SWINGING SINGLES: A PAIR OF BULTACOS

There was something special, even magical, about Grand Prix motorcycle road racing in the 1960s that makes it so unforgettable to this day. Engines of that era led to cutting-edge technology, creating some of the most incredible race bikes ever.

While British warhorses from the 1950s, powered by archaic single-cylinder 4-stroke engines flinging massive pistons the size of coffee cans, continued populating the grids in the 350cc and 500cc classes, change was nevertheless in the wind. And the wind blew both from the West and from the East as engineers, especially in Italy and later Japan, perfected the art of increasing engine performance by upping the number of cylinders found on those race engines. The Italians fired the first volleys in the 1950s when Gilera and Moto-Guzzi determined that more cylinders generally equated to more power … and speed. Moto-Guzzi even built a V8!

By the 1960s, MV Augusta had inline triples and fours, and shortly thereafter from the East came Honda, closely followed by Yamaha, Suzuki, and later, Kawasaki (the latter three marques using 2-stroke technology that helped usher in the rotary discvalve intake concept). The multi-cylinder rockets from the Orient ceremoniously sprouted cylinders in every which way; Yamaha favored V4 layouts while Suzuki seemed more comfortable with square fours; Honda spread its 4-stroker pistons and cylinders all in a