Car and Motorcycle

The V-twin design found widespread support even in the early days of motorcycle development, largely because it fit the shape of the bicycle-style frames used on motorcycles at the time.

By 1907, Harley and the Davidson boys displayed a prototype V-twin engine for their motorcycles. When Philip Conrad Vincent (the maker of Vincent Motorcycles) decided to add another cylinder to his Comet and create the first Rapide, the two cylinders together formed a traditional V. And when the Japanese got serious about building American-style cruisers, their engine of choice was the V-twin.

Modern manufacturers build V-twin motorcycles for a variety of reasons; some are practical and objective, while others, like tradition and style, are purely subjective.

" A V-twin engine is a two-cylinder engine with its cylinders splayed out in a V shape. "

V-twin engines vary widely in their characteristics. Some designs, like Harley-Davidson’s 45-degree V-twin, vibrate excessively. Some Harley touring models, as well as the Dyna Glide series, compensate for that vibration with elaborate rubber-mounting systems. Other models, like the Sportsters and Softails, just shake away, rider be damned. The reason for this involves the crankshaft design used in all Harley V-twins, but the vibration is also caused by the narrow angle of the V.

Other V-twin cruisers use narrow-angle V engines but also use some sort of system for reducing vibration. Honda uses a staggered crankshaft, which fools the engine into thinking the V angle is a wider 90 degrees. Other manufacturers, like Kawasaki, use heavy counterbalancers.

One characteristic common to most V-twin engines (and all successful ones) is ample torque, especially in the larger models. Riders of high-revving sportbikes often comment on the lack of peak horsepower V-twin bikes usually display, but they’re missing the point. While V-twins usually give away a lot of power up at the top of the power band (which, in the real world, means at triple-digit speeds), they make up for it by offering tremendous usable power at lower RPMs.

On a cruiser with a large V-twin engine, you can probably forget about riding all day at 145 miles per hour, but when you whack open the throttle at lower speeds (like the 65 to 70 miles per hour you’ll usually find yourself riding), you are rewarded with jetlike thrust that sets you back in the saddle.

Honda‘s Africa Twin is another bike that conjures up specific memories for me. Back in 1994, I joined a sportbike mag, and did so with thoughts of ripping round the country on big bhp, hi-spec, race-reps. But just days into the job I was sent on an errand on one of the twin-pot Hondas.

Deemed back then as a big-trailie (the poncey, pretentious world of ‘adventure’ bikes was still some way off). I treated the prospect of riding the 750 with some disdain. A nose bleed-inducing seat height, skinny tyres with knobbles on ’em and a pathetic 62 HP were just some of the numerous discouraging ‘features’ serving to put me right off the bike. I wouldn’t care, it wasn’t long since I’d been earning a living delivering parcels aboard battered old high-mileage sheds. So quite why I was getting a bit snooty about a trip on the Africa Twin, god only knows.



Turns out the 20-odd-mile run was a real education. What a corker of a bike the 750 was. Super comfy, dead easy to ride, torquey motor were just some of the qualities I quickly listed. By the time I was done, I’d added plenty more. No wonder I’d seen so many of these sorts of bikes whenever I’d whizzed over to Europe. Suddenly the Africa Twin made a load of sense, and made me realise there were more bikes to like than just race-reps.

Since then I’ve appreciated a ton of rides on big trailies and pretty much loved the lot. When I met the owner of this one a few years back, I was in a much better position to understand why he liked it so much. Then when he added a few tales of true adventure behind the near 40,000 miles it had on its clock back then, I admired the Honda all the more.




It’s so damned easy to get on with. It might look a bit of a weighty brute, but get those spoked wheels turning and any thoughts of excess are left back where you began. Balance and poise are so evident from the word go, after just 10 minutes you feel so familiar with the bike it feels like you’ve been on it 50 times before. That’s the sign of a very sorted motorbike.

The riding position helps, with bars and pegs meeting the most ideal points of your extended arms and legs. It fits, and I suspect it’ll fit everyone bar freaks of nature. Fitting as ideally as it does, and combined with the shelter the excellent fairing and screen provides, staying in the comfy saddle all day long wouldn’t entitle you to any claims to fame for mile-eating. I might not have done the sort of miles its owner has done on the Honda, but it’s easy to see why he’s been able to cover so many.

You’re never likely to be stressed by the well-mannered V-twin Engine. Its power delivery is best described as soft, and so progressive and linear is the way it builds, it’s probably fair to even label it as polite. Always feeling unhurried you can understand why it only has five gears, and why you don’t need to swap them much. It pays to drop down a cog or two when you’re in town to nip any snatching in the bud, but in the right gear the engine pulls beautifully from bugger all revs.

There’s a bit of vibration if you ask a lot of the engine in the taller gears when it’s running slowly, but only fussy types would object to it. But you’ll not see any blurring in the mirrors and won’t feel anything through the bars. Then as soon as the 750 is spinning more freely it smooths out completely. It’s a very real world and fully usable engine. Short of sheer power it might be, but as it’s so friendly you can use all it has and never feel intimidated. Oh, it’s lovely!




There’s a nice feel from the chassis too. By modern standards its handling has to be described as a bit slow and lethargic. In fairness though, you’ll only really sense that if you’re trying to hurry it through stuff like chicanes. The majority of the time you’ll appreciate the stability it offers, with the feel and feedback being another bonus to help you realise exactly what’s going on beneath you.

Part of that is down to the soft, supple suspension, which also gives good, comfortable ride quality, making bumps feel significantly less serious. It gets a bit flustered if you test its damping too much, but its slight wallowing won’t generate any worry. Hustling this bike might need a bit more muscle at times, but those same muscles won’t often be made rigid with worry : safe and certain is the best way to describe the handling.

You don’t see many Africa Twins on UK roads these days, and it’s a wonder why Honda didn’t do a better job of replacing it when it was dropped in 2003 to be replaced by the lacklustre Varadero – which had been out a few years even then. I reckon it’s one of the best and most endearing Hondas built in recent times... and easily tough enough to trot round the world.

Honda XRV750 Specifications

Manufacturing: Honda (Honda Racing Company)

Model: XRV750 Africa Twin

Year Built: 1989 - 2003



Engine: 4-Stroke, Liquid Cooled, 50' V-Twin, SOHC 6-Valve (3-Valve per Cylinder)

Bore x Stroke: 81 x 72 mm

Cylinder capacity: 742 cc

Fuel Supply System: 2 x Keihin CV 38mm Flatside Carburetor

Compression ratio: 9,0: 1

Transmission: 5-Speed

Ignition: Digital ECU

Max Power: 62 HP @ 7.500 RPM

Max Torque: 62,7 N.m @ 6.000 RPM

Top Speed: 182 Km / h



Dimensions - Length x Width x Height: 2.315 x 905 x 1.430 mm

Wheelbase: 1.565 mm

Seat Height : 860 mm

Empty weight: 207 kg

Fuel tank capacity: 23 Liter



Frame: Aluminium Double-Cradle Frame

Front Suspension : 43mm Air-Assisted Telescopic Fork

Rear Suspension: Monoshock with Pro-Link System, Compression Damping Adjustment

Front Brakes : 2 x 276mm Hydraulic Discs, 2 Piston Caliper

Rear brakes : 256mm Hydraulic Disc, 1 Piston Caliper

Front Tires : 90/90 - D21

Rear tires: 140/80 - R17

In the early days, We're dismissed the Honda RVF750R (RC45) as over-priced and underpowered – as a road bike it was over £17,980 in 1994, when a Kawasaki ZXR750 L1 was £7950. But to judge it as solely a road machine is missing the point.

