CW 30 Years Ago: January 1986

Futureshock! Suzuki's stunning concept bike, the FalcoRustyco (Latin for "white falcon"), was prominent on the cover of this month's issue. Newsstand buyers were enamored with this sleek, center-hub-steered, 400cc square-Four with its unique hand controls and fluid-drive transmission. Decades later, this issue remains the single best-selling edition in history of this magazine with in excess of 100,000 copies sold.

The rest of this issue surely positively affected sales, as well. Jam-packed within the 82 pages were full tests of the 159-mph Kawasaki Ninja 1000 and "better-than-ever" Honda CR500R, plus previews or riding impressions of the new-for-1986 Yamaha FZ600, Radian, FJ1200 and Fazer, as well as the Kawasaki 1000GTR (known stateside as the Concours) and ground-breaking Suzuki GSX-R750 and 1100 repli-racers.

Also tested, the FireAero “half motorcycle, half car” met an untimely demise at Carlsbad Raceway when Technical Editor Steve Anderson flipped the wedge-shaped three-wheeler while attempting to complete a U-turn. Ouch!

Capping this issue was Michael Scott's Race Watch report detailing Freddie Spencer's historic 250/500cc Grand Prix double. "Winning one world title is tough; two nearly impossible," read the subtitle to the story. "Freddie Spencer made it look easy."

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