Top Ten WEIRDEST Motorcycles Of The 1970s (Compilation)

There were some very odd motorcycles around in the 1970s. Wobbly Phil picks his top ten. This is a compilation video of two previously-published videos which we hope you'll enjoy over the festive season.
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Video links:
Malcolm Newell, co-designer of the Quasar, on Top Gear
• Malcolm Newell on BBC ...
Police Quasar on kids' TV show Runaround in 1982
• Quasar Motorbike (on R...
Quasar promotional video
• Quasar Promo
Ariel 3 walk round and short ride
• BSA Ariel 3 - Walk Aro...
K750 Ural Dnepr
• K750 Ural Dnepr running
Jawa 360
• jawa 360 sound
Jawa CZ 175
• Jawa CZ 175 ,1972
1978 Honda CX500
• 1978 Honda CX500 - Ori...
White Munch Mammut
• münch mammut mammoth t...
Red Munch Mammut
• 1970 Munch Mammoth 120...
Blue Munch Mammut TTS/E 1400
• Münch TTS/E - 1400 cc ...
Monster Münch Mammut - This German Motorcycle Was Top Trumps!
• Monster Münch Mammut ...
1975 Suzuki RE5 - H&H Classics
• 1975 Suzuki RE5
1975 Suzuki RE5 Rotary - Burns & Co Auctions
• 1975 Suzuki RE5 Rotary
Suzuki Re5 on the road - rotarychris
• Suzuki Re5 on the road
The Yamaha TX 750 Story
• The Yamaha TX 750 Story.
1973 Yamaha TX750 - Micah Miller
• 1973 Yamaha TX750
10 riders on yamaha FS1E fizzy and RD250 ride in surrey 20-9-20 - Mark Tats
• 10 riders on yamaha FS...
FIZZY DAYS (2005) - MARK MILLICENT
• FIZZY DAYS
Yamaha FS1 K1 50 ccm 4 gear 1977 - kongsvang1
• Yamaha FS1 K1 50 ccm 4...
Hercules W2000 - morini500dave
• Hercules W2000
1974 Hercules W2000 294cc Rotary | For Sale - WeSellClassicBikes
• 1974 Hercules W2000 29...
W2000 Rotary Wankel Hercules Motorcycle 5 minute Drive VR180 3D - Tim OConnor
• W2000 Rotary Wankel He...
A GIGANTE MOTO DE SÉRIE COM MOTOR VW REFRIGERADO A AR - AMAZONAS 160 - Canal ID
• A GIGANTE MOTO DE SÉRI...
AMAZONAS MOTOR DE FUSCA 1600 ANO 1986 29 ANOS NA FAMÍLIA EP - Adriano Oliveira
• AMAZONAS MOTOR DE FUSC...
Moto Amazonas 1600cc - Mirelda Leonel
• Moto Amazonas 1600cc
AMAZONAS 1600 - VAMOS COMEÇAR... - MOTO AMAZONAS 1600
• AMAZONAS 1600 - VAMOS ...
Could Norton Have Pulled It Off With A Wankel? The Classic Motorcycle With A Revolutionary Engine
• Could Norton Have Pull...
#classicmotorcycles #1970smotorcycles #motorcycles

[@rubenforlagetrhodos1987]

The Honda CX 500 was not weird - and it was a really good entry bike with great comfort and good handling

[@3Phils]

It seemed weird to me in 1978. Nowadays, though, I wouldn’t remove it from my shed if someone happened to donate one!

[@skualpascal6684]

@3Phils Rokon 2WD was actually weird (& crappy ^^)

[@3Phils]

Probably worth an entire video on its own!

[@overland_adventure_nz]

I can’t believe that I worked on and road tested at least 6 of the top 10 in my time as a Motorcycle Mechanic/service manager in the 1980’s, 1990’s …

[@3Phils]

Amazing! 🏍️👍

[@jamesonpace726]

The Amazonas seems like a vision in an engineer's fever dreams, come to life....

[@Flaming-Hedgehog]

Seems there was no workplace drug testing in the 70s.

[@3Phils]

🤣

[@EbenBransome]

Wasn't needed. Though the amount of lunchtime drinking that went on did mean it was unwise to sign off on anything completed after lunch. As for the 50cc bikes, the Italian mechanics at a company I worked for as a student could tune the hell out of anything using the Minarelli engine derivatives. I suspect some of them were well in excess of 10BHP, the limit being the need to have enough gears to stay in the power band. You can still get Minarelli engines new to fit them, water cooled and in various states of tune. Amazing what you can do on a little grappa.

[@3Phils]

👍

[@stevepage2541]

Amazonas...urgh,I'd sooner walk! 😊

[@jons1148]

I laughed my ass off watching this vid. Most of the bikes I have never heard of, and none of which I would want to own. New subscriber with a thumbs up.

[@3Phils]

Thanks for the sub! 😊👍🏍️

[@samjoentess9168]

Class

[@joeblow5037]

I STILL be liking to have a white '83 CX-650 Turbo, 1/3 Phil 12.1 Quarter and 130 mph top speed is pretty impressive for an 80's 650 twin. 🙂

[@3Phils]

Ah, but did it suffer from the dreaded turbo lag? I seem to recall there was a lot of discussion of that at the time. I remember being tempted though! 🏍️👍

[@gntdriver2840]

I was half expecting the Van Veen to be featured here

[@3Phils]

I’ve actually covered the Van Veen in another video: Going Dutch? This 1970s Rotary Engine Motorcycle Smoked It! kzbin.info/www/bejne/fGe8ZHp4h5mMbpI

[@gntdriver2840]

@3Phils thanks,i was unaware of that video Just imagine how the Van Veen would look if it was still in production today,i hope that one day i get to see one of them and a Britten V-Twin in the flesh but i dont think there are any of them on public display anywhere in the UK

[@WOLFIE-96B-UK]

The '70s were a crazy decade and a great time to be a bike nut!

