25 Years Ago June 1985

25 YEARS AGO JUNE 1985

Battle of the 100Horsepower 750s: Yamaha's High-Tech FZ vs. Suzuki's Featherweight GSX-R" screamed this month's cover.

"For sheer performance, the GSX-R can't be beaten. It's quick er and faster than the FZ750, if not by much," concluded the comparison. "But if you're look ing beyond a race, or past the Sunday morning ride, the FZ750 is the best sportbike available."

• Also tested in this issue: the Honda VT1 100 Shadow ("The latest chapter in America's V-Twin love affair") and KTM 500 MXC ("The shortest distance from the track to the trail runs through Austria").

• Peter Egan trav eled to Ireland wit~ his wife, Barbara, and it's no wonder that the resulting six-page feature, "The Emerald Tour: Ireland on Five Gallons a Day," remains a Q~ favorite. "It's fascinating to wander the streets of a for eign town and imagine your great grandpar ents walking down to the docks and sailing off to a new life in America," Egan wrote. "My own relatives ended up in Minne sota, apparently because Ireland wasn't cold enough for them, or had too few mosquitoes."

• Retiring 64-year-old Harley-Da vidson factory race-team man ager Dick O'Brien was profiled by Dave Despain. "O'Brien was the general who led his orangeand-black-clad troops of HarleyDavidson against a succession of European and Japanese chal lengers," noted Despain. "His brigades turned back Norton, Triumph, BSA and Yamaha before meeting the fiercest adversary of them all-Honda."

Matthew Milles