It was designed, right from the start, to be festooned in HRC race-kit bits and win races – it was built to be modified. The small production run of stock road bikes was just a consequence. The RC45’s job was to win superbike races.

As well as being a much-needed replacement to the aging RC30 in WSBK, Honda badly needed a bike to win the Suzuka 8-hours race. Some say that in the 90s a Suzuka win was more important than a 500GP title and new rules banning prototype machines meant that Honda needed a competitive bike. The machine was an evolution.





The RC45 has gear-driven cams, like its predecessor the RC30, but Honda extensively redesigned the engine to make it more compact and was updated with fuel-injection too. The RC45 won the 8-hours in its debut year, then again in 1995.

Colin Edwards and Noriyuki Haga beat it with the Yamaha YZF750 in 1996, but the Honda V4 won again in 97, 98 and its final year 99, by which time it had a double-sided swingarm, two-into-one pipes up either side of the bike and a very funky Lucky Strike red paintjob.

It was retired when the equally dominant VTR1000 SP-1 V-twin took over. The highlight being a holidaying Valentino Rossi winning on it in 2001. Since 1994, Honda has won 17 Suzuka 8-hours to Suzuki’s two and Yamaha’s one. Kawasaki last won in 1993 with the ZXR-7, the last year of the F1 prototype rules.

The RC45 also won a World Superbike title with John Kocinski, in 1997, and AMA Superbike the following year with Ben Bostrom. Philip McCallen, Joey Dunlop and Steve Hislop won TTs on the V4 too.

Honda RVF750 (RC45) Specifications

Manufacturing: Honda (Honda Racing Company)

Model: RVF 750 (RC45)

Year Built: 1994 - 1999



Engine: 4-Stroke, Liquid Cooled, 90 'V-4 (4 Cylinder), DOHC 16 Valve, Gear-Driven Camshaft

Bore x Stroke: 70 x 48.6 mm

Cylinder capacity: 748 cc

Fuel Supply System: PGM-FI (Fuel Injection)

Compression ratio: 11.5: 1

Transmission: 6-Speed, Close Ratio

Ignition: Digital ECU

Starter: Electric Starter

Max Power: 119 HP @ 12,000 RPM

Max Torque: 75 N.m @ 10,500 RPM

Top Speed: 260 Km / h



Length x Width x Height: 2110 x 710 x 1100 mm

Wheelbase: 1407 mm

Ground Clearance : 130 mm

Dry weight : 189 kg

Fuel tank capacity: 18 Liter



Frame: Aluminium Twinspar Frame, Low Center of Gravity

Front Suspension : 41mm Upside Down Fork

Rear suspension: Monoshock with Pro-Link System, ELF Designed Single Sided swingarm (Mono-Arm)

Front Brakes : Hydraulic discs 2 x 310mm , 4 Piston Caliper

Rear brakes : Hydraulic Disc 220mm, Caliper 2 Piston

Front Tires : 130/60 - ZR16

Rear tires : 190/50 - ZR17

As Japan’s surviving manufacturers are well aware, China is the world’s largest motorcycle market, followed by India in second place and Indonesia in third place. Japanese firms have been making inroads into Asia for many years, in terms of both sales and local manufacturing. From the Suzuki Motor Company’s first overseas motorcycle assembly plant in Thailand in 1967, the manufacturing web of the Big Four (Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha & Kawasaki) makers has spread to developing countries throughout Asia.


The Honda Motor Company entered the lucrative Indian market in 1984 through a joint venture with a local producer, thus forming Hero Honda Motors, Ltd. To date, the New Delhi-based firm has created 2,400 customer “touch points” comprising a host of dealers, service centres, and parts shops throughout urban and rural India. Driven by this well-informed effort to stay connected to its customer base, Hero Honda has been the world’s leading motorcycle manufacturer since 2001. In that year alone it produced 1 million motorcycles – a figure that boosted its total sales history to 5 million units.

The firm’s sales soon doubled to 10 million units by 2004, and in July 2006, pleased with its 48 percent share of the Indian motorcycle market, Honda announced that it would invest an additional US$650 million in a new subsidiary company to expand its production of both motorcycles and automobiles. In a press release, Honda announced that it expected its share in the Indian motorcycle market to reach 7 million to 7.5 million out of a total 12 million units annually.


Faced by such a manufacturing juggernaut, India’s second-largest motorcycle producer, Bajaj, has opted to pursue the world’s third-largest market, Indonesia. Although sales in Indonesia jumped from roughly 1 million units in 2000 to over 5.1 million in 2006, the country now has just one motorcycle for every seven people – compared to one in four people in neighbouring countries. Bajaj therefore sees serious potential in Indonesia and, despite a recent market slump due to inflation and rising interest rates, the company announced in 2006 that it expected to sell 100,000 motorcycles there in its first two years. The Honda, Yamaha, and Suzuki motor companies all have production facilities in Indonesia, however, so Japan’s top producers continue, for the moment, to maintain a greater reach than their Asian rivals.

In the long term, the country with perhaps the greatest manufacturing potential is China. Already by the year 2000, Chinese motorcycle manufacturers had an annual production capacity of over 20 million units, even though the country’s domestic sales then totalled approximately 11 million units per year. Domestic sales are limited by China’s municipal governments, and motorcycle usage and sales are banned in major cities in order to curb traffic congestion, noise pollution, and exhaust emissions. Consequently, China’s many motorcycle producers have been forced to pursue aggressive export strategies – particularly to large developing countries like Indonesia, Vietnam, Argentina, and Brazil. Chinese makers have been less successful in India, Thailand, Malaysia, and the Philippines, however, because those countries’ governments fear that inexpensive (and often illegally copied) Chinese imports will damage their domestic motorcycle industries.

In China itself, Honda Cub - type motorcycles are not as popular as scooter and sport models, but due to the popularity of the Cub type in Southeast Asia, particularly in Indonesia and Vietnam, most exports from China are illegal copies of Japanese Cub-type models. In 2001, Indonesia granted import licences to eighty-seven new motorcycle brands, fifty-seven of which came from China. The quality of these Chinese exports, however, was often very poor.

In a 2001 report, the president of the Association of Motorcycle Industries of Indonesia, Ridwan Gunawan, highlights an important parallel between the development of China’s motorcycle manufacturers and Japan’s postwar motorcycle industry. Gunawan points out that many Chinese motorcycle manufacturers were once government-owned defence companies that produced arms and materiel for China’s military. Over time, many became redundant and therefore converted their operations into vehicle and particularly motorcycle production facilities. Their initial investment cost was low due to their ready supplies of production material, machinery, and trained technicians, and they shortened development time by obtaining licences and forming joint ventures with Japanese manufacturers. But many of these Chinese firms’ local partners later copied those Japanese models without entering into any licensing arrangement with the Japanese patent and design owners.

Thus while the Japanese motorcycle and scooter designs entered the Chinese manufacturing network legally, their illegal replication by unlicensed firms expanded the volume of production tremendously.



