Innehållsförteckning för September/October 2024 från Motorcycle Classics

1974-76 R75/6 For 1974, the 750 received a front disc brake (with dual discs an option), a five-speed gearbox, and electrics upgraded with a 280-watt alternator. But the big news was the introduction of the Hans Muth-designed 900cc R90S and a 900cc R90/6, so the R75 was no longer the biggest capacity in the range. And while the crankcases were strengthened to accommodate bigger cylinder barrels, it’s worth noting that all the “airhead” BMWs from 500cc R50/5 to the eventual 1000cc R100 retained the same stroke of 70.6mm. On the cosmetic side, the /6 inherited a new fuel tank and seat, with an instrument binnacle replacing the headlight nacelle. In fact there were many engine internal upgrades to increase strength and durability (such as needle roller rockers) to accommodate larger…

We vintage motorcycle enthusiasts have a strange habit of referencing our aging motorcycles as if they were living beings. You’ll hear us say things like, “She’s certainly cold-blooded in the mornings, that’s for sure,” or “That motor sings such a beautiful song at red line!” Brand spanking new motorcycles also can prompt us to mix metaphors, which might explain why Cycle magazine’s editors referred to the Suzuki GT-750K LeMans in their May 1973 road test as a bike that was “schizophrenic.” Suzuki engineers gave the bike, then in its second year of production, what Cycle described as “a massive dual-disc front brake,” a feature that also happened to be an industry first. Armed with an exceptionally large brake swept area, the double-disc setup allowed for responsive “right-now!” stopping performance similar…

This story takes you to two destinations: the White Sands Missile Range (known locally as “Wizmer”) Museum, and White Sands National Park. You can easily take in both in a day. I’ve done so twice; once in the mid-1970s when stationed at Fort Bliss, Texas, and again most recently for this article. White Sands National Park is 15 miles south of Alamogordo, New Mexico, and the WSMR Museum is approximately 30 miles further south. The WSMR Museum displays missiles and other military gear just inside the installation’s main gate. WSMR was created in July 1945 at the end of World War II, when the U.S. and the Soviet Union recruited former German Naziparty scientists to advance their space programs. Many were sent to WSMR, along with a hundred German V2…

Going through changes I was more than a little surprised to see in the March-April issue, a photo of my Yamaha R5 taken in 2012, referencing the Grand Marshal Ride at Riding into History. I still have the R5, initially I built the bike in 2009-10 and have updated it over the years. This shot, from 2018, shows the DG heads among other changes. Shortly after, it suffered a failure of the home brewed electronic system. There followed a couple of failed experiments and a lengthy time in the doghouse while other projects took over. Recently, I picked up a Powerdyne system; once fitted she burned both pistons, so a top end refresh is currently underway. But the important thing is that the R5 is still alive and will soon…

A fully enclosed Vincent sport touring motorcycle such as this 1955 Black Prince was a harbinger of the future. So much so, that when the BBC produced a 1950s film adaptation of George Orwell’s dystopian and rather prescient novel “1984,” they chose to mount the Thought Police on a phalanx of the ominous-looking Vincents. Although decades ahead of its time, the storied British manufacturer never got to enjoy the fruits of its labors with its enclosed models. After launching the Black Prince and its stablemate the Black Knight at the Earls Court show in 1954, the cash-strapped company was forced to close its doors just a year later, in December of ‘55. Now, the futuristic, fully clad Vincents are sought after machines and when new, not many made their way…

A few weeks before the May 4, 2024 Quail Motorcycle Gathering in Carmel Valley, California, Scott Dunlavey, now a motorcycle dealer in Berkeley California, got a call from Ricky Johnson. “Do you still have that XR628 we raced in Baja? I’d like to show it at The Quail show.” Ricky had been asked to be The Quail’s Legend of the Sport for 2024. He was planning to appear with two motorcycles: his first championship bike, a 1984 YZ250 Yamaha, and the Baja-raced 1998 Honda XR628, racer. Scott rearranged his schedule and started cleaning up the XR628, making it show ready. Many of the bikes at The Quail Motorcycle Gathering for 2024 were, like Ricky Johnson’s works Honda XR628, vintage race bikes. Unlike older road machines, which usually can be ridden…

“Straight-ahead steering was positive under all conditions, but it was cornering and bend-swinging which best revealed the Velocette’s racing ancestry.” —Road Test, The Motor Cycle “We went to a Velo rally,” remembers Jim Romain. “Including riding to and from the rally, we rode 2000 miles in ten days. I was only tired on one day when we did 350 miles – all back roads. At one point, my friend and I were going up a grade with the wind in our faces. We were flat out on the tanks, throttling up. We looked up and there was a Highway Patrol officer on the side of the road. I eased off the throttle, but I looked down, and I was only going 55 mph. So I lay back down on the…

