Another bike that reveals distinct motorcycle philosophies is the six cylinder Benelli Sei in its 750 and 900cc forms.
Those machines were damned with faint praise when they came out in th 1970s, mainly because they didn't melt the tarmac quite as much as expected. Power and torque outputs were no better than any equivalent displacement, run-of-the-mill, four cylinder Japanese machine. The motorcycle journalists quickly moved on to the next crop of UJMs to get a better all-expenses-paid power kick.
But have a look and listen to some Benelli Sei footage on YouTube. If I had one of those machines I'd be forever starting it up on its center stand just to hear it idle. That straight six sound is so charismatic. The motor makes even sweeter music when it is opened up on the road. And just look at that fabulous church organ array of six silencers.
If you see such a machine as worthless just because it lost the BHP and foot pounds race by a small margin then you are just an appliance user and not a real motorcyclist at all.
Chasfield,
I owned a 1977 Benelli 750 SEI ,which I acquired around 1984.
It was a red and black one, and it had the 6 chrome megaphones on it, and it also had a spare 6-into-1 black racing pipe in the box of spares.
It was an extraordinarily lovely motorycle, and it was amazingly smooth.
The engine was almost identical design to the Honda 550 four-cylinder, with 2 extra cylinders hung onto it.
Overall, a very nice bike that turned alot of heads. A bit too wide for real sporting performance, but it was a great GT bike or boulevard machine.
Sort of like a motorcycle equivalent of the DeTomaso Pantera, and DeTomaso owned Benelli at the time the SEI was made, so the parallels are evident.
It looked exactly like this one. Same color scheme, and mine was very shiny and in great shape too.
At the same time that I owned the Benelli, I also owned a 1977 Laverda 1000-3c Jarama, which was kitted to 1200cc and had hc pistons, performance cams, and big carbs. It was Laverda orange, with black trim, just like a Jota. It was an early one with the 180-degree crank throws, and it howled like a banshee.
The exhaust note of that big 180 triple in full song was something to behold.
That was an awesome bike.
A bit top-heavy, and didn't handle as well as my bevel-drive Ducatis, but it was fast as blazes, and very exotic in its own right.
Everybody should get at least one chance to wring-out an old Laverda 3c. It's fun!
My Laverda Jarama was just like this one,except mine was a 77 which had the chrome fenders like the Jota had.
That was one helluva pair of motorcycles to own at the same time!
I was doing pretty good financially at that time, and was living in the Chicago suburbs.
I bought both of those bikes from Buzz Walneck, for $1350 each.