CW 25 Years Ago: January, 1989

Crammed into this issue’s 82 pages were three features that, to this day, remain etched in my memory.

For "Riding the Ones," Editor Paul Dean lapped Sears Point Raceway on Bubba Shobert's 1988 AMA Superbike-winning Honda VFR750. "When you whack the throttle open in the fat part of the powerband," he wrote about the Mike Velasco-built V-4, "you're catapulted forward with such force—often with the front wheel off the ground—that you almost expect the asphalt to wrinkle up like a cheap throw rug and get spit out behind the rear wheel." Rounding out the 12-page section, David Edwards rode John Kocinski's Yamaha TZ250, and Steve Anderson reported on Dale Quarterley's Eraldo Ferracci-fettled Ducati 851.

Why did CW's beloved senior editor, the late Ron Griewe, take a 1988 Honda CR500R—at the time the world's best Open-class MXer—and replace its two-stroke engine with a Husqvarna 510 four-stroke, creating the "Ogre Ultra 510"? "The only thing better than a four-stroke single off-road bike is a light four-stroke single off-road bike," Griewe explained. "And this one came in at the exact weight I figured it would—240 pounds even, without gas."

Finally, in “The Four: Riding the Legend,” Associate Editor Camron Bussard described his ride on a 1969 Honda CB750. “I suddenly felt as if I was back in high school and about to depart for a date with a cheerleader. The bike seemed just as beautiful to me today as it did the first time I saw one in a magazine 20 years ago.”