25 Years Ago October, 1980

25 YEARS AGO OCTOBER, 1980

This issue featured the fifth annual Ten Best Bikes balloting with a six-page feature hailing the victors. Suzuki's mighty GS1 100 took Best Superbike honors, boasting a sizable performance advantage over the competition. It's interesting to note that the big Suzuki's thenuntouchable 11.39-second quartermile time is now eclipsed by even the mildest modern middleweight sportbikes. Offering further perspective on how far we've come, our Mid-Sized Streetbike winner-the Kawasaki KZ550-ran a mid-i 3second quarter-mile.

S Times have also changed in regard to the general public~s perception of motorcycle riders. The lead para graph in a story covering the inaugural motorcycle roadrace held at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, painted a picture of town folk closing the storm shutters and hiding their daughters. This fear was fueled by local newspaper headlines such as, `~Cycle Invasion Strikes Fear at Elkhart Lake.'~ Businesses-including bars-were closed and riot police were even brought in. As it turned out, the race fans were okay, and even good for the local economy.

• Heck, some riders manage to be a positive role model for kids. Marty Moates falls into this category. A privateer motocross racer at the time, Moates crashed while leadin.g the USGP at Carlsbad, picked up his bike and came back to sweep both motos,. becoming the first American to win the prestigious event.

Don Canet