Cw 25 Years Ago April, 1965

CW 25 YEARS AGO April, 1965

ROUNDUP

WITH ALL OF THAT DISplacement the engine simply won't take 'no' for an answer. Turn up the wick and you get action.”

What motorcycle were the editors of Cycle World talking about in their April, 1965, issue?

It was, of course, the ZX-11 of the time: a Harley-Davidson Sportster XLH. The Harley’s performance numbers backed up that kind of praise, too. With a top speed of 98 miles per hour and a quarter-

mile time of 15.5 seconds, the Sportster was one of the world’s most-potent production motorcycles. And even though the road test pointed out that the XLH was a tick slower than the sportier XLCH model, it assured readers that the XLH was in no danger of “getting shut-down by an upstart 250.”

That was humor, in case you didn’t recognize it. Unfortunately, the editors weren't laughing a few months later when the 1966 Suzuki X6 Hustler was ieleased. The 250cc X6 turned a 15.3-second quarter-

mile, and had a top speed only 6 miles per hour slower than that of the Sportster.

But Cycle World wasn't totally offbase in the prophecy department. The April issue predicted "a big one" from Honda that would displace 440cc and have torsion-bar valve springs. Obviously~ the rumor mill had spit out news of the CB450,

a bike that would be the biggest story of the year. Japan was prepar ing to storm the industry on the performance front, having already won the economic war. And al though that struggle would last years, the outcome was already be ing determined back in 1965, when bikes like the X6 and the CB450 were just coming off the drawing board. Ron Lawson