25 Years Ago July, 1981
25 YEARS AGO JULY, 1981
Riding the bike-boom wave of the 1970s, Japanese motorcycle companies were exercising their engineering might with some high-flying product. One of the most interesting was Honda’s CBX, dubbed on our cover a “Long Range Rocket.” Inside, the 1047cc inline-Six was said to have “Grand Prix glamour and touring chic,” especially with the tidy and sleek detachable saddlebags.
Beside this “rocket” was Suzuki’s “Star Ship Katana.” The Hans Muthstyled early-design-prototype sportbike was fast, handled well and had “real clip-ons, just like the ones Wes Cooley uses.”
If a big Six or a far-out Four weren’t your cup of Japanese tea, then the full test of the Yamaha XV920 V-Twin might have been just the thing. “Think of it as a Virago in a jogging suit,” read the test.
Pavement-pounders were sufficiently covered, but there was plenty of dirt stuff, too. Full tests of the Husqvarna 430CR (“The Out-Of-The-Crate Racer Returns”) and Can-Am 400 Qualifier (“It’s Still Horsepower That Makes Can-Ams Fun”) made the pages, while Honda’s “High-Tech” dirt-track racebike-based on a boredand-stroked CX500 engine turned sideways-was shown with Freddie Spencer leaning upon it in the pits after he failed to qualify for a main event. It wasn’t long before Honda got it right with a new engine in the later RS750 and cleaned up in dirt-track. Spencer made it in racing, too... Mark Hoyer
