Seventies biking nostalgia:
Seventies motorcycle sales brochures:
In the Seventies motorcycling was a boom industry thanks to the Japanese imports which were rapidly hitting our shores. The sales world had a field day promoting this new range of exotic machinery. This could be seen in the sales brochures of the era. Many different tactics were in use. Some brochures would quote performance figures and tech specs fronted by detailed pictures of exotic engines and parts, some would reach out to the sensible commuter to prise him or her away from their trusty oil leaking British bike and some would rely purely on large, high quality photos of the new breed of machines. And then there were those who relied on the age old method of using girls on bikes. See if you remember any of this nostalgia:
Suzuki AS50.
A lovely starter sports bike
This was a typical
advert of the era
suggesting to us
impressionable teenage
boys that ownership of such exotic machinery would bring rewards in the form of leather clad babes only too keen to share our new found interest.
Unfortunately, it never seemed to work for me!
Kawasaki 500cc Mach 1 triple 2 stroke
Here were a couple of British ads from not long before. Again this made you want to be part of the new, cool, bike riding set.
This typified the technical
advertising side of things,
this example being a British stalwart of the late Sixties
BSA 250 Starfire
A very attractive proposition
The Yamaha FS1E moped
This is the
bike that started
it all for me. I'm sure
you can see why!
Honda CB750.
The first of the
across the frame
'UJM' superbikes
These are the two brochures with which I whiled
away my time in the summer of 1972.
You can see how difficult
it was to choose
An MCN article from 1970
There was some stiff and tempting opposition from the car manufacturers, mainly from sports cars like the famous MGB and Midget
The Yamaha DS7
This one was identical to mine
Similar to the Bridgestone bikes of the era
this was the exciting American styled Suzuki Stinger
The big brother to the DS7 - the YR5 350
I always lusted after this but never got one
My mate's DS7
Experiences of a 70's biker