The Japan Times reported in 2002 that in addition to China’s 140 licensed motorcycle manufacturers, as many as 400 unlicensed makers were in operation. The article cited a survey by the Beijing office of the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), which found that roughly 90 percent of the 1,300 motorcycle models with engines measuring 125 cc or less sold in China in 2000 were copies of Japanese models. JETRO continues to press China’s government on the issue of the illegal copying of motorcycle designs and their various component patents, but Chinese manufacturers are merely speeding up the product development process. This is precisely what the Japanese firms Fuji and Mitsubishi did in 1946 when they copied American designs to produce their Rabbit and Silver Pigeon scooters, respectively.

Nevertheless, the products issued by China’s unlicensed firms are often inferior to Japanese designs because the firms lack the requisite technical skills to manufacture the components correctly; they often incorporate inferior emission- and noise-control devices; and they use locally made materials and machine tools, some of which do not meet the minimum quality standards demanded by licensing agreements. Despite their lower quality, both legal and illegal Chinese motorcycles appeal to consumers in Indonesia and other parts of Southeast Asia, where they are sold less expensively than domestically produced models. Although Gunawan notes that competition from imports is positive, giving consumers more choice and stimulating domestic industry, illegal import practices such as under-invoicing and tariff-avoidance cheat the government and undermine the competitiveness of domestic producers. China’s entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001 may well obligate its manufacturers to follow rules against intellectualproperty rights violations, but in reality only tougher import regulations and smarter consumer behaviour in other regions will affect the bottom lines of unlicensed Chinese motorcycle makers.

On this front, there is hope for licensed manufacturing. In May 2007, George Lin, the president of the Taiwanese motorcycle firm Taiwan Golden Bee, said that although China’s domestic motorcycle industry is still home to dozens of makers and sellers of low-quality, low-cost, copied products who provide no after-service, consumers in neighbouring countries are becoming savvier. Lin said,

"Several years ago, international buyers were very much attracted to China’s low-price motorcycles and parts, but now users of these ‘Made in China’ products have been scared off by their poor quality and durability."

As a result, noted Lin, most of the importers of Chinese motorcycles, especially in developing countries, have closed down. This leaves competing regional firms like Taiwan Golden Bee in a good position to follow the model set forth by Japanese manufacturers in the 1950s and 1960s. Lin explained:

" Japan offers a good example for us; motorcycle makers there stayed competitive despite increasing production costs by taking the lead in the upper-end and larger-displacement segment with unmatched design, development, and cost-control capabilities, and with the introduction of high-end, high-quality products that rivals in Europe and the United States were not producing. Our manufacturers have equally good competitiveness, and they can make the most of the small-volume, large-variety business model. Our motorcycle makers should take aim at their Japanese rivals and not get mired in segments of the industry that can easily be occupied by price-cutting rivals in emerging countries, especially China."

As Lin points out, Japanese firms were forced to stay competitive by investing continually in new designs and manufacturing systems and taking full advantage of economies of scale. Japan may well have begun its initial postwar boom in scooter and motorcycle production through copying foreign designs, but that is not what kept its industry growing and advancing. Copying alone is a technological dead end that will turn only short-term profits, and firms that rely solely upon copying will ultimately fall by the wayside just as they did in Japan during the 1950s and 1960s.

The pattern of explosive growth and rapid contraction of Japan’s motorcycle industry will ultimately play out once more in China, where the illegal copying of licensed designs by inferior firms will eventually fail to generate significant or reliable returns. Furthermore, Japan’s industrial development is not the only pattern that should be studied as a model for developing nations undergoing rapid motorization: Japan’s comprehensive efforts since 1970 to combat road accidents and fatalities could be usefully applied in developing regions throughout South, East, and Southeast Asia.

The story of the GS, from its unusual origins to the latest world-beaters, has been told for the first time in BMW GS-Series : The Complete Story by carplusmotor...

Just 35 years ago there was no such thing as an "adventure bike". Now, typified by BMW’s market-leading R1200GS, it’s one of the most popular, dynamic and competitive of all the motorcycle categories.

Back in 1980 BMW unveiled the very first GS (or, strictly speaking G/S) – the R80G/S, a machine which, though radical and revolutionary at the time, quickly became so successful it not only spawned a whole dynasty of BMWs but, in inspiring competitors and rivals, created a whole new motorcycling class.


It’d be natural to assume the creation of that first ‘GS’ in the late 1970s – the R80G/S – was the result of some kind of genius epiphany. In truth, it was mostly borne out of desperation.

At that time BMW Motorrad not only had a very staid image (one that contrasts very sharply with the company behind the new S1000XR and latest GSs of today), it was also facing commercial disaster in the face of competition from the burgeoning Japanese "Big Four".


In fact, as the 70s wore on and Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki and Kawasaki grew to dominate not just their traditional lightweight classes but, increasingly, large capacity motorcycling too (with newcomers like the Gold Wing, XS750, GS1000E and Z1300),BMW, with its premium prices, dowdy image and old-fashioned, aircooled, shaft-drive boxer twins was in big trouble.

One solution was already in the works – the all-new K-series; a high tech, liquid-cooled, fuel-injected family of longitudinal fours and triples. But that project was still years away. In the meantime BMW needed something attention-grabbing, affordable and new – and it needed it quick.

BMW GS - Series : Born From Sport

A second idea had started floating around BMW. Large capacity trail bikes such as Yamaha’s XT500 had proved increasingly popular, and although BMW had never commercially produced an enduro, it had been involved in the sport for over 50 years, and in the early 70s had produced a series of ‘works’ machines to compete in both the 500cc+ class of the German off-road championship and the International Six Days Trial.

Indeed, one of its riders – Herbert Schek – won the German championship in both 1970 and ’71 then, in 1972, after the factory pulled out, he built his own BMW-based bike and promptly won again.

He wasn’t alone. In 1975, BMW suspension engineer Rudiger Gutsche also built himself an enduro based on an R75/5 and was a regular on the German enduro scene. There were many others, too.

Things really got going though in 1977, when a pending rule change in the German championship – creating a new class for 750+cc machines – prompted BMW technical director Hans-Gunter von der Marwitz to commission Italian firm Laverda to build two enduro prototypes based around BMW’s R60 engines.

All in all, the following year at the Benetsov round of the series, three different ‘GS concepts’ lined up side by side: Schek with his self-built 800, the "Laverda-BMW", piloted by factory rider Helmut Pohl and Laszlo Peres from BMW’s test department with his own self-built 800 weighing just 142kg. It was Peres who went on to second place in that year’s series.

Spurred by this success, Peres saw an opportunity to develop a production model and teamed up with some fellow engineers to build a forerunner of what would ultimately become the G/S; a prototype that became dubbed the "Red Devil".

"It was just a prototype," recalled Peres later. "Something we made to test. I had many years’ experience of enduro riding so thought we should develop something new."

At the same time the factory itself, still in dire straits, was spurred into action. In early 1979 group boss Eberhard von Kuenheim installed new senior management at BMW Motorrad headed by Dr. Eberhard C Sarfert and Karl Heinz Gerlinger.

"When he asked us to take over this business he said, ‘Decide whether you make it or you close it’," recalled Gerlinger more than three decades later. "But when you’re young, how can you think of selling off BMW Motorrad? I couldn’t do it."

Instead Gerlinger promptly not only gave the green light for the new K machines, but for Peres’ enduro project, too.

The reins were handed to Gutsche. He was charged with turning the best of these competition machines into something mass producible. Tasked with using BMW’s modular approach and restricted by an extremely tight time schedule, the R80 ‘G/S’, as it was to be called, quickly evolved.

