An earlier post introduces my first two-wheeled experience, the Doodlebug.
And here is my complete motorcycle history. I haven't ridden much for 2-3 years for various reasons, but am looking to do some road trippin' and profile streetin' this summer. Got a week's trip around Colorado planned for mid-June. Needless to say, I am happy about the possibilities. After all, I am only 72 years young.
From the Doodlebug in the late 40s until the mid 60s I had no powered bike of any kind. After discharge from the Army in 1965 I returned to work in Detroit. Then somehow the itch returned and the Japanese motorcycle invasion had started. A classic bike of this era was the Honda CB160cc and I got one. It was a '65 or '66 and I remember it with a skid plate and only a kick start. Also I think I had the higher bars as shown on the right picture.
Times really do change. Today, you'd have a hard time finding a street-legal motorcycle with an engine smaller than 250cc. But through much of the '60s, the lightweight class represented a significant part of the market for the Japanese manufacturers. And this bike, Honda's CB160, was one of the machines many young riders lusted after.
Introduced in 1965, the CB160 incorporated trickle-down technology from the rest of the company's line. With the CB160, that updated look arrived in the lightweight class.
For a list price of $530, a young rider got something that looked like a true motorcycle. And the 161cc single-overhead cam, four-stroke twin delivered on that promise, spinning up to 10,000 rpm and generating 16.5 horsepower—enough, the company claimed, for a top end of 75 mph. It managed to get through the quarter-mile in a respectable 18.6 seconds.
I felt boss on this machine, but it was obviously a dink bike with the classic Japanese whine as opposed to my later Harley roar. Interestingly, at the time I thought the Honda CB450 was too much bike to handle.
Thousands of aspiring American motorcyclists marked their passage into the fraternity of "real" motorcyclists with the purchase of a CB160. That be me. Mostly I used it to commute on the Detroit freeways. Tried my first hill-climbing on it and with my wife on the back dumped it in a crazy back flip after attempting to do a hill. Pretty dumb, but I was a novice and we escaped with little damage.
Sold the bike before deserting Detroit for the hippie life in 1968. As part of this life and coincidentally in Rocky Mountain National Park while still on the road and still heading further west, I ran into a couple of young men bikers transversing the country, much as I had done as a 17 year old in a 1955 VW bug.
These guys were both riding on the street cruiser classic of the 60s, a BIG monster upright twin, , the British Triumph Bonnieville 650cc (made from 1959 through '74). How my eyes bugged out at the bikes. It later influenced my motorcycle direction and style as I moved into bigger cruisers. But, dammit, I've never owned one.
After settling in Boulder, CO in 1969, I picked up a Suzuki 125cc trail type bike.
It was sorta like the CB160 which was mackin' its way into the market with the pseudo skid plate and other features. The Suzuki was an early trail bike type although I used it to commute (not very suitable) daily to Denver on a back road past the Rocky Flats plutonium plant. But I did take it up into some seriously rugged and high mountain back country. It had some super low gearing and would pull through most anything.
Lots of fun on this baby. But I became restless and wanted to move forward on my quest for a bigger and better iron horse. I had begun to hunger for an English bike, the classic BSA 441 Victor. This big one-thumper had massive torque and could pull like a tractor. Modified versions were used in serious hill climb competitions.
One day in 1971 I went out to buy one and discovered that the 441 had been discontinued and replaced by a new Victor model in either 250cc or 500cc. I did buy the 250 Victor and while it was a bit of mistake, I ended up with some hardy adventures on this machine. But it was sorta faux off-road iron. Later in the late 70s I had an opportunity to buy a used 441 Victor in fine condition, but in trying to shave an additional 25 bucks off the deal another dude grabbed it instead. One of my life's screw-ups. Do ya remember being poor?
Stay tuned, I gotta go, but will finish this up later.....
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