The best of 1979
Bikes got even bigger in 1979, a year when almost everything was going through changes. But what were the best new models? asks John Nutting.
It would take something pretty dramatic in the motorcycle world to distract us from the economic and political miseries that we were suffering at the beginning of 1979.
We were coming out of the so-called Winter of Discontent: inflation was rampant, public sector workers and miners were about to go on strike and Prime Minister James Callaghan was clinging on to power by his fingernails. He didn’t last long though and after he lost a vote of confidence Maggie Thatcher stepped in to lead the Tories to victory. Meanwhile the Yorkshire Ripper continued his murderous spree, Lord Mountbatten and politician Airey Neave would be bombed by Irish terrorists and in Iran the Shah was ousted by Ayatollah Khomeini. Get the picture? Lightening the mood, the charts were being topped by YMCA from Village People and Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick from Ian Dury, while The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was published. If you owned a house its value would have quadrupled in the previous decade and petrol was still just 79p a gallon (17p a litre). No wonder more cars than ever were sold at 1.7 million, with the Cortina being the t seller. Hair wa big, with Farrah Fawcett-major the hot chick. A I remember seeing the firs Alien movie. But any keen motorcycle n would have h d plenty to anticipate. The previ year had been epic with superbikes becoming e more potent such as Honda’s CBX six and Suzuk GS1000 four – both 135mph plus sportsters – r ching showrooms, but since the show launches the autumn there had been much more to dribb over. In the road racing world, Kenny Roberts pipp d Barry Sheene at the Silverstone British Grand Prix and would go on to win his second 500cc title, while at the Isle of Man Mike Hailwood would win another TT, this time the Senior on a Suzuki RG500. Also at Silverstone, Honda returned to GP racing with the debut of its 20,000rpm oval-piston 500cc V4, the NR500, only to have both machines fail in the race after just barely qualifying. But 1979 would be the year that the Japanese factories raised sophistication to new heights with shaft-drive machines to match the best from Germany’s BMW, topped by Kawasaki’s amazing Z1300 six, a massive but capable statement of
power that had been launched to a jaw-dropped public in the previous autumn shows. It was also all changing for me, with a switch from Motor Cycle Weekly to take the editor’s job at Which Bike? First test was a comparison of Honda’s 16-valve DOHC CB750K, the four-pipe model that had reached dealers late in 1978 and tested at MIRA at 127mph, with Suzuki’s more agile and sweet handling 124mph GS750 four. Meanwhile Kawasaki had launched a smaller 500cc version of its Z650, but if we’d expected the Z500 to be a better twin-cam version of Honda’s CB400F we were disappointed. The Z500 turned out to be more potent as a 550 in later years. First scoop for Which Bike? was a test of Suzuki’s new GS850G, a larger-capacity version of the GS750 but with the factory’s first shaft drive. It was a peach: smooth, refined and with none of the usual foibles associated with shafts, such as lifting of the rear suspension under power or clunky gear changing. But these were assumptions resulting from BMW’S short swingarms and gearbox design. I found the 125mph Suzuki to be a brilliant long-distance machine. Although previewed earlier, a number of other new Suzukis made their debut in UK showrooms in the February. These included the GS1000S, the blue and white version with a bikini fairing, which compared well on test against Kawasaki’s Z1R, and a pair of 200cc two-stroke twins, the GT200X5, a smaller capacity version of the quick GT250X7, and its single-carb commuter sibling, the SB200. As an interim launch, Suzuki also started importing the GS425EN, a bigger-bore upmarket version of the GS400 revealed for 1977. I always liked these DOHC 180º parallel twins, which featured a balance shaft for smooth running. Another new OHC four-stroke twin was the Z250 from Kawasaki aimed at learners, replacing the factory’s thirsty two-stroke triple. Compared on test with Honda’s CB250N and Yamaha’s XS250, the Kawasaki was lighter, more agile and responsive, but a bit plain in its styling. Then it was off to California to ride BMW’S new R100RT with a touring fairing. The 980cc boxer twin retained the same layout as the R100RS sports tourer but with a more relaxed riding position. From Los Angeles we rode east to Yuma on the Mexican border to visit a rodeo event and then through the warm, clean air of Arizona to Tuscon. Just the escape I needed from the cold in England. In the trail bike arena, Honda introduced its XL185S single, an OHC four-stroke alternative to the two-strokes offered by Yamaha (DT175 Monoshock), Suzuki (TS185) and Kawasaki (KE175).
