CW 25 Years Ago: November, 1988

NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle champion Dave Schultz and his Eagle One Kawasaki Ninja graced the cover of this issue. Schultz won the Pro Stock Motorcycle title in the class' inau­gural 1987 season. He also topped the International Drag Bike Association's points chase that same year. Schultz, who died from cancer in 2001, came to national prominence in 1986, when he beat 13-time IDBA champ Terry Vance. After Vance retired from racing to focus on his high-performance-parts company, Vance & Hines, Schultz continued his winning ways, taking six NHRA titles in all, his final championship coming in 1996.

In Roundup, two motorcycles grabbed my attention: Kawasaki's ZXR-7 and Loris Reggiani's Aprilia 250cc Grand Prix racer. The prototype Kawasaki that Kork Ballington rode at the Suzuka 8-Hour endurance race found its way into production the following year as the ZX-7. Images of Reggiani's AF1V illus­trated the rise of the small Italian firm and its aspirations for growth. Both of these machines led to models that went on to win world titles: Scott Russell raced a Rob Muzzy-tuned Kawasaki to victory in the 1993 Superbike World Championship, and Aprilia won four consecutive 250 Grand Prix titles with Max Biaggi.

Small-displacement bikes—250cc machines, in particular—were another theme in the issue. Staffers tested Yamaha's 250cc Route 66 V-Twin cruiser and Honda's single-cylinder NX250 dual-purpose bike and wrote a riding impression about the Suzuki GN250. On the dirt side, another Suzuki, the prototype RM250 WR, was ridden, as was the entire range of Yamaha YZs.