don’t call him “The Man” for nothing.

Mark Hoyer