Like a lot of riders here in the states, my introduction to sportbikes began with bikes above 500cc. But thanks in no small part to RSBFS I am getting more into the 400cc, 250cc and even 125cc range and have even convinced my girl to allow me to add a two stroker to my little…
The Ducati 851 is literally the bike that saved Ducati from the scrapheap. Prior to the 851 Ducati was in serious financial difficulty and was producing odd bikes like the Paso. In 1985, Ducati was purchased by Claudio Castiglioni’s Cagiva group and shortly thereafter began making world class performance bikes, including the 851 and then…
For a short time back in the 80’s, bikes with fully enclosed bodywork were all the rage. Bimota had the Tesi, Ducati had the Paso, BMW had the big K1, Honda had the CBR/Hurricane, etc. At the same time numerous european countries passed laws restricting the displacement of motorcycles that new riders could own. These…
Back in the late 80’s one of the requirements for racing was that a factory team race bike had to be based on a street bike/bikes available for the public to purchase. This policy was known as the “homologation rule”. The 1988 Ducati 851 was offered as both a standard 851 Strada and a ready…
With recognition to the great Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls, I guess I should confess that I feel like I am starting to feel a bit old. Maybe this is because it seems like every few years or so a story is published titled something like “20 things young people dont know about” which…
Collectors seem to come with a variety of mindsets; some only like zero mileage bikes/”trailer queens”, some build collections consisting of a variety of brands/bikes that introduced major technological changes, some focus on personal favorites such as a single brand or even a single model within a brand that they find attractive, etc, etc. Interestingly,…
Not so long ago you could tell a motorcycle brand simply by the colors of the bodywork. Laverdas were orange, Ducati’s were red, Suzukis were blue and white, and Kawasaki were always green. Most motorcycle manufacturers have moved away from this signature color scheme philosophy so today you will see red Hondas, orange Kawasakis etc. …
Most of my posts on this site are of bikes commemorating a rider who rode the same model to glory, or a bike having some cool 1st generation technology. But this post is going to be a little different. When I was a younger the MotoGP series consisted of 125, 250 and 500cc machines, so…