25 Years Ago November, 1976
25 YEARS AGO NOVEMBER, 1976
This month’s cover story, “Special Feature: Preview '77," gave readers the lowdown on soon-to-be-released hardware from some of motorcycling’s heaviest hitters. Bavarian bikebuilder BMW led the way with its R100RS sport-tourer, a larger-bore R100/7 and big-tanked R75/7. Highlight of the all-new RS was a wind-cheating full fairing that “immediately catches even a layman’s eye and stops a real enthusiast dead in his tracks."Biggest hurdle for potential customers? The bike’s “astronomical” $4800 price.
• “Lo, though I ride through the Valley of the Street Racers, I fear no challenge, ’cause I ride a bike from Willie G. and Co.” What two-wheeler could garner this lofty lead-in? None other than Harley-Davidson’s stunning XLCR. Pet project of H-D styling head Willie G. Davidson, the 10OOcc café racer was deemed “an eye-pleaser” on the merits of its mini-fairing, fastback tailsection and black-on-black paint.
• Other models previewed in this issue included Kawasaki’s “perfectly proportioned” dohc inlineFour, the KZ650, and Suzuki’s GS750 all-arounder. Called “contemporary,” the chrome-fendered, disc-braked GS broke no new ground, but was “carefully refined to meet or beat its older rivals.”
• Finally, on the off-road front, Suzuki’s PE250 enduro was given a 24-hour, 1004-mile Baja workover. “Intact and running strong” at test’s end, the 242-pound two-stroke was deemed “the best mass-produced enduro bike ever built.” Not bad for a first-year effort.
Matthew Miles