A second, silver, almost production-ready prototype complete with upswept exhaust but still lacking the radical Monolever single-sided rear suspension, followed soon after.

Monster Trailies

Finally, on September 19, 1980, at the Cologne Show the R80G/S was unveiled. The reaction amazed BMW bosses, not just because of the level of interest aroused, but by the number of orders taken there and then. By the end of 1981, the G/S’s first year in production, a total of 6631 machines – more than twice the number originally planned – had left the Berlin assembly lines. Or, to put it another way: one in five BMW's sold in 1981 was a G/S. A star was born.

Of course that was only the beginning. Although the original G/S proved a huge hit that success couldn’t be expected to last forever: popularity doesn’t just attract admirers, it breeds imitators.

So, as the 80s wore on, inspired by both the success of BMW’s new enduro and the growing significance of the Paris-Dakar Rally, rival manufacturers from both Japan, and later Europe, began to introduce their own ever larger enduros; machines such as Honda’s XLV750R followed by the XRV750 ‘Africa Twin’, Suzuki’s DR750, Yamaha’s Super Tenere and more.

The new genre quickly became referred to as "monster trailies" and became hugely popular. But it wasn’t just the G/Ss sales success its rivals envied. The parallel growth of the Paris-Dakar Rally and the sporting headlines, kudos and TV airtime – particularly in France – it garnered, were like manna from heaven for any ambitious motorcycle manufacturer.

Success in the Dakar with a big enduro not only led to sales of road-going versions (BMW’s four victories in the Dakar in ’81, ’83, ’84 and ‘85 had proved that), it brought credibility and priceless publicity to a whole brand.

But as the 80s wore on, people began asking for more from the G/S. More power was one request (indeed BMW’s own Paris-Daker racers grew to 1000cc from 1983); increased off-road ability, particularly of the rear suspension was another.

Thus in the late summer of 1987 not one, but two new BMWs were unveiled: a new R80GS and a bigger brother; the R100GS.

Apart from the larger displacement option, the biggest change was the enhanced handling and comfort offered by the radical new Paralever system, which significantly reduced the ‘torque reaction’ from the sha drive.

Further changes came in 1991, in the form of a framemounted fairing carried over from that of the Paris-Daker version/kit introduced for the previous model GS in 1989. But the biggest change so far came three years later. Even before the "second-generation" GS, was put into production, it was clear – not least to BMW itself – that the end was nigh for an air-cooled, two-valve boxer-powered GS. Not only was the competition becoming ever-more fierce, increasingly strenuous noise and emissions regulations were becoming impossible to meet.

So, by the early 1990s the imminent arrival of an all new, oil-cooled, four-valve BMW boxer powerplant was common knowledge. It duly arrived in January 1993 with the R1100RS sports-tourer. Eight short months later the enduro version – the R1100GS – was unveiled.

A New Front End

The oil-cooled engine wasn’t the only big news. The ‘frame’, such that there was, came in three parts: the engine and gearbox housing was to form the central element, onto that bolted the front and rear subframes. But while the rear suspension was a mere evolution of Paralever, the system at the front was more radical. Instead of conventional telescopic forks, the new GS’s front wheel was controlled by a revolutionary suspension system called ‘Telelever’ – effectively a combination of telescopic forks and a swinging arm.

Once again this bigger, more imposing machine was an instant hit. In Germany, the GS’s most important market, it instantly became the country’s fifth bestselling machine.

Of course, even then that wasn’t the end of the story. Six years later, after selling more than 40,000 examples, the R1100GS was replaced by the R1150GS; an evolution of the 1100, with an even larger engine, new six-speed gearbox, a host of detail revisions and a significant (and controversial) facelift.

There was also a more significant difference: two years after the 1150, BMW launched the first ‘Adventure’ version. They couldn’t have imagined how significant it would become.

Inspired partly by its ‘Paris-Dakar’ forebears, but also by the GS’s growing following among long distance ‘adventure’ travellers (hence the name change), the new Adventure used a familiar recipe: to enhance the GS’s off-road capability plus improve its long distance ability both in terms of comfort and endurance. Key differences, therefore, were a new, extra large, 30-litre fuel tank, longer travel, off-road suspension, anodized wheels, larger windshield, single-piece seat and sturdier oil sump guard.

The Adventure was also the machine that leapt to fame in TV’s Long Way Round, with British actors and friends Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman in 2004, the success of which has been accredited for increasing both the popularity of the adventure bike class and the GS in particular.

Once again it didn’t end there. In 2004, the 1150GS was replaced by the R1200GS which, for the first time, was lighter and more agile. While this in turn was followed by a new Adventure version, which again was popularized in McGregor and Boorman’s TV follow-up, Long Way Down, in 2007. By now the GS was an almost unstoppable force.

But if the success of the GS series has proven one thing more than any other, it’s how adept BMW has been in successively reinventing its wonder machine to keep ahead of the pack.

In 2007 – three years after its debut, during which over 75,000 examples were produced – the R1200GS underwent a significant update. Further updates would also come in 2010 joined later by a series of limited edition specials.

Then, in 2013 – eight years on from the original R1200 – came another, all-new GS; the first with watercooling. Like all its predecessors, the latest incarnation was unequivocally a success. In the first magazine tests the new bike instantly reasserted its dominance of the ever-more competitive ‘Adventure’ class. While in group shootouts, against the very latest new rivals from the likes of KTM and Aprilia, the new GS invariably came out on top. No mean feat for the ‘granddaddy’ of adventure sports.

Today, the GS remains one of the world’s bestselling machines, and is still the definitive adventure bike, despite more competition than ever. It’s also one of the machines that best typifies modern motorcycling and, through its evolution over its 35 year lifespan, best demonstrates how modern motorcycling has evolved. Without the GS, motorcycling simply wouldn’t be the same. Without the G/S there probably wouldn’t be BMW motorcycles.

The V-Fours (V4) Engine

When Honda introduced its water-cooled V-four engine bikes for the 1982 model year, pundits predicted the demise of the inline four. It seemed reasonable at the time. These engines have exceptional power characteristics, providing good torque figures and more than adequate horsepower. Plus they are one of the smoothest engine designs in existence.

This engine design has become something of a standard - powering a variety of sportbikes, cruisers, and touring bikes - but it never came close to replacing the inline four. That was probably due to the expense of manufacturing such a complex engine design rather than any inherent flaws with the concept. In service, these have proven to be remarkably reliable motorcycles.

" A V-four engine is an engine with four cylinders arranged in a V-shaped configuration."

If you are in the market for a used motorcycle, a bike with a V-four engine is a safe bet. These bikes have been nearly indestructible. I have a friend who has 125,000 miles on his 1985 Honda 700 Magna as I write this. By the time you read it, he will probably hit 150,000 miles.

Inline Six Engine

For a few years in the mid-1970s and early 1980s, a few manufacturers fooled around with inline six-cylinder motorcycle engines, but these proved to be oddities, footnotes in the motorcycle history books. The odds of you stumbling across one of these beasties by chance are slim; most such machines are now the property of collectors.

"An inline six-cylinder engine is an engine with six cylinders in a row."

