CLASSICS
WORDS AND PHOTOS:
Rhys Jones
TWENTY YEARS ON
VOTE NOW FOR THE BIKE
OF THE CENTURY...
R
egular readers of this column may
remember that a year ago I pointed
out that it would soon be twenty years
since motorcycle magazines all over the
world were scrambling to elect their choices,
and that of their readers, for the Bike of the
Century. Well, we are now another twenty
years on, and time to think about what
would the results be if the same question
was asked today. Would the top ten be
similar, or the same? Would more recent
examples of motorcycle excellence emerge,
or would the same time-honoured classics
dominate the top twenty
To those wishing to express their opinions,
bear in mind that we are talking about
classic bikes and not some of the admirable
road burners that have emerged in the
last twenty years. I think it would be fair to
limit the choices to machines built before
the year 2000. Maybe that is too restrictive,
but none the less it seems fair. In the
year 2000 the most noticeable absence
in the collective list of chosen classics
were machines manufactured after 1980.
Personally, I would opt for bikes that had
changed the way things are, no matter
what period they came from. Perhaps a
reminder of how things were, and what
had to be achieved to make the timeless
classics just how impressive they really are.
It may help to review some of the bikes that
were favoured amongst readers and writers
twenty years ago.
1. 1969 Honda CB750
In a ten-year period between 1968 and
1978, Honda built close to a million of these
ground breaking motorcycles. Considered
one of the most influential models of the
20th century, the CB750 paved the way
for the in-line four-cylinder engine that
became the standard configuration for
most of the big four-stroke machines that
left the Japanese factories for decades
to come.
76 KIWI RIDER