motorcycle tests-
28 KAWASAKI KZ650 SR
Street wise and in custom guise
43 SUZUKI RM400C
The MX privateer's dream gets dreamier
66 YAMAHA RD400E
Yamaha's idea of what a two-stroke street bike should be
motorcycte preview
74 SUZUKI RM125C
The 4th annual mire-off and mud-sling, courtesy of God and Suzuki
people
40 THE HARDER YOU WORK, THE LUCKIER YOU GET
Warren Reid is carving his own footsteps while following in Marty Smith's/Tim Hickox
features
36 WHEN YOU’RE HOT, YOU’RE HOT
Eklund didn't win all of the races at Houston, just the ones he was in/Paul Dean
52 TRIUMPH BONNEVILLE: MORE THAN JUST A LEGEND
The eternal mystique of the immortal machine/Michael Jordan
54 THE YAMAHA CONNECTION
Someone over there is a Limey at heart/Michael Jordan
60 AFTER THE NEW HAS BEEN GROUND OFF: SUZUKI GS750
How do you kill one of those things, anyway?
pswsucft evafeattoo
58 BELSTAFF XL500 TRIALMASTER RIDING SUIT
Better than explaining how your pants got wet
It’s happening, but it doesn’t
make sense. Any reasonable
human being should classify a
Triumph Bonneville right alongside
other outmoded pieces of machinery
like Nash Airflytes and DeSoto
Firedomes. A Bonneville doesn’t have
six cylinders and 24 valves. It doesn’t
have overhead cams in its twin-
cylinder engine. It also lacks alloy
wheels and dual front disc brakes, not
to mention an electric starter. And it
won’t turn 12-second quarter miles or
do 500-foot-long burnouts.
With everything it doesn’t have and
doesn’t do, a Triumph Bonneville
shouldn’t sell in 1978. But strangely
enough, the Bonneville is becoming a
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reasonably popular motorcycle once
again. Its sales numbers won't rival
those of the sophisticated new 750 and
1000-cc superbikes, but the Triumph is
making its mini-resurgence at a time
when those big performance bikes are
enjoying unprecedented popularity.
Apparently there are quite a few
enthusiasts who still feel a Bonneville is
something more than just a legend.
In fact, the Bonneville’s reputation
for legendry perhaps has prevented
most people from seeing the bike
clearly. For it’s not enough to simply
claim that the Bonneville “looks right,’’
or has “classic styling.” The continued
popularity of the motorcycle suggests
that beneath the so-called legend there
is something more, some intangible
factor that allows the Bonneville to
withstand the threat of motorcycles
boasting technological superiority and
12-second quarter-mile limes.
That “something” is called
kinesthesia, the sensory input one
derives from riding a motorcycle, the
unforgettable thrill that got most
motorcycle fanatics fanatically involved
with motorcycles in the first place. The
Bonneville, despite its absence of neck-
snapping, asphalt-searing horsepower,
delivers kinesthetic sensations of a less
brutal but more satisfying nature. Until
you understand and appreciate this
phenomenon, you won't understand or
appreciate why someone would own a
supposedly-archaic Triumph in (his day
and age.
1 he two major reference points for
the motorcycle in America are the
Harley-Davidson and the Triumph
Bonneville. Both have earned status
because their intent and performance
have been carefully tailored to their
audience for decades. And that is just
another way of saying that these
motorcycles have remained significantly
unchanged from what they were in the
fifties. So when you climb onto a new
Bonneville, your immediate impression
’■s the same as that felt by every other
Bonneville rider: This motorcycle is low
and lean. And when you take a look al
a modern Bonneville you can also
glimpse what every other Bonneville
rider has seen, because the same styling
elements are still present—a remarkable
occurrence in a machine as transitory
as a motorcycle.
Aside from the simple vertical twin
engine, the Bonneville’s focus is its fuel
tank. Long after people have forgotten
the shapely seal and the California-
bend handlebars, they will remember
the timeless, graceful fuel tank. The
trim has changed but the shape is the
same, as pure as something found in
nature, like a rounded stone from a
streambed. The Bonnie’s fenders recall
a time when such devices actually kept
mud out of your face. And although
the mufflers have evolved from Coke-...