There was no reason for Suzuki to convert a trio of new GT-750 road bikes into road racers for the 1972 Daytona 200. After all, the GT-750 was, by and large, a bike intended for daily rides and long-distance touring. But not for winning 200-mile road races. However, honor was at stake; Suzuki was the motorcycle marque that, in 1969, made history when Art Baumann, rode a TR-500 Titan to become the first racer to win an AMA Grand National road race on a two-stroke bike. But by 1971 Kawasaki had been competing in AMA road races with a squadron of H1R two-stroke triples, and Dick Mann had won the 1970 Daytona 200 on Honda’s CB-750. Suzuki had to respond, and besides, there were rumors of a Yamaha four-cylinder two-stroke…

What: White Sands Missile Range Museum, 350 Savanna Ave, White Sands, New Mexico 88002, 575-678-2250 and White Sands National Park, 19955 US-70 West, Alamogordo, New Mexico 88310, 575-479-6124. The WSMR Museum is free; entrance to White Sands National Park is $25 per car or $20 per motorcycle. How to Get There: From Alamogordo, head south on US Highway 70. From Las Cruces, it’s north on the same road. Best Kept Secrets: Nearby Alamogordo and Las Cruces, New Mexico, are both interesting towns with fabulous dining opportunities. Be sure to check out Alamogordo’s Space Museum if you pass through town. Don’t Miss: Just about any Mexican restaurant in Las Cruces. Avoid: Not checking the weather before you leave (it can get cold in the winter), forgetting to bring a camera and…

With the end of WWII in 1945, BMW lost its aircraft engine and automobile business, and like many European manufacturers, the company focused on the need for two-wheeled transportation. But European motorcycle sales peaked in 1954, as small cars like the VW Beetle and the new Fiat 500 became more affordable. BMW entered this market with a license built Isetta bubble car, but with limited success: more affluent customers wanted a “real” car. Then in 1960, BMW made a radical strategic decision to focus its automobile division on sports sedans, introducing the “neue klasse” range in 1962. The 1602 and 2002 models followed. Meanwhile, BMW motorcycle sales tanked from 30,000 a year in 1954 to 5,500 in 1957. Development had more or less stalled too, with relatively minor changes. There…

The 2024 Quail Motorcycle Gathering, held May 4 in Carmel, California, was one for the record books. But this wasn’t due to the spectator turnout, the bikes, or other historic factors we’ve become accustomed to seeing at the annual springtime event. It was purely and simply the weather. After a long and soggy winter, spring delivered an unexpected wet slap on the face to The Quail, arguably America’s best motorcycle show. If one had followed the forecast, they’d have been amazed that a spring squall would arrive exactly at the beginning of the event and depart right after. Nature’s perfect spoiler. The aggregate result was attendance of just over 1,000 and a more modest field of bikes (both for understandable reasons), with many machines shielded by either covers or E-Z…

In 1974 in its factory race shop, Ducati built 401 examples of what auction sale prices deem the most desirable of the hundreds of different street bikes it has created — the Ducati 750 Super Sport. At one time or another, I’ve owned three of them, including the one I race each year in the Formula 750 historic race staged at the annual Goodwood Members Meeting. That’s the green-frame 750 Super Sport, Ducati’s first-ever desmo V-twin model — its 750GT and 750 Sport predecessors used valve springs. As such, it’s a close cousin to the factory V-twin F750 racer with which Paul Smart gave himself the perfect 29th birthday present on April 23, 1972, when he won the Imola 200, marking Ducati’s first step onto the global motorcycle stage. So…

Three-cylinder Triumphs and four-cylinder Hondas were fighting for the title of Ultimate Superbike in 1970. But one year later there was a new contender for the title – and it was a Single. The Seeley Condor has acquired an almost mystical reputation amongst classic bike enthusiasts – partly because of the exotic race heritage, but mostly because it is such a rare beast. So you can imagine his surprise when Colin Seeley saw this Condor at a French circuit. “The owner didn’t know who I was,” explains Colin, “but when he realized that I was the man who designed his bike he got very excited and started slapping me on the back!” The Condor was not the first road bike to use the single overhead camshaft Matchless G50 engine. Dick…

Although some people today criticize the front disc brake fitted to the Norton Commando starting in 1972 (earlier models used a twin-leading-shoe drum) for a lack of bite, they were highly regarded when new and considered superior to the drum brake setup. It’s important to remember that 50-plus years of development has resulted in performance levels today never dreamed of in 1972. Former Norton employee and now Barber Museum restoration expert Brian Slark notes that when Norton introduced its disc brake, “Britain still had streets paved with cobblestones and wood blocks sprinkled with tramcar lines everywhere, and the last thing you wanted was to send a rider skidding down the road when he squeezed the front brake.” That doesn’t mean the Norton disc brake was without issues, however. Similar to…