Cw 25 Years Ago January, 1965
CW 25 YEARS AGO January, 1965
ROUNDUP
TIMES HAVE CHANGED IN THE motorcycle industry over the past 25 years. CW's January, 1965, issue, like most motorcycle magazines back then, was illustrated by mostly black-and-white photography. Inside color photos were so rare that running one was a celebrated event.
Hence, that issue’s centerfold, an action shot of World Champion Jim Redman on his Honda 350cc roadracer, was dubbed “A Cycle World Color Classic.”
Readers of a quarter-century ago also learned of Louis “Speedy” Babbs, one of the all-time great “Globe of Death” riders. At circus sideshows and carnivals throughout the Western Hemisphere, Speedy would ride his Indian motorcycle around the inside of a sphere constructed of interlaced bands of steel, often igniting a magnesium flare that would trace the motorcycle’s intertwining trail of gravity-defying loops.
Advertisements in that 1965 issue point out one of the differences in the motorcycle industry then versus now. With U.S. demand for bikes ahead of production capabilities, both Suzuki and Yamaha had opened new main offices in the United States, each in the Los Angeles area. Business was so good, one ad said, that a new Suzuki dealership had opened for every workday in the year—plus a few weekends.
Yamaha, too, was expanding rapidly, publicizing a 4000-mile/90-day warranty for every new machine. The warranty would be honored only if the owner had returned his motorcycle to an authorized Yamaha dealer for both the 500and 1000-mile tune-ups; not too difficult a chore, as both services were free. Yes sir, times sure have changed.
—Doug Toland
