TRIPLE TREAT!
It’s ironic that nostalgia is much better now than it used to be. Yes, looking back fondly on things which were better in the olden days has never been more fashionable, or relevant.
Yearning for the 1970s, 80s or 90s is now common across most areas of life, be it politics (ahem), music, tech or cars. It’s big in bikes too of course, hence this here bike magazine. Call it nostalgia, call it old men dreaming of their prime, the fact is that the stonking superbikes of the 1970s, 80s and 90s have been having a moment for a decade or so now.
I’m not immune of course – I’d love to have a garage with some of the greats from my riding youth parked up, but mine would be more of the 1980s, and yet today I’m going even further back, to the early 1970s. I was still in nappies, but the bike world was going through tumultuous times. Japan was rising, Britain was sinking, and the big four firms were trying to work out the best high-performance engine design.
Should they go with large-capacity inline-four four-strokes like the Honda CB750? Or could big-bore two-stroke multis give the same power in a lighter, cheaper package? What about turbochargers? Was water-cooling essential? Would a Wankel rotary do the job? Each of these layouts would all appear in Japanese machines over the years, before things began to settle down to water-cooled 16v DOHC inline-four
