25 Years Ago October 1986

25 YEARS AGO OCTOBER 1986

For anyone who loved variety in a motorcycle magazine, this issue must have seemed heaven-sent. The cover story was CW’s annual Ten Best Bikes awards that described a banner year for Honda, with Big Red victorious in six of the 10 categories. CRs took home the gold in all three motocross classifications (125,250 & Open), the first-year VFR750F scored Best 600-to-800 Streetbike, the Aspencade SE-i did the deed in Touring and the innocuous 200cc Reflex won Dual-Purpose honors. The Radian (Best Under 600cc Street) and Virago 1100 (Cruiser) won for Yamaha, while the Suzuki GSX-R1100 took Best Superbike and the Husqvarna 400 Best Enduro.

• Elsewhere, tests of Kawasaki's new limited-edition Ninja 600RX gave sportbike riders their monthly fix, and the Husqvarna 510 Cross Country four-stroke did the same for dirtbike enthusiasts. For new bies, a comparison of the Honda 450 Rebel Twin and Suzuki 650

Savage Single had a surprising outcome when the one-lunger came home the winner.

• Peter Egan, who loved Triumphs even then, penned a nostalgic

look back at the leg-

endary Bonnevilles of the 1960s. Mike Nicks, meanwhile, waxed ro mantic about the 1986 Bonnie that had been resuscitated one last time by John Bloor, the British in dustrialist who, less than a decade later, would be the force behind the "new" Triumph motorcycles.

• For pure fun, historian Albert D. Manchester took us back to 1910 with an excerpt from "Tom Swift and His Motorcycle." That was the first of 30 Victor Appleton novels that made that fictitious boy-inven tor a beloved and unforgettable part of American lore. Paul Dean