25 Years Ago March, 1968
25 YEARS AGO MARCH, 1968
This was not the best of years for Americans. Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King both were shot to death: the U.S. Navy’s intelligence ship Pueblo was captured by North Korea and its crew imprisoned: and campuses everywhere reverberated with loud music and the sounds of student unrest. Fortunately for those seeking shelter from the storm, Cycle World was offering covers like this one: Publisher Joe Parkhurst’s Ferrari GTB posed with the MV Agusta 600cc Four. A roadtest of the MV appeared inside; this strange-looking 600 turned a 16.41-second quarter-mile.
• One of Cycle World’s weirder tangents showed up in this issue: It was a story titled “Snowmobiles,” which examined those odd creations, and reckoned that motorcycle dealers ought to sell them.
• In 1968, Jawa was a force in the motorcycle business, and this issue of the magazine carried a story about that firm’s offerings, including a brutal 402cc cross-country machine. These days Jawa fights for its life in Czechoslovakia, offering—if only as bait for investors-interesting prototype motorcycles.
• Stories on vintage bikes and riders are not new to CW's pages, as a piece on 1920s race champion Ralph Hepburn in this 1968 issue illustrates. A member of HarleyDavidson’s famed “Wrecking Crew,” Hepburn raced and won on dirt tracks, board tracks and speedway ovals. —Jon F. Thompson