The Italian company Benelli produced a 750cc six-cylinder bike, but like many Italian bikes, this is one you’ll probably only see in pictures. More common were the big Sixes produced by Honda and Kawasaki. These were functional motorcycles, but both were victims of their own excess. The width of those six-cylinders just proved to be more bulk than would comfortably fit down in the engine bay, and handling suffered, especially on the water-cooled Kawasaki, which weighed nearly as much as a small car. And if four-cylinder engines are complex to maintain, sixes are absolute nightmares.

The Gold Wing - Flat-Six Engine

The engine Honda uses in its Gold Wing touring bikes is so unique, it doesn’t fit into any other category. The only thing comparable to the same inline six-cylinder version is the engine Porsche's uses in its 911-series. This is a flat, Boxer-type engine, with four or six liquid cooled cylinders, rather than two air-cooled cylinders, like BMW uses. The flat-four and flat-six-cylinder engines used in Honda’s Gold Wings are called flat because their cylinders are arranged in a flat, opposing configuration.

"When Honda introduced its Gold Wing in 1975, it created a new class of motorcycle : the luxury tourer."

These are the smoothest engines used in motorcycles, period, and are a major part of the Gold Wing’s appeal to the touring crowd. They also have a fairly centralized mass, which makes the entire motorcycle easier to maneuver. I’ve seen Gold Wing riders whip their bikes around as if they were riding sportbikes instead of ultimate behemoths weighing twice what the average sportbike weighs.

Bored of waiting for impressive new Hondas ? Then look to the past, for the glorious V-Twin Honda VTR 1000 SP2.

When Honda decided to follow the Italian herd, not bothering to homologate its RC45 further, and build a v-twin machine, Honda VTR 1000 RC51 to go racing, things initially didn’t go well when the racer made it to production back in 2000.


The Honda VTR 1000 SP1 (or RC51 in the States) wasn’t without its faults, not least a dodgy throttle (not surprising when massive 54mm throttle bodies were delivering the fuel) and thirsty motor, but you could see the basis of something special had been built once you’d had time to set things up. Classy touches like the gear driven camshafts and twin injectors upped the kudos of the SP1 massively.

The bike came to fruition when the Honda VTR 1000 SP2 was built, with more refined injection (but even bigger throttle bodies, at 62mm), less weight, a more rigid chassis and swingarm (the latter effectively being the race kit part from the SP-1) and revised geometry. With a bit of fiddling with the geometry (pitching the bike on its nose) it could really get to grips with cornering and fulfil its true potential as a WSB replica machine.

Both are pretty bulletproof, with niggles relegated to a handful of unlucky/abusive owners. And both command big money still, although are considerably cheaper than the RC45 that it effectively replaced. Honda VTR 1000 SP2 was never a huge seller, with the market still preferring their twins to be painted red and come from Italy, so haggling will only get you so far. Most are low mileage, plenty will have tasty (and tasteful) cans on them, and owners are the types that cherish the most excellent example of Honda’s heritage.

The Reason Why You Need Honda VTR 1000 SP2 : You respect engineering. And like booming bikes !

2002 Honda VTR1000 SP2 Prices : Much under £ 7,000 and count yourself lucky.

In 1927, a young man in Britain named Edward Turner, working alone in his own shop, designed and built a 350cc single-cylinder motorcycle. The British motorcycle industry took note of this achievement, and he soon landed a job designing bikes. By 1936, he’d worked his way up to General Manager and Chief Designer at Triumph Engineering Co.

In July of 1937, Turner introduced the 500cc Speed Twin, which featured a 27-horsepower parallel-twin engine that formed the basis of most Triumph motorcycle engines well into the 1980s. This engine, and its imitators from companies like BSA and Norton, became the power plant of choice for sporting motorcycles for decades to come.

A parallel-twin engine is a two-cylinder engine with its cylinders placed side-by-side in an upright position.

Because of the design of its crankshaft, along with certain dynamic problems inherent in the parallel-twin design, these engines vibrated much more than a Boxer engine, but they vibrated less than a V-twin. Plus, they were light and powerful for their day. Their compact size enabled engineers to create compact motorcycles that could run circles around the big Harleys and Indians of that era, and their power output nearly equaled that of the big twins, which displaced as much as 1200cc.

Although the parallel twin has long since ceased being the power plant of choice for superbikes, the design still has enough appeal to keep it in production. Modern versions, with redesigned crankshafts and counter balancers to tame vibration, power a variety of mid-sized bikes from manufacturers like Suzuki and Kawasaki. Kawasaki produces parallel twins in both cruiser and sportbike form. Any of these motorcycles make ideal first bikes. I’m especially fond of Kawasaki’s EX500/Ninja 500 series : these are comfortable, good-handling, nimble motorcycles with enough power to keep a rider amused for decades.

The parallel twin seems to be The parallel twin seems to be making a comeback in the hard-core sportbike market, too. Yamaha produces the TDX for the European market with an 850cc parallel-twin engine. I haven’t sampled the bike, but its predecessor, the TDM850, had what may be my all-time-favorite motorcycle engine. That bike is no longer imported into the United States, but if you can find a good used TDM, buy it. Also, the Italian company Laverda recently began importing a line of parallel-twin sportbikes that looks promising.

Forgotten, and few and far between, the Honda VT500E is an endangered species on the point of disappearing into the mists of time. A sad state of affairs for what was a hugely significant machine...

In the early 1980s Honda was on a mission, not a single-focused ultimate-truth type mission, instead one of increasing divergence and expanding imagination, creating multiple futures, each with a dazzling complexity possibly never before seen in motorcycling.

Honda upped its game in the 1980s, spending inestimable millions on R&D to create all manner of new engine configurations. While singles and twins would replace the smaller fours – clearly being more economic solutions for the performance parameters of the light-middleweight classes – for middleweight-to-large-capacity machines Honda adopted no end of new designs. However, it was the vee engine configuration that underscored most of these : V-twins of varying angle and capacities and V-fours, essentially 90º, from 400 to 1000cc. The vees powered everything from cruisers to supersports.

Honda VT500E : The V-Twin Engine

When Honda unveiled the VT500E in 1983 it was then part of that wave of new machinery that arrived so thick and fast we could barely keep pace. Only a year earlier Honda had given us the VT250F which had tried to compete with the 250cc two-strokes on the roads. It hadn’t succeeded, but as a 90º V-twin 250 it was still a gem of a machine, one that would bounce back in 2000 as the VTR250 (something of a mini-Monster, trellis frame and all). There’d also been the new CBX550F – perhaps to make sales to those who were still actually rather enjoying the inline four experience. Even in 1983 the VT500E had to share the limelight and was mostly overshadowed by the sporty new VF400F.

Honda was sub-compartmentalising the capacity categories perhaps as never before. Its middleweight offerings were becoming countless: CB400N, FT500, XL500R, XBR500, VF400F, CBX550, CX500E, VT500E... and more besides.

The VT500E was intended as a successor to the CX500. It sat in the same performance parameter, the CX having been quite sporty – despite appearances – producing 50 HP at 9.500 RPM, so the VT500E again produced 50 hp, but a little earlier, at 9.000 RPM. Both were capable of 110+mph – a match for Yamaha’s XJ550 and Kawasaki’s Z550 (both air-cooled eight-valve inline fours) and easily bettering European mid-size exotica like the Laverda 500SFC and Moto Morini 500 Sport.

