25 Years Ago February 1987
25 YEARS AGO FEBRUARY 1987
Wow, a fold-out ad inside the front cover for the Hurricane 600! Even the Ninja knows that all things must hide from the Hurricane...
Technical Editor Steve Anderson reported in from Japan, where he rode all the cool little 250 and 400cc race replicas: CBR400R, GSX-R400, FZR400...and predicted we’d have these bikes in the U.S. very, very soon. He was right about the amazing little FZR, the first bike they turned yours truly loose upon when I reported for duty at Cycle magazine in late 1988. 14,000 rpm! Wheeee!
•European Correspondent Alan Cathcart was just beginning to spread his prolific wings, ringing in with news of the Bimota YB5, Rocket Ron Haslam’s Elf GP bike and the Eurovespa rally in Barcelona. And that’s not all. Sir AI also penned a six-page feature about the Honda RC181 racer, including spinning a few laps around Donington Park on the bike even Mike Hailwood couldn’t tame. Not to detract, he wrote, “but I honestly feel that anyone who races a modern GP bike has to cope with a device that is at least twice as fearsome as the RC181 Honda.” But wait, there’s more!—a Race Watch feature wherein Cathcart rode Eddie Lawson’s championship-winning Yamaha OW81/B.
•Open-class MX comparo: CR500R vs. KX500 vs. YZ490: “With careful use of the throttle, a reasonably strong desire to win, and the proper riding skills, a CR500R rider is destined to take many checkered flags. Even if his bike might scare him a few times along the way.”
—John Burns
