25 Years Ago July, 1978
25 YEARS AGO JULY, 1978
ROUNDUP
"GS750, XS750E, CB750A, R80/7: At the end of the trip, which of these bikes would you kill for?" That was the question editors posed to readers on this month's cover. The answer, discovered on a route that took staffers from CW's editorial offices in Newport Beach overlooking the Pacific Ocean to the desert landscape bordering the Salton Sea and back was the "seductive" Boxer Twin. "For the serious 750 tourer the comparison read, "the BMW is still clearly the best package."
• The late, great Henry N. Manney III penned a sidebar to this on-road adventure. In describing the ride, the “Designated Olde Farte” lamented it would have been even lovelier if 1) everybody would have gotten to the starting point on time, and 2) if the photographer hadn’t arrived short of film.” Some things never change.
• Buried deeper within this issue was a test of the light-and-powerful Kawasaki KX125, scaled-down sibling to the much-praised KX250. Conclusion? “Production is limited, quality is high. Interested buyers better start bugging their dealers now.”
• Speaking of dirt, an evaluation of Works Performance shocks found the custom-built, high-tech dampers worthy of high praise.
“The springs don’t break, sag or rub on the bodies. Even the shock bushings seem to last forever.” A quarter century later, the company is still going strong, with founder Gil Vaillancourt recovering nicely from quadruple-bypass heart surgery.
-Matthew Miles
