25 Years Ago July, 1983

25 YEARS AGO JULY, 1983

ROUNDUP

Perched high above the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco were the Honda Aspencade and Yamaha Venture Royale full-dress tourers featured on a "gatefold" cover. The Yamaha was considered the first real direct competition for the Gold Wing and was decked out with all the amenities that marathon touring requires. The winner of the comparison was a surprise upset by the Yamaha. Editors wrote: "It is a carefully refined improvement on Honda's Gold Wing. It is for a variety of reasons a better touring bike, though the gap is small."

•Technical Editor Steve Anderson wrote an article about motorcycle suspension. In par ticular, he described how les sons learned in motocross were benefiting the entire industry with trickle-down technology and that streetbikes and roadracers were reaping the rewards. Further details of a suspension system's inner workings were covered extensively.

• Editors got down and dirty with Honda's new XR500R four-stroke off-roader, concluding: "So here it is. The best custom Open-class four-stroke racing bike made." At the other end of the spectrum was Suzuki's RM1 25 two-stroke racer.

• The long-term wrap-up on the staff's Yamaha 650 Seca Turbo described 10,000 miles of abuse that simply didn't faze the bike one bit. Proving that the latest technology offered not only more performance but amazing reli ability.

Blake Conner