But where the CX500 (Honda’s first V-twin) had been aesthetically challenging – especially that across the frame 80º V water-cooled motor – the fore-and-aft 52º water-cooled V-twin VT motor made for a more traditional, appealing, layout – one the American customers (who bought the VT as a Shadow custom or Ascot pseudo flat tracker) might liken to their own Harley-Davidson (which is a 45º vee), while us Europeans would most like compare it to a Moto-Morini (a 72º vee) or the Ducati Pantah (a 90º vee).




The VT’s stand-out technical feature – one that’s endured to the present day – was the design of the V-twin motor. While the vee angle was 52º, by offsetting the two crankpins by 76º (instead of setting both con rods on the one crankpin, as with the Ducati) Honda was able to effectively set up the firing strokes to mimic those of a 90º V-twin. This brought together the perfect primary balance that the 90º layout enjoys with the altogether more compact arrangement of the narrow-angle vee. It was by no means an original concept, but it was perfectly applied by Honda.

Unfortunately not everything about the VT500E was so perfect. The two Hy-Vo cam chains were held in check by automatic tensioners that often didn’t, leading to mechanical chaos and expensive warranty claims. And while the CX500 had featured fairly racy four-valve heads, Honda had reverted to a three-valve design for the VT requiring the complexity of two spark plugs per head to achieve a complete combustion.

And while the outward splay of the CX’s heads made home maintenance a doddle, the VT’s heads were buried under the steering head and under the seat making access for valve adjustment super-tight, with partial engine removal mentioned for reaching the rear cylinder head...

Honda VT500E Styling

Other matters were also compromised. With both exhaust ports exiting on the right hand side (such as with Harleys) this led to an impossible exhaust run for a sport bike, fixed by creating a bulky (and ultimately rot-prone) ‘pre-chamber’ under the frame, with two conical mufflers emerging, to create a sense of apparent harmony. However, Honda was at least able to match the motor with a suitably modern six-speed gearbox (the CX was a five-speed) and again a no-fuss shaft final drive.

The chassis was a similarly curious mix of new and not-so new technologies. The double cradle steel frame featured twin top tubes splayed so as to accommodate the two Keihin CV downdraft carbs and the awkwardly arranged airbox. The forks were 37mm telescopic units, air-assisted (by adding between 0 and 6psi as preload) but without the antidive systems seen on other sports models. Likewise, at a time when Pro-Link rear suspension was being found on other new models, here Honda adopted a conventional twin-shock set-up, with FVQ units, although at a rakish laid-down angle.

The shocks were inevitably criticised for a lack of damping, but with taper roller bearings to the swingarm there was integrity in the design. Honda was very excited by its new concept of the inboard ventilated disc brakes, but few shared its enthusiasm, recognising a solution to a problem that no longer existed, and a level of complexity that was sure to become a chore to maintain.





The styling followed the Honda’s new Eurosport vernacular as seen on the CX500E, with the latest boomerang Comstar wheels, neatly flowing and integrated bodywork and a new level of sophistication and unification in the instrumentation. It was slim and swoopy, only in a Japanese manner, not quite as classical as European examples at the time. The slim lines weren’t just styling, Honda’s last CX500 had weighed a hefty 207kg, but the new VT was a svelte 177kg, with a lower centre-of-gravity, too.

When launched the VT500E didn’t disappoint : only it didn’t exactly thrill either. Soon 600cc fours would be capable of 140 then 150mph, and so the mid-tune VT was quite simply consumed by the march of progress.

The VT500E was by no means a bad bike. It certainly handled well enough and it held on for a six-year production run, although never selling in huge numbers, before being superceded by the NTV600 (in sturdy Revere trim for the UK market). And ultimately this was to be the VT500E’s legacy – not so much a classic icon, but as the point of origin for a line of mid-performance V-twins that would last the next 30 years.

Honda VT500E Ride Test !

This VT500E is wearing the odd dent, scuff and knock, but in fact it’s looking remarkably fresh for its age. This isn’t a resto, either, but it has clearly been looked after all these decades, it still shines and – by appearances – sits keenly, waiting.

The beauty (or otherwise) of the aesthetics are debatable, but it is in essence a lean mean – if not quite fighting – machine. Certainly there’s no suggestion of excess with this model and if you were to be objective you’d say its proportions are long and slim. There’s a rakish handlebar fairing and the upswept conical exhausts are sporty and pleasingly symmetrical.

First initiation brings reflective thoughts: sometimes we forget just how quickly the Japanese improved motorcycle technology through the 1970s and 80s. Jump on an early 1970s machine and the experience is often quite wild and woolly. Carburettors gasp, suck, cough and spit. Cranks rumble lethargically, reluctantly taking the order for full speed ahead, head gaskets spray a fine mist of oil as the pressure within increases.

The frames flex, the suspension sags and bounces, the tyres simply skid over the road’s surface – and let’s not even talk about the brakes. All this was as good as banished by 1983.




Start the engine on the VT500E and it fires into life almost eagerly, the noise is muted on all counts, the water-cooled motor is Swiss-watch quiet while those exhausts are seriously muted. The ride position speaks of efficiency, the handlebars are narrow, modest in height, the seat is almost bucket type, but not wide like the CX500’s, and the foot pegs – clearly positioned with a nod to spirited cornering – are high and rear-set.

The shaft drive makes itself known as you select first gear – there’s a BMW-like clonk as first is selected – but after this the gearbox is entirely normal, quiet and unfussy in operation. The V-twin character also makes itself known straight away as the torque propels the VT500E swiftly, if not urgently, from quite modest revs. Where on a four you’ll be dialling in the revs, waiting for the engine to come onto cam, with the V-twin the action starts earlier and builds progressively. The performance is – and I’m sure Honda must have trademarked the word – linear.




There’s also an immediate affection formed for this bike, for a middleweight V-twin is surely a wellbalanced beast. Just as Ducati Pantah owners swear blind the 600cc belt drive L-twin is the consummate Ducati, just as R65 owners say the mini-boxer is the smoothest of all BMWs, so a VT500E owner will probably tell you just how beautifully balanced this motor is. It rides as easy as a smaller machine, requiring little in the way of input, but the performance is surprisingly ample and in the real world of British A and B roads it’s got the perfect cadence to make for swift and easy progress. You’re not left wanting for more.

Honda’s quality is found in many a detail. There are no significant vibes, no jolts, no awkward protuberances. The mirrors stay clear at all revs, always giving a clear and full appraisal of the action in your wake. The handlebar controls obey your digital commands faultlessly, the instruments offer a clear and easily-read reference.

The much-maligned inboard disc brake does a fair job and the drum rear is competent in support. The forks are no-nonsense telescopic – free of the anti-dive nonsense of the era – and that’s a steady-away 18in front wheel so there’s no oddball front-end behaviour. The handling is as you’d expect, properly balanced, a little less than real sports, a little more than plain roadster.

Conclusion

The VT500E in fact has more personality than its looks suggest. It’s understated, almost unpromising, and so the ride is surprisingly captivating. Perhaps it’s not every rider’s cup of tea – our own Mark Haycock found little love for his VT500E project of a good few years back – but as an antidote to the usual mid-80s fare of YPVSs or 500-550cc fours it’s an interesting and practical alternative. When the ride is over I’m actually wanting for more – and that’s a positive indicator if there ever was one.

