ORIENTAL ANGLES
The fad of Japanese street scramblers was a slightly strange one born out of American-led sales teams looking to get the biggest return for the Oriental manufacturers they represented. Inspired by the frankly bonkers notion that was desert racing, street scramblers aped the look but not the functionality.
The trend began in the early half of the 1960s when all five major players decided to cash in on the idea. Most of what was being seriously ridden off-road tended to be sub-400cc Spanish or Scandinavian stroker singles along with larger capacity British singles and twins. The machines offered as off-roaders by the Japanese were generally sub-250 and little more than cursorily modified road machines and remained thus until the advent of Yamaha’s DT-1. That the street scramblers were little more than a pale pastiche of the real thing mattered little to 1960s Americans for one very good reason – candy paint schemes combined with upswept pipes just looked oh so damn cool! Even if, in reality, virtually everything and anything covered of that genre had almost zero potential off-road mattered not one jot; a dedicated sub-culture swiftly grew.
Prime requisites were a set of wide braced bars, some faux off-road tyres, possibly a set of folding front footrests and, of course, those all-important raised exhaust pipes. Everything else remained pretty much identical to the road machines upon which every single street scrambler was based. It was a clever ploy that effectively maximised sales potential for very little real outlay, investment or
R&D. Other than the aforementioned revisions, the only service items dealers were obliged to keep were the longer control cables necessitated by the revised bars.
What some perceived to be a passing fad actually ran for much longer than many thought possible. And even if most of the impetus had faded with the introduction of the first genuinely dirt-friendly trail bikes (1969-70), Honda didn’t walk away from the look until the mid-1970s. It managed to eke out the lifespan of the old K4 twins by upgrading them to the G5 iterations and then adding on the street scrambler kit to deliver the CL250/360. This wasn’t Honda’s only big twin in SS guise either; aficionados still argue about the CB450D to this day. Stung into action by the negative feedback from the first CB450 Black Bombers, Honda did a quick volte-face by turning numerous examples into the street scrambler analogue of 1967. Officially known as the CB450D, it was also billed as the CL450 with its high bars and pipes. According to some period dealers Honda also supplied the necessary parts to convert scores of road-going versions stuck in showrooms to D models. Very few were brave enough to actually take them off-road given their mass and physical size!
Some Oriental street scramblers were more aesthetically pleasing than others. Yamaha’s 250/305 YD/YM models had a certain grace about them while Suzuki’s TC 250/305 looked just a little bit awkward from some angles. Many of Honda’s singles received the SS look which worked to varying degrees but, arguably, Kawasaki made the best lookers. With a pair of raised chromed pipes, complete with heat guards tightly packaged on the left-hand side, little looked smarter than a yellow and white A7SS B model. Then again, the Yamaha 200 CS3C here is certainly a looker.
Smart bikes and of their time, the street scramblers are rare machines today and expensive to sort if key parts are missing. Access to key items such as carburettors is often difficult but you’d instantly forgive them their foibles once sampled – they really are rather special.