Description: Yes we combine shipping for multiple purchases.Add multiple items to your cart and the combined shipping total will automatically be calculated. 1974 Honda CB200 vs Yamaha RD200 - 12-Page Vintage Motorcycle Road Test Article Original, Vintage Magazine articlePage Size: Approx. 8" x 11" (21 cm x 28 cm) each pageCondition: Good The gas crisis, real or contrived, hadlasting effects on everyone. Although it’seasy for us to remember the hassles andinconveniences the crisis caused, not allits effects were negative. For one thing, thecountry has been awakened to a few factsof life that had long been ignored. Likethe fact that our natural resources are notunlimited; like the fact that the oil com-panies apparently have greater concern fortheir profits than for the quality of life;and like the fact that motorcycles are aneconomical, practical means of trans-portation.Motorcycle dealers across the nationexperienced a sales boom during the crisis,especially those in warmer climates whereyear-round riding is possible. Many ofthem sold any kind of motorcycle theycould get their hands on. Some slow-sell-ing new models became fast-selling newmodels, and eventually became out-of-stock new models. Tired old used bikesthat had been accumulating deep layersof dust back in the corners were cleanedup, tuned up, and bought up. And somepeople even bought enduro bikes for dailytransportation when the supply of streetbikes dried up.A new type of purchaser is responsiblefor a large percentage of these increasedsales: the commuter. He isn’t interestedin the fire-breathing big-bore roadburners,and could care less about engineeringfeatures, performance data, and handlingclaims. Initial cost and fuel consumptionare his main concerns. He views his bikeonly as a transportation vehicle. Just asmost car owners are not car enthusiasts,our “new commuter” is not a cycle enthu-siast. As long as it can keep up with trafficand carry him an incredible distance ona gallon of gas, he’s tickled pink to ridea two-wheeled vehicle to and from work.It is quite fitting that the two leadingcontenders for lop commuter bike comefrom the two Largest manufacturers ofmotorcycles in the world: Honda and Ya-maha. Actually, these two models havebeen around quite a while in one formor another, but they never attracted muchattention until the fuel shortage camealong. There have always been peopleinterested in small, economical bikes; it’sjust that there have never been so manyof them until now.The Honda started life as a CB160 al-most a decade ago, growing into a 175in the latter part of the Sixties. Last yearit underwent a major redesign, emerging25cc larger and sporting the industry’s firstmechanical disc brake.The Yamaha, on the other hand, hashad an on-again off-again career eversince it first appeared as a 180 in 1967.It was dropped from the U.S. Yamaha linein 1969, reappearing a year later as a 200.After another year’s absence in 1973, theR.D200 is again in the dealers’ showrooms,its reinstatement provoked by the fuelshortage.Despite the fact that one is a two-strokeand the other is a four-stroke, the twobikes bear some remarkable similarities.They’re both Japanese, of course, andtheir basic design philosophies and physi-cal dimensions are very similar. Wherethey differ the most is in their perfor-mance, and that’s the most important dif-ference of all.Because of the natural rivalry betweenHonda and Yamaha, the inevitable ques-tion arises: Which one will give the com-muter the best bike for his needs?To answer this question, we comparedthe two bikes side by side throughout theentire test. We logged as many miles aspossible, riding both machines over thesame roads at the same speeds at the sametime. We switched riders frequently, andkept a careful log of their comments andopinions. We let beginning riders try bothmachines, allowing their praises and criti-cisms to bear heavily on the outcome ofthe comparison, since they represent thekind of people very likely to own one ofthese bikes. The results of the test are onthe following pages. 14877-7407-09
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End Time: 2024-12-11T13:08:07.000Z
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