A more unloved model it’s hard to imagine. By any conventional measure this is not a classic, just a pile of aging rotting metal. And that is a shame because if for no other reason than pinpointing a moment in history, being able to say ‘it all began here’, this bike is relevant, significant even. Without the VT500E we wouldn’t have the Revere, the Deauville (some might say we’d be better off too), the Bros, the Hawk and we wouldn’t have the Transalp and XRV Africa Twin. The VT500E was the first time we saw the 52º V-twin with 76º offset crankpins and that this configuration has stayed with us to this day must say something.

Honda’s V-twin, brand new in 1983, was a decent machine and having created such a legacy should have creditability – heck, this motor (modified) even has four Dakar Rally wins to its name. And this machine here was the daddy, it all started with the VT500E. But do we care? Do we fu... er, flip.

Honda VT500E Timeline & Model Change :

1983 VT500ED

With 50hp and 177kg the VT has similar power to the outgoing CX500 but significantly less weight. Top speed is the same, but it flies up the quarter-mile over half a second faster (13.9s) – it’s a slightly sportier, slightly lighter middleweight. New slim swoopy styling is very 80s Honda. Boy racers prefer YPVSs, others are drawn by the latest tuned 550-fours so the VT500 finds the bulk of its sales with steady types and, conversely, mad-as despatch riders. Colours: red, white, or blue.

1986 VT500EF

The VT has suffered similar afflictions to other Hondas of the era, not least cam chain issues. The EF features a new design on the tensioner, but there are also updates to the heads, big ends, oil pipes, gearbox and shaft drive. Nothing massive, but careful updates. Externally virtually nothing changes except the go-faster stripe which now swoops over the Honda wing on the petrol tank. Colours: red, blue

1988

It’s all over for the VT500E, seen off by the fancy-styled Revere – same motor, now taken out to 647cc having been bored and stroked.

Honda VT500E Specifications

Manufacturing: Honda Motor Co.

Model: VT500E

Year Built: 1983 - 1988



Engine: 4-Stroke, 52º V-Twin, SOHC 6-Valve, Liquid-Cooled

Bore x Stroke: 71 x 62 mm

Cylinder capacity: 491 cc

Fuel System : Keihin CV32

Compression ratio: 10.5: 1

Transmission: 6-Speed

Starter: Electric Starter

Max Power: 50 HP @ 9,000 RPM

Max Torque: 42 N.m @ 7,000 RPM

Top Speed: 110 MPH (182 Km / h)




Wheelbase: 1,480 mm

Seat height: 813 mm

Ground Clearance : 130 mm

Dry Weight: 177 kg

Fuel tank capacity: 18 Liter



Frame: Steel - Double Cradle

Front Suspension : Water-Assisted Telescopic Fork

Rear Suspension: Dual-Adjustable pivoted Shockbreaker

Front Brakes : Hydraulic disc, 2 piston calipers

Rear Brakes : Drum

Front Tyre: 100 / 90-18

Rear Tyre: 120 / 80-18

The 2007 Ducati Monster S4R S has the strange allure of a fit East German weightlifter...

No self-respecting list of Ducati metal would be without a mental Monster, but which one do you pick? The latest models, both the 1200 and the 821 are exceptionally good, but there are versions that are packed with character and power that offer that brilliant belligerence that we’re after in the marque.


Il Mostro was supposed to be utilitarian transport, born from the bits box by Miguel Angel Galluzzi, but engineers, designers and marketing men always want boundaries broken, hence the Monster’s move to the sporting arena.

The first generation of nutty nakeds (600, 750 and 900, not forgetting the 400 for Japan) clearly had potential, and hence the addition of suffixes wasn’t a giant leap. The original S4 was the first to switch to the superbike engine and gratefully received a donation of uprated brakes and suspension to make the machine live up to the name. But this bike, The 2007 Ducati Monster S4R S, quickly became the scariest Monster in town with a booming 130 HP Testastretta motor packed into a parcel of sophisticated accoutrements.




On paper, all looked good. But said paper didn’t pick up on an odd riding position, wild power delivery and hectic antics. That was all part of the fun, if you’ve got plenty of experience under your belt and don’t mind being taken along for a roller coaster of a ride. But for the more nervous, the 2007 Ducati Monster S4R S couldn’t be more of an inappropriate machine, looks aside.

They’re not a mileage machine, so you’ll not find too many that have bothered the tacho too much, and as long as they’ve been back to a Ducati dealership on a regular basis, you’ll not find that there’s much that goes wrong with this tried and tested technology. The earlier Ducati S4R model goes for well south of £ 5,000, but with a spec list including Öhlins, Brembo, Marchesini (as well as the likely Termignoni pipes that will have been fitted), most of these machines hover around the £ 8,000 mark.

The Reason Why You Need 2007 Ducati Monster S4R S : You like your nakeds butch...

2007 Ducati Monster S4R S Prices : Start From £ 8,000

Many years ago the seaside town of Ramsgate in East Kent and its incumbent Sunbeam Motor Cycle Club organised quartermile sprints along the Western Undercliff.

For 12 years until 1968 the events drew large crowds before the slightly curved seafront course, with its unforgiving cast-iron railings, was deemed too dangerous for use – that was until 2015, as now once again over the weekend of August 15-16 the Undercliff will echo to the sound of race engines.

A short course will allow demonstrations of bikes of the era, including a number that were stars of the original events, to evoke memories of times past.





On Government Acre, the cliff top area above the course, further attractions will include a static display of bikes organised by the East Kent Classic Motorcycle Club.

Being the town of My Friends birth, he probably will be around should anyone want to meet up, but more interestingly six times world champion Jim Redman will also be at the event. For more informations, you can go to Ramsgate Sprint Revival Official Site.

Stylish and with amazing street presence : The Kawasaki S1A.

Whatever else you may say about Kawasaki’s earlier Inline triples, even the most curmudgeonly, misanthropic philistine would be hard-pushed to say the bikes don’t have style and street presence. The asymmetric exhaust is there to get noticed - imbalance is good for getting a response.

Kawasaki S1A : Styling

Every manufacturer of the period used candy paint and vinyl graphics but few did it so well and the look and lines are like no other. And no one, but no one else had the bare-faced cheek or courage to put a tail piece on a 250cc Japanese motorcycle. Even the H1s had a bare derrière until 1973. The S1 series had one singular purpose for existence and that was to get youngsters on board Kawasakis. It’s probably fair to say that the S1 range sold to learners who favoured form over function.

The bike sold more on looks than anything else. If you’d managed to coerce mum and dad to sign as guarantors on the HP agreement you’d done so because the bike looked so uber-sexy sitting in the dealer’s window.

Very little looks like a Kawasaki S1, which was obviously the intention of the stylists. There’s an almost aggressive stance to the bike and from any angle it looks ready for action. The layout of the iconic exhaust system is there for effect, with two silencers on the right and one on the left. Have a look at the centre pot’s exit route. It is little short of a work of art how it manages to find its way out and even better how it contrives to run parallel to its neighbour – stunning stuff.




Looking up from the exhaust system there’s a decent-sized dual seat that’s very obviously intended to take a passenger. We’re firmly in the 1970s here and motorcycles still have to be able to multitask, commuting Monday to Friday, a bit of manic one-up as and when but not forgetting to pick up the girlfriend on Saturday evening. Unique to the 250 of the period is the famous Kawasaki seat hump. Even if there’s precious little room inside it still looks special. In the increasingly competitive learner market of the early 70s such things were important.

