Back in late 1969, the time for me to end my employment with the US Army was nearing, and I was going to use my accumulated back pay and other discharge pay to pick up a new motorbike once I got back to The USA, probably via San Francisco. But what kind [Harley was under AMF ownership/management then, and widely considered overpriced junk]
The Japanese had come a long way from the little Honda *Benly* twin-cylinder bikes they built when I'd enliisted, and though we'd lost a couple of family members at Pearl Harbor and Grandma would not have a Jap TV or camera under her roof, I thought I might give one a try. And lo and behold, Cycle World magazine ran a cover story on the new Honda 750cc 4-cylinder model, with a bikini-clad blonde California cutie astride the thing; turned out she was the 18-year-old daughter of the publicist for the California dealership that imported the first one. That did it; the cover of the magazine got tacked to the inside of my footlocker, and first chance I got to an overseas phone line, I called the dealer/importers, impressed that a guy in Vietnam was interested enough in the bike to make the long distance call about it. We traded letters back and forth as well, set a deal, and I had a fixed price on the slightly used demonstrator once I returned home and they had the continued use of a bike that was a certain sale, plus the possibility of some additional publicity about the discharged soldier buying it from them. And taking that cute girl out to dinner on it before I returned home was at least a possibility...turned out her name was Mary Collins....
Sadly, it didn't work out; the bike was laid down and wrecked during a test report, though I was offered the same deal on an identical replacement. Naw, I found a deal on something else instead, a fire-breathing Norton P-11 desert racer that suited my tastes fine and was both fun and more practical. A few months later, the 750 Hondas became the first motorcycle in history to suffer a recall by the Department of Transportation due to drive chains and transmissions locking up, a problem I could do without.
But a couple of years later, the movie 10 with Bo Derek came out [after she'd married Hollywood director John Derek and changed her last name.] She looked familiar, and I still had the old magazine cover in my bike ridin' scrapbook. Yep. The baby fat was gone, and it was her...now known as Bo Derek.
Yep, drop-dead gorgeous now, just as she was cute as a button then. And *Bo Derek* sounds a lot more Hollywood than Mary Collins did....
That's the only Japanese motorbike I've ever regretted not owning.
-archy-/-
