Cycle News

VOLUME 59 ISSUE 44 NOVEMBER 1, 2022 P107 Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives shared many similarities, notably the long-travel leading-link front suspension and the wide cradle tubular steel frame. The frame itself is remarkably similar to the Adler. The RC70 was available with or without lighting. Of course, the late '50s was also the period when Honda was keenly eyeing the U.S. market, taking the significant step of setting up their own distribution center in California—American Honda—in early 1960. However, prior to that, at least four examples of the production RC70 found their way to USA. Two went to Herb Uhl, who had a motorcycle dealership in Boise, Idaho, and who had competed in the International Six Days Trial in Europe on two occasions, riding with his brother Bill who was an Expert-class flat track rider. Herb noted later, "I imported a couple of RC70 off-road bikes from Honda Japan in early 1959 and they had excellent leading-arm forks. About the same time, another pair of RC70s was sent to Allan D'Alo in California. D'Alo was an amateur racer from Norwalk, Cal- ifornia, who annually competed in the Catalina Island "Grand Prix" on an MV Agusta. The Hondas were imported ostensibly to test the market, and came with basic C70 250cc Dream engines, complete with rotary gearboxes. Local racers were still wres- tling with the left-side shift gear levers on these early Hondas, because many of the European racing bikes came with right- side shift transmission selectors. Having to remember which side of the engine to change gears with, as well as coping with the "rotary" gearbox function, was more than most riders wanted to deal with back then. The "fix" for the RC70 riders was to commandeer engine as- semblies from the 1959 CE71s, once they were released for sale through the fledgling AHMC distributorship. The electric-start CE71 was Honda's U.S.-spec "Dream Super Sport" model, which featured a conventional return-shift transmission, a larger 24mm carburetor (vs. 22mm carburetors that were stock on Dream engines) and a horse- power upgrade due to higher compression pistons and more aggressive camshaft timing. One of the RC70s was as- signed to budding motocross rider Preston Petty, who later founded the plastic mudguard revolution that found a ready market in the booming off-road scene. Petty won several local Southern California races on the RC70F, which later had a CE71 engine fitted. As the Honda was developed, some reports say Petty trimmed off the factory- installed leading-link suspension front end and machined up a new steering head which could hold British AJS telescopic front forks and a wider, smaller 18-inch front wheel in place of the standard 2.75 x 19-inch front tire. The RC70F varied slightly in specification during the period of its cataloged existence, some being fitted with a high-level exhaust pipe with a substantial muffler on the right-hand side, others with straight-through pipes exiting in front of the right-hand rear shock absorber, and others with low road-style pipes and muffler. There were also dry- sump versions available. The 1960-61 pre-production Honda 250 Scrambler proto- types also came with single-carb Dream engines, but with return shift transmissions. When the 1961 CB72 Hawk sport bikes were released, the first thing that happened to the "next genera- tion" 250 Scrambler was again a motor transplant, but this time from a CB72, which had dual carbs, even higher compres- sion pistons and a 10,000 rpm redline. In fairness to Honda, they were not the only ones who offered "rotary gearboxes" to the public. Early Yamahas, the Bridgestone 175s and Lilac motorcycles also had this feature for a few years, among other now-extinct manu- factured models. Honda contin- ued to offer the rotary-gearbox option on domestic 250-305cc Dreams and CYP77 Police bikes into the mid-1960s, but no other "large" models were so equipped after that. CN

• Cover