Shock waves
The 1970s produced the type of wild innovations that made choosing the most memorable dirtbikes of that decade (ADB #493) a subjective exercise if ever there was one. Some choices you might have agreed with and others you would’ve denied with the passion of a born-again God botherer. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Mercifully, by the 1980s the factory engineers had put away their scatter guns and were spending more time on what was known to work and less on exploring the envelope, but it did happen. Dirtbikes advanced in leaps and bounds, with monoshock linkage suspension (as opposed to Yamaha’s Monocross) pioneered, lightweight four-stroke engines built and the first adventure bikes released.
The odd black sheep still popped up but, let’s be honest, it was the decade of big hair, leg warmers, Dexy’s Midnight Runners, The Proclaimers, the Holden Camira and Lada Niva. It wasn’t just the bike factories stuffing up. So here
