This is about as close as you’ll get to a time-capsule GSX-R750 in a daily-rider package. It’s been fully-restored after a life on the road, making it ideal for someone who wants the very best Gixxer they can find, but is looking for something to ride rather than a bike to simply park up and…
While it’s a hard pill to swallow for newly-minted track-day heroes with visions of tire-spinning corner exits, the best way to learn to be fast is by building good habits in an environment where every single pony counts. Hitting the track on a GSX-R1000 will allow a newer rider to lap at some mind-bending speeds,…
So here’s a bold statement: if the Ducati 916 had never existed, the 999, along with its little brother the 749, would be considered a masterpiece. It’s a superlative machine in almost every way, and was possessed the typical Ducati virtues: a thumping v-twin with a wide powerband, stable handling, and glorious noise. But it…
Sometimes, looking at older sportbikes, it’s hard for those raised on GSX-R1000’s and R1’s to understand what all the fuss is about. I mean, on paper, the Bimota SB2 is pretty unimpressive: 430lbs, 743cc’s making 75hp, and a 130mph top speed. But at the time, this bike was at the bleeding-edge of sports motorcycle design,…
Aprilia’s RS250 is well known to regular readers, and this particular bike, while not completely original, looks like it’s in great shape and has relatively low miles on it. The RS250 was a lightweight machine with an aluminum frame, distinctive banana-shaped aluminum swingarm that allowed the bulging expansion chambers to tuck in for good ground-clearance,…
For all the grief he received for his redesign of Ducati’s superbike, it’s still pretty clear that Pierre Terblanche had some great ideas for Ducati. Aside from the iconic but rare Supermono, he managed to evoke Ducati’s classic style in modern machinery with his line of SportClassics and, while the style of the original MH900e…
A wild race-replica from the era of two-stroke Moto GP machines, Yamaha’s RZ500/RD500LC was a direct competitor to Suzuki’s RG500 Gamma. Never officially imported to the US because of emissions laws, many have found their way south across the Canadian border. The bike was powered by a liquid-cooled 50° two-stroke V4 with twin cranks. Midrange…
This Laverda SFC is bit of a throwback to another era, when you really could buy a motorcycle, ride it to the track, rip off the lights, and actually compete at the professional level. Sure, there are classes today that require bikes to be largely stock, but this Laverda is really more like the equivalent…