25 Years Ago August, 1973

25 YEARS AGO AUGUST, 1973

Honda's MT250 Elsinore stole the cover, but buried on page 95 of this issue was the first report on a truly revolutionary two-stroke, Yamaha's YZR500 roadracer. The YZR's liquidcooled, reed-valve-inducted inlineFour produced 80 bhp at 10,000 rpm, inciting the caption-writer to exclaim, "This is a screecher if there ever was one!" Perhaps, but then what would he have called today's YZR, which pumps out more than twice as many horses?

• The YZR500 story's subtitle posed the question, "Will this bike end MV's domination of Grand Prix racing?" The answer: not right away. Because turning the page, you learned that Yamaha's star rider Jarno Saarinen had been killed (along with Harley-Davidson rider Renzo Pasolini) in the Italian GP at Monza, prompting the Yamaha team to withdraw for the remainder of the season.

• There was happier news on the international motocross front, as Jim Pomeroy became the first American ever to win a moto of an MX GP Under the new points system, the 20-year-old Bultaco rider's 1-4 fin ishes should have been good for overall victory in the season-opening Spanish 250cc GF~ but a scoring error gave the win to German Maico rider Hans Maisch. Ah, officialdom...

• Lastly, those who think touring cruisers are a new idea would do well to read this issue's road test of the Wixom Brothers' Mob Guzzi 850 Eldorado, which the editors labeled "a bike for crossing continents, not states." Curious, then, that recent Guzzi cruisers have gone by the name "CaIifornia.~

Brian Catterson