That year, the industry held its UK show at Birmingham in May. Two months earlier Honda had started importing the latest version of its GL1000 Gold Wing, the K3 model that had appeared in the US two years before, once stocks of the original model had been sold. The K3 featured a number of styling changes to the exhaust system, seat and dummy fuel tank. The CB900FZ also made its UK debut at the show. First launched in August 1978, this was a high-performance four-cylinder DOHC complement to the CBX, and turned out to be an altogether more practical sports machine. With 95bhp developed by the 902cc 16-valve engine it was good for 135mph and its fine handling made it a successful production racer. Biggest surprise at the show was the appearance of Moto Guzzi’s V50 V-twin, a completely new design from the Italian factory. With shaft drive, it was a handy and stylish lightweight which at £1299 was priced only £50 more than Honda’s CX500 V-twin. Also on show alongside the V50 was a restyled 850-T3 tourer with light-alloy wheels and new switchgear. At fellow Italian factory Laverda, they’d been developing the DOHC 500cc Alpino twin enough to grab the top two places in its class at the 1978
Barcelona 24-hours race at Montjuic Park. The following year UK importer Slater Brothers offered the Montjuic, a tuned version with a loud exhaust, racing fairing and seat, an example of which was clocked at 129mph in the Isle of Man. Even at more than £2000 on the road it outsold the Alpino three to one and has rightfully become a classic. Other bikes making their debut at the NEC included, from Spain, an uprated Sanglas 500S2 OHC single and the Sanglas 400Y using an 400cc Yamaha twin engine, while from Cagiva showed its two-stroke singles, the SST250 and SST350. The Triumph co-operative was still making its traditional twins at the Meriden factory after five years but was still dogged by problems. The new Bonneville T140D Special with a sparkly paint job, two-into-one pipe and Lester alloy wheels was primarily aimed at the US market. It was the factory’s highest spec version but at £1660 was about the same price as Honda’s CB750K. By mid-summer Bonneville sales in the US had started to slide, and short-time working at Meriden was suggested. First of the two new big shaft-drive Kawasakis, the Z1000ST was tested in a touring bike comparison against Yamaha’s XS1100, also a four with shaft drive that came out in 1978, Honda’s new-to-the-uk GL1000K3 and Moto Guzzi’s V-twin V1000G5. The Kawasaki, though competent and robust, wasn’t as comfortable as the others. Fans of the familiar chain-drive Z1000 found that its MKII version for 1979 was much improved with a higher-performance 1015cc engine with peak power of 93bhp giving a top speed of around 135mph. Suspension was uprated for better roadholding but the big Z was as raw as ever.
What we really wanted to try was the Z1300 six, which became available around the time of the Earls Court show in August. And it turned out to be an amazing experience: despite weighing more than 700lb (322kg) tanked up the bike was hugely flexible and smooth, with the 120bhp engine – the most we’d seen in a bike – capable of cruising at 130mph plus with barely a gasp. It could never be called nimble, but it could be ridden with an elan that belied its size. Other bikes making their world debut at Earls Court included Suzuki’s new GSX1100 four with a 16-valve 1072cc engine developing 100bhp and Suzuki’s new GSX250, a smaller version of the GS425EN with four-valve heads. Promised was Hesketh’s V1000, an all-british V-twin, but it was delayed to the following year. Also eagerly awaited was Ducati’s tribute to Mike Hailwood’s Formula 1 TT win in 1978, the MHR 900. With new styling based on the V-twin 900SS, the bike reached dealers after the show. Also shown in pre-production form was the all-new 500cc Pantah V-twin, which had been first seen in Italy in 1977. It would form the basis of Ducati’s V-twins for the next quarter century. So what were the best new bikes of 1979? Certainly the Kawasaki Z1300 and Honda CB900FZ, but also Suzuki’s GS1000S and GS850G (the GSX1100 was a 1980 model), Moto Guzzi’s V50, Laverda’s 500 Montjuic and Ducati’s MHR900.