For those too young or new to motorcycling to recall, UJM was the term applied by the motorcycle press to the dominant form that mid- and large-displacement Japanese motorcycles took from the early '70's to the mid-'80's. UJM stands for Universal Japanese Motorcycle, and was used, somewhat sarcastically at first, to describe the fact that all of the big bikes made by the Japanese Big 4 (Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki and Yamaha) were of a very similar design, so much so that telling them apart at a distance too great to read the name on the tank was nearly impossible. Although there were countless variations, all UJM's had the following characteristics in common:
* They had a transverse-mounted inline 4-cylinder engine
* They had 4 synchronized carburetors, one for each cylinder
* They had Single or double overhead cams (Whereas Harleys and British bikes still used an Overhead Valve design with pushrods)
* They were Air cooled
* They had Electric Starters (and for the first several years also a backup kick starter) and disc brakes
UJMs were made in sizes from 350cc all the way up to 1100cc, in standard "flat-seat," racy sportbike, dressed-up touring bike, or laid-back cruiser styles. Most UJMs fell into the 550cc-1100cc range (the Honda 350 and 400 fours being the "oddballs" of the group) and by the early '80's were usually available in both chain drive (for performance) and shaft-drive models (for low maintenance and smoothness.) One UJM, the Honda CB-750A, was even briefly available with an automatic transmission!