25 Years Ago February, 1980

25 YEARS AGO FEBRUARY, 1980

Is it a bird, is it a plane, is it even a motorcycle? Hate to rail on the previous generation, but man, what was the art department smoking when they picked this issue’s cover photo? We’re all for the blurred-background speed shot, but not when the foreground is blurred, too! Fuzzy photo notwithstanding, the focus (sorry) of the cover was Kawasaki’s new KDX175 enduro bike, which broke ground by having a single-shock "Uni-Trak” rear suspension. Prior to that, all but Yamaha’s Monoshocks had dual dampers, including Team Green’s own KX motocrossers.

• Of the four other motorcycles tested in this issue, Honda’s mighty six-cylinder CBX was the most significant. “A better chassis wrapped around the most exciting engine in motorcycling,” read the subtitle, which pretty much summed up the following seven pages.

• On the racing front, an unassuming two-column story in Roundup reported on the inaugural “Superbikers” race at Carlsbad Raceway, the made-for-TV spectacle that attempted to crown the World’s Best Motorcycle Racer and laid the groundwork for today’s Supermoto racing. Though the piece wasn’t bylined, the style was unmistakably that of then-Editor Allan Girdler, who got revenge on the ABC helicopters buzzing the print photographers by running the piece sans photos-and disclosing the fact that Kent Howerton won the race before it was shown on the “Wide World of Sports.”

Brian Catterson