I saw this for sale in Phoenix Craigslist. It looks like a really well preserved 700cc Honda Sabre.
https://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/mcy/d/mesa-1984-honda-vf700c-sabre-great/7333414254.html
It made me remember the mid 80’s when Harley was floundering and got the US government to get involved by imposing steep tariffs on any import motorcycle over 700cc. There! That’ll slow down the sales of Japanese bikes and save Harley! Not!!!
The Japanese manufacturers thought about it for about two seconds and said , you know all of our best selling 750cc bikes? How about if we make the bores a teensy bit smaller, or the cranks have just a little less stroke and BAM! We got us a brand new 700cc motorsickle! And while we’re at it, why don’t we mess with the cams and carburetors and make it even faster than the bike it’s replacing, and oh yeah , we’re going to lower the price too!
Not only did they do just that, but all the 750’s that were already here, we’re not affected by the tariffs and they offered some really good deals on remaining inventory.
My former son in law bought a Yamaha 700cc Fazer in the early 90’s. Four cylinders, five valves per cylinder , for a total of 20 valves to adjust! I was riding a 1000 BMW at the time with 1/5 the number of valves! I rode that little Fazer and it was hotter than a two dollar pistol!
And the rest of the tariff busters,
The tariff began in 1983 and ended in 1988, and in the end, it wasn’t the tariff that saved Harley from financial ruin. They did it themselves by totally revamping their factory, making product improvements and overhauling their management. But it was an interesting time, and every once in a while you can find a little gem like the Honda Sabre at the top of this article.
By the way, if you really want to see what the Japanese factories are capable of……do a little research on when the Japanese government tried to crack down on their home market in the late 80’s and early 90’s. They didn’t want their citizens riding around on large powerful motorcycles, so they put all kinds of financial barriers in place on any motorcycle over 400cc. This led to a whole slew of insanely fast 400cc and 250cc pocket rockets. They were little four cylinder race bikes with 17,000 rpm redlines, that were basically street legal race bikes. But that’s a whole nother story!
Later Bob.
https://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/mcy/d/mesa-1984-honda-vf700c-sabre-great/7333414254.html
It made me remember the mid 80’s when Harley was floundering and got the US government to get involved by imposing steep tariffs on any import motorcycle over 700cc. There! That’ll slow down the sales of Japanese bikes and save Harley! Not!!!
The Japanese manufacturers thought about it for about two seconds and said , you know all of our best selling 750cc bikes? How about if we make the bores a teensy bit smaller, or the cranks have just a little less stroke and BAM! We got us a brand new 700cc motorsickle! And while we’re at it, why don’t we mess with the cams and carburetors and make it even faster than the bike it’s replacing, and oh yeah , we’re going to lower the price too!
Not only did they do just that, but all the 750’s that were already here, we’re not affected by the tariffs and they offered some really good deals on remaining inventory.
My former son in law bought a Yamaha 700cc Fazer in the early 90’s. Four cylinders, five valves per cylinder , for a total of 20 valves to adjust! I was riding a 1000 BMW at the time with 1/5 the number of valves!
I rode that little Fazer and it was hotter than a two dollar pistol! And the rest of the tariff busters,
The tariff began in 1983 and ended in 1988, and in the end, it wasn’t the tariff that saved Harley from financial ruin. They did it themselves by totally revamping their factory, making product improvements and overhauling their management. But it was an interesting time, and every once in a while you can find a little gem like the Honda Sabre at the top of this article.
By the way, if you really want to see what the Japanese factories are capable of……do a little research on when the Japanese government tried to crack down on their home market in the late 80’s and early 90’s. They didn’t want their citizens riding around on large powerful motorcycles, so they put all kinds of financial barriers in place on any motorcycle over 400cc. This led to a whole slew of insanely fast 400cc and 250cc pocket rockets. They were little four cylinder race bikes with 17,000 rpm redlines, that were basically street legal race bikes. But that’s a whole nother story!
Later Bob.