Moving forward there’s a fairly long tank aiding the impression that the bike is bigger than it is. This and the aforementioned saddle somehow combine to give an illusion of greater size. This is more marketing spin to get buy-in from the kids of the day and something Honda would latterly emulate with their Superdreams.

Across the top yoke is a pair of clocks unlike anything the opposition are using. They have a unique look to them that’s both clinically clean yet funky at the same time, almost military in style. With the parent company making planes and helicopters it makes you wonder if the look was drawn up in-house before being handed over to Nippon Seiki or whoever.




Out on the ends of the bars there is a set of tactile grips that suggest you’ll need their assistance to hold on, some companywide switchgear and a curious little lever just inboard of the throttle. Hang on what’s that doing there? This is another early triple foible and possibly another ploy to distinguish the factory’s products from its rivals. Yes, defying logic, perceived wisdom and possibly common sense as well it’s the choke lever. Even better it is spring-loaded and rotates in the same direction as the twist grip, which should make starting fun.

Up front it’s all standard fare with a pair of exposed fork stanchions and a drum brake running a twin-leading shoe arrangement. When launched at the tail end of 1971, both the S1 and S2 ran the same twin-leading shoes front brake but for the A series models of the 1973 model year the S2 received a disc brake. The 250 was considered to be sufficiently well braked that the drum would remain in place right to the end of the S1’s life. But what’s it like to ride ?

Kawasaki S1A Ride Test !

Fuel on, turn the ignition key and pull out the kick-start lever, which feels like no other I’ve ever used. It’s long, it’s high and it sticks out at a jaunty angle. Initially a little confusing, the layout is a little more logical when you consider the need for the starting mechanism to miss that stunning duo of pipes on the right-hand side.

Having regained my balance and adjusted to the lever arrangement it’s time to grasp the throttle and choke set up. With a positive stop choke lever on the carburettors like Yamaha or Suzuki you don’t give the fuel enrichment system a second thought, but on the S1A you need to hold the choke down with your thumb, kick through and hopefully catch the motor as it fires.

Thankfully, I’m able to let the choke off almost instantly and, with a little judicious throttle tweaking, the tiny triple soon gets some warmth into it. Ensuring there’s sufficient heat in the motor is never a chore. There’s a perpetual mechanical clattery rustle from the motor that somehow seems to convey a sense of impeding urgency. The airbox has only rudimentary baffling as it inhales deeply and finally there’s that trio of silencers.

Make no mistake, they are tuned not only for performance but tone as well. Racer on the road wouldn’t be an over exaggeration as they really do sound that good and further egg the rider on to give the throttle just one more twist. In a nutshell it sounds delicious.




Throwing a leg over the seat and getting myself sorted out the first thing that’s apparent is the rise of the handlebars, but then again this is a USA market machine and owner Chris decided to keep it as authentic and original as possible. For a Stateside machine the bars are nowhere near as raised as some I’ve sampled and as it’s a 250 I’m riding I doubt they’ll provoke an unintended wheelie unless I am totally stupid.

Settling onto the comfortable seat it’s time to see what the teenage tearaway is capable of. Initially the experience is less than inspiring but that’s more a criticism of the rider than the bike. At first the pick-up seems almost flat and uninspiring, but after a very brief period of acclimatisation it’s very obviously apparent that the bike wants some revs. Three small pots on a 250 are never going to provide the low down torque of an RD250 or the solidity of a CB250. The bike was designed to be a Banzai, brain out, bolide and not a good all-rounder.

So with recalibrated expectations and inputs let’s try that again shall we? Open the taps, slip the clutch and away hurtles the Candy Gold S1A. The change from first to second gear is a little ropey but apparently many are like that. Even the smallest amount of wear on an S-series gear pedal linkage can have a profound and adverse effect. With just a little practice I have it sussed and then we can start to rock ‘n’ roll.

If aesthetics and bragging rights were the primary reasons for kids back in the day buying an S1 then it was surely the noise and sensations that ensured the bike didn’t get swapped for something more sensible The sound of an S1 coming on pipe and hitting that sweet spot is seriously like nothing else. The screaming wail of the three pipes is beguiling and addictive. Factor in the rasping drone of the inlet system as it gets a proper workout and the auditory input is almost hypnotic.




Everything comes together when the tacho needle begins to nudge 5500 rpm and then slips towards 6000. The whole thing comes alive, with pipes and porting gel as one and the bike sears forwards. Keep the smallest stroker triple here or hereabouts and you’ll be smiling like a loon dancing on the gear pedal and playing tunes all day.

The same feral edge of the legendary H1 seems to have been condensed and planted somewhere with the S1. This is truly a bike that could and would generate brand loyalty.

It’d be easy to think that the S1 is all about its power unit and to a degree you’d be correct. After all this was the bike’s unique selling point back in the day. However, even Kawasaki knew that the 250 couldn’t emulate its famous 500 in terms of handling.

The S1 handles much better than its big brother and so it should. Surprisingly light and predictable for a bike that’s wider than most of its ilk, it tracked around perfectly for our riding shots and was even happy to undertake feet-up 180s at walking pace. At speed the little triple never seemed anything other than sure-footed and was blissfully happy to change line if asked.

Suspension was no better than a comparable Yamaha twin of the period but measurably superior to a Honda CB250 K Series. In terms of braking some criticise the continued use of the twin-leading shoe front brake in the light of the S2A being equipped with a disc. Having ridden with both types of front anchor on smaller triples, my money is on the S1A’s drum brake. Powerful, progressive and not especially prone to fade after a series of action shots and the inevitable turn-arounds, it impressed all day long.





Back in the day some elements of the press suggested that S1/KH250 owners only had six brain cells, which was purportedly all they needed to ride the smallest of the genre. I’d counter that facetious statement by saying those same critics only used six brain cells to reach their myopic conclusion.

Yes, the bike majors on frenetic performance, I agree it emits an unholy sound and without doubt it can egg you on to misbehave, but that’s just one aspect of its character. The super-smooth engine, the style, the looks and, surprisingly, the comfort, are aspects of ownership the bike’s detractors chose to ignore.

I’d go so far as to say that the S1 Kawasaki is probably THE iconic learner of the period. It has it all - performance, looks and fun factor. If I go on record as saying that I could find space for one in my garage, does that convey just how good these bikes are?

Kawasaki S1A Specifications

Manufacturer : Kawasaki

Model: S1A 250

Year Built : 1972 - 1975



Engine: 2-Stroke, Inline-Triple (3-Cylinder), Piston-Port, Air Cooled

Bore x Stroke : 45 x 53.2 mm

Displacement : 249 cc

Compression ratio : 7.5: 1

Fuel Supply : 3 x Carburetor Mikuni VM22SC

Ignition : Coil

Starter system : Kick-Starter

Transmission : 5-Speed

Max Power : 32 HP @ 8.500 RPM

Max Torque : 25 N.m @ 7.000 RPM



Dimensions L x W x H : 2.019 x 820 x 1.035 mm

Wheelbase : 1.371 mm

Seat height : 800 mm

Dry weight : 149.5 Kg

Fuel tank capacity : 15 Liter



Frame: Tubular-Steel Double Cradle

Suspension Front: 34mm Telescopic Fork

Rear Suspension: Dual Kawasaki Shockbreaker

Brakes Front: 180mm Drum Brake

Rear brakes: 180mm Drum Brake

Front tires: 3.00 - 18 Inch

Rear tires: 3:25 - 18 Inch