Red and green was the color of Mike Hailwood’s historic TT comeback with Ducati’s L 2 cylinder air cooled racer in 1978: To pay tribute to him, Ducati built a series of race replica bikes designated with the “MHR” = “Mike Hailwood Replica” badge. Last in series, was this 1987 model. With less than 20.000…
Since motorbike magazines exist, bikes have been put at tests and compared against each other, to help potential buyers in making the right choice for them. Today, the bike shops in some countries organize a couple of events in spring time, where they give the possibility to ride motorbikes of different brands in one single…
The Yamaha FZR750R is one of the rarest production exotica of the 90s. Probably the most daring serial bike Yamaha ever built, it was assembled in small numbers (about half of Honda RC30 volumes). These bikes, also commonly known by their Yamaha racing bikes model code OW1, are either found in new condition in somebody’s…
These days you can enter a BMW or Ducati dealership and without pledging your house against your new sport bike, ride out with a close to 200 hp missile. If you entered a Japanese OEM dealership you will be near these figures as well. But in the real world, made of commuting on public roads…
When the first water cooled GSX-R came on the market, it certainly had a fresh and modern style but failed to impress when put on the scale. With 15kg extra “fat” this could hardly be compensated by a few additional horses. When it comes to motorbike design, I am a big fan of the “lightweight…
In the good old times of 2 stroke MotoGP, only the strong and brave would make it to the top class of motorbike racing. Things are different today. That is not to say that the rookies of today’s MotoGP aren’t as talented (just take a look at the practice lap times of Marquez), in fact…
Every time I come across a Suzuki XN 85 I imagine scenes from a science fiction movie: It must be that original design, the details like the reverse TURBO writing on the front headlight fairing, the instrumentation cluster, or simply the fact that you know that there are some mysterious components hidden within the frame.…
The Ducati F3 can be seen as a smaller version of the more prestigious F1. Produced for the Japanese market with an engine capacity of 400cc and for the Italian market with a 350cc. Both versions share a number of components with the F1 with the exclusions of the front fork which has smaller diameter…