February, 1966

February, 1966

CLEARLY, WHAT’S NEEDED here isa time machine, one big enough to bri ng back some quarter-century-old motorcycles.

Let’s start with this issue’s main test bike, a Velocette Thruxton 500, resplendent in blue-painted frame, with silver fuel tank and fenders. (Whatever happened to traditional Velo black and gold?)

Costingall of $ 1240, theThruxton confounded the editors with its reluctance to be brought to life, but they called the bike a “ play racer’s dream.” and hoped that the big, ñshtail-mufñered Brit-bike would be arou nd for many years to come. Velocette went out of business five years later.

Next up the time machine’s loading ramp would be February's sec-

ond test bike, a $600 Bridgestone l 75 Dual-Twin. “A design breakthrough in production motorcycles,” cooed the editors about the Japanese dual-rotary-valve twostroke. “All others will be obliged to follow Bridgestone’s lead,” they predicted. Well, rotary intake valvesdid havean impact fora while, and Bridgestone went on to make an excellent 350, but the company stopped making motorcycles in the early 1970s, concentrating instead on its rubber products.

If there’s any room left in the time machine’sstoragebav, let’s retrieve February's project bike, too. A Ducati 250Single racebike, its modified engine beat out 30 horsepower and revved to beyond 10,000 rpm. Just the thing to go vintage road racing with when we get back to l 99 l. — David Edwards