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Uncommon Japanese bikes are at all times attention-grabbing, however listed below are a couple of featured on Jawa Tino’s YouTube channel that you simply would possibly wish to get a peek at.
Jawa Tino’s video strings collectively a couple of viewer-submitted movies of attention-grabbing bikes beginning up and going round, and this video incorporates a very quirky engine configuration that’s not generally seen. Other than lots of BMW’s bikes, Urals, and Honda’s Goldwing, the boxer engine isn’t a brilliant widespread configuration, and for fairly a couple of good causes.
Due to a couple of issues like packaging, prices, and the mere undeniable fact that you can find yourself with a really costly paperweight after a bit tip-over, boxer engines ended up being a really specialised type of configuration on this planet of bikes. Again then, when manufacturers had been attempting every little thing, and attempting to get that “subsequent huge factor,” there have been quite a lot of experiments, missteps, and successes that took place, and fairly numerous fashions endured, whereas many others had been forgotten over time.
The video opens up with a bunch of Marusho boxer bikes. The model was began in 1948 by Masashi Itō, who additionally occurred to be Soichiro Honda’s apprentice. The corporate went defunct in 1967 when it was merged with Honda. At its peak, the corporate was capable of compete nicely in opposition to the likes of Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, and one other outdated Japanese model, Meguro.
Marusho was finest identified for its Lilac fashions. A few of the bikes featured embody some from the Fifties and others from the 60s. It’s additionally a little bit of a enjoyable truth to know that Marusho additionally had V-Twins, comparable in packaging to Moto Guzzi. Since Marusho went defunct in 1967, the most recent bike within the video from the model is the Magnum Electra.
17 Photographs
With that, it’s time for Honda’s Boxer to shine, the Gold Wing. Earlier than the boxer-engined nameplate grew to become a full-on touring machine. It’s bizarre to see a unadorned Gold Wing, however we get one anyway. Earlier than the Gold Wing grew, the GL1000, GL1100, and GL1200 had been outfitted with a four-cylinder boxer motor, the ancestor to the flat-six that we’ve in at the moment’s Gold Wing.
Then, after all, we’ve a extra fashionable Gold Wing, fairings, panniers, and all, which served as a profitable template for years to come back for Honda.
It’s attention-grabbing to see simply how far we’ve come over time. Marusho was one of many first Japanese producers to consider in a boxer motor with a shaft drive, however Honda took it to the following stage.
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