The Dawn of the Superbike

The fastest of the fast from the late '60s through the mid '70s

If you were into fast motorcycles in early 1968, your choices were limited. Twin-cylinders bikes like the Harley-Davidson XLCH Sportster, the Triumph Bonneville or the BSA Lightning offered the best performance off the showroom floor. The only reasonably fast Japanese offering, the Honda CB450, might keep the British and American iron in sight on a good day, but at 450cc, it lacked the displacement to be truly competitive.

In late 1968 the motorcycling world began to change. Norton debuted the 750 Commando Fastback. Triumph and BSA upped the ante with their remarkable three-cylinder 750cc machines. Then the Japanese shook the motorcycling world in 1969 with the three-cylinder 500cc two-stroke Kawasaki Mach III and the four-cylinder 750cc Honda CB750. The Honda CB750 set a new standard for motorcycle performance, reliability and sophistication. In the space of a year, the Harley-Davidson and Triumph twins lost their luster. A new term was coined for this new breed of motorcycle: Superbike.

These Superbikes were superior to previous offerings in almost every way. Their handling, acceleration and top speed was better than anything most motorcyclists had known before. While a Sportster, Bonneville or Lightning might do a 14.5-second, 85-mph quarter mile, this new generation of performance motorcycle approached the 12-second bracket.

The next volley from Japan started in 1972, with the introduction of the first of two new Superbikes from Kawasaki. The 750cc Mach IV, or H2 as it was known abroad, took two-stroke performance to an entirely new level. Nicknamed "the Widowmaker" by terrified riders, the H2 was an insanely fast motorcycle at the time. Nine months later, Kawasaki released the Z1, their answer to the CB750. It featured double overhead camshafts and a whopping (for the time) displacement of 903cc, all wrapped up in a nearly bulletproof engine.

By the mid ’70s the European manufacturers began to introduce their own Superbikes. The Ducati 750 Sport, the BMW R90S, and the MV Agusta 750 Sport America added a new dimension to the performance-bike scene. In 1976, the BMW R90S and the Ducati V-twin (bored out to 883cc) dominated the first season of AMA Superbike competition.

Where did the inspiration for these Superbikes come from? Was it the rise of the American muscle car in the mid 60s? Was it the general trend away from motorcycles as transportation towards pure recreation? Or was it the result of Japanese firms expanding into new segments of the American motorcycle market that had thus far remained in the hands of old-guard British and American firms?

Looking back, this was an amazing–perhaps unmatched–period of motorcycle development. In a brief span of less than eight years, the face of motorcycling changed forever. Before 1969, disc brakes, electronic ignition, 12-second quarter miles and top speeds of over 130 mph were all but unknown to street riders. These Superbikes brought that level of performance to the masses.