ELECTRIFYING

In his review of the Münch 1200TTS-E (RC173), Alan Cathcart poses the question of whether that was the first electricstart motorcycle. I can assure him that it wasn’t. In 1963 I did an even-up trade of my Series C Vincent Rapide for an almost new 1963 Honda CB77E Super Hawk, the E designating electric start – a somewhat superfluous feature for a 305 cc motorcycle.

I’m not sure if any bikes pre-dating 1963 had electric start, but it was certainly unique at the time and elicited a lot of interest from owners of pretty well any other marque. And before anyone suggests that I be consigned to a mental facility for making such a trade, I sold the Honda two years later for $20 more than I had paid for the Vincent in 1959. Mind you, when I found the Rapide at a rally about 30 years later, the current owner wasn’t about to consider a similar trade for a 1967 CB77E I purchased in 1998…