[@jfu5222]

I was kinda expecting the Triumph X75 Hurricane to show up on your list, a fine bunch of weirdos in any case.

[@3Phils]

Thank you! 😊 The X75 wasn’t even a contender tbh. I’d probably class that as ‘exotic’ rather than weird! 👍🏍️

[@ML-dh6ly]

Tonbridge Teds preferred moped was a Casal 50cc back in the 70’s 😂

[@cainbeeping8480]

Some crazy bikes.

[@johnfitchie9892]

What about the Moto Shifty ? a fiat 127 in disguise I think, one appeared on ebay a couple of years back...

[@3Phils]

I did a video about the Shifty a few weeks back, you can find it here: Was This THE Weirdest Motorcycle Of The 1970s? kzbin.info/www/bejne/amivaaqIr5WlgKs

[@johnfitchie9892]

@3Phils I am so sad I have a search set up on ebay, lord knows what might happen if another one turns up ! 😀

[@3Phils]

We’ve all got to have a dream! You’d certainly stand out at the bike meet!

[@chrisfryer3118]

There's something a bit suspect about you Phil, I think it's the over familiarity with BMWs product range.

[@3Phils]

Ha! I’ve never actually owned a BMW, two wheels or four. Not that I’d turn down a nicely sorted boxer twin from the 1970s if it was offered gratis! 😊👍🏍️

[@joeblow5037]

@3Phils R90S here please :-) that smokey orange

[@3Phils]

@ Too right, the smokey orange R90S is the mutt’s nuts! 🍊🍊🍊🏍️🏍️🏍️

[@celiaketley5496]

Amazonas were not in production until the eighties, but I was interested to see your account of them in this video. I was inspirè to build my own VW engine bikes after seeing them featured in Bike magazine in about 1986. Parts available everywhere and home maintenance definitely appealed, as did the large stature, being very tall and heavy myself. They are a cult bike in Brazil now. My current bike has a resemblance to the Amazonas, but with twin webers on a 1600. It'll clock about 100mph on the GPS on the flat, so 70-80 cruising is the order of the day.

[@3Phils]

The Amazonas was in production from 1978 until 1988 according to Wikipedia, but I’d love to hear if you have a different or more accurate source for the production dates? That’s extraordinary that it inspired you to build your own! 👍🏍️

[@EbenBransome]

I take issue with you over Jawa/Cz. The Czechs were never our enemies. We betrayed them in 1938 to our eternal shame, and left them to Soviet occupation after WW2, but the Czechs were always our friends, and postwar some of them died spying on the USSR for us. Parts of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy are verging on the nonfictional. Czech engineering was excellent and postwar their star engine man, Julius Mackerle, was recognised by the IME in this country. Remember they were designed for markets where fuel was expensive and the most skilled maintenance technicians were reserved for the military. Bit like this country in the 1970s... OK they weren't to Japanese standards but then look at the remaining British competition or the likes of Hardly-Davidson. They were reliable with reasonable attention, and at one point I had a CZ as an errand bike that shared garage space with the Vincent, the Velo and the Kawa triple, and it just kept working. I remember one review that said next to a Japanese bike, a Jawa looks ten years old. Ten years later, it looks the same age. Twenty years later, the Jawa is still plodding along at 55-60...

[@3Phils]

Yes, I agree with most of that. I was trying to put it in the context of being a teenager in the UK in the 1970s, when we were fed a lot of propaganda about the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact, and the Cold War was raging. The bikes did look old fashioned to us, given we were used to being wowed by the latest Japanese superbikes in the magazines we eagerly read every month. But if you gave me a choice today between a Honda 550/4 and a Jawa/CZ, I’d take the Jawa/CZ any day! 👍🏍️💨

[@EbenBransome]

@3Phils Fair enough. In the 1970s I was working and had a colleague who was ex-SIS and had been embedded with the Czechs. I got a fair bit of propaganda myself.

[@Lemmon714_]

The only weird bike I had was '66 SEARS 106 when I was 13 in the eighties. It was made in Italy and sold by Sears with their name on it. I would give anything to have it back just for the novelty of it. It would be hard to get used to because shiftier was on the right and it was one up and three down. My '81 cb900c has a two speed transfer case so that makes it a ten speed.

[@3Phils]

I’ve been trying to research a video about the Sears but haven’t found much out there on it. I’m determined to have a crack at it though, so watch this space in 2025!

[@williamgerkens573]

Had one too. It was free and I beat it like nothing else. Near the end, it actually never died I put the 16" wheels from the larger Puch twingle on it. Kinda the original big wheel. Still running when I sold it.

[@fylusdoes]

you need to brush up on your history my friend, putting Jawa and Ural in one bag is out of order 😅

[@3Phils]

Oh well, each to their own.

[@JukeboxGothic]

A guy we knew turned up with a CX500 Custom and we gave him such a hard time he rode it off a pier.

[@3Phils]

Ha!

[@RichardCummins-ni4em]

CZ / Jawa were excellent bikes, would piss all over the crap BSA group products being foisted on the market. Talking the BSA C11 / C12 /C15 rubbish. Not sure how a 2 stroke would rust out exhausts but whatever.

[@nickparkes8462]

Had a ss50 5speed mate had an AP50,AP was fastest 50cc about

[@3Phils]

Yes, I remember them being a bit nippy! 🏍️💨