Cw 25 Years Ago October, 1965

CW 25 YEARS AGO October, 1965

ROUNDUP

TRYING TO DETERMINE THE identity of the first true Japanese superbike has the potential of leading into lots of arguments, and one of those arguments might be that the first machine to truly deserve that title was Suzuki's incredible X-6 Hustler, a road test of which was featured in Cycle World's October, 1965 issue.

Hustle is just exactly what this little 247cc rascal did. Its 92-mph top speed may be wimpy by today’s standards, but its 15.3-second, 84mph quarter-mile performance was more than respectable for its time, particularly considering that a Triumph TR-6 tested in that same issue, all 649cc and 70 additional pounds of it, cranked to a top speed of 99 miles per hour and exhibited quarter-mile performance of 88 mph in 15 seconds flat. Do you begin to sense the genesis of a pattern here?

Lots of other great stuff in that issue, including a history of BMW, a look at a supercharged and fuelinjected Honda Hawk dragbike, and maybe best of all, a story which tells us how to prepare for a touring ride. This piece advises us to carry an extra masterlink and to lash our stuff to the backs of our bikes with bungee cords. For those of us without full-on touring

rigs or luggage-equipped sport-tourers, the advice on packing holds true even today. One meaningful difference is that we rarely need spare masterlinks these days. Just as well. —Jon F. Thompson