Ducati paid Paul Smart less than a grand to ride their newly-minted 750SS to victory in the 1972 Imola 200, which is insane value for money when you consider that that one race would solidify Smart’s reputation as a racer and give Ducati’s new Desmos the street cred they needed to thrive. The brand and…
Bologna showed off the bike that would become the 2002 Ducati MH900e at the 1998 Intermot show, on the 20th anniversary of Mike Hailwood’s comeback win at the 1978 Isle of Man TT. In true Italian fashion, it took another two years before the bike was ready for orders, which opened online at 12:01 a.m.…
Ah, the 1986 Suzuki GSX-R 750. There are plenty of reasons to love “slabbies,” from their awkward-but-functional bodywork that signalled a move to full fairings for the sportbike crowd, to their no-apologies approach to out and out speed, to the fact that decent ones are fast becoming prized collector bikes. This example is a clean…
Somehow, whoever owned this 2001 Honda RC51 managed to keep it mostly off the road in its 18 years, showing remarkable restraint in the face of a bike that built a legend for itself under the likes of Colin Edwards, Nicky Hayden and Joey Dunlop. Fast, reliable and uncompromising, the RC-51 took the fight to…
The seller of this 1985 Yamaha RZ500 keeps the details light in his eBay posting, but the details he does share are certainly intriguing. The iconic GP replica sports a set of very nice aftermarket Lomas pipes, upgraded forks and wheels from a four-stroke Yamaha FJ, and a top-end rebuild. You cannot really say fairer…
Sixteen years after Ducati’s original run of bikes celebrating Mike Hailwood’s return to form at the 1978 Isle of Man TT, Bologna kicked out a Pierre Terblanche-penned update to the much-lauded MHR900. The MH900e, where ‘e’ stands for evoluzione, was a much more exclusive machine than the original MHR900, with just 2,000 rolling off the…
This 1990 Honda VFR400R was imported from England wearing a body kit that mimics the almighty RC30, the 750cc WSBK rocket that these beginner-friendly ultralights were intended to mimic. Rather than let the bloodline do all the work to sell these things, though, Honda made them standouts in their own right, with sweet-handling chassis and…
The 1995 Honda NS-1 might not have quite the racing prestige that the Derbi GPR-50 we featured last week mustered, but has a cult following across the pond for being a tight-handling, practical city whip and mount for new riders. The little rippers weighed just 200 pounds dry, which was handy for making use of…