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…
If your biking interests occasionally run to the historical, take a look at some recent entries over at our sister site: Classic Sport Bikes for Sale. This week featured a Benelli Tornado, the Italian alternative to big-bore British parallel-twins, a jewel-like Moto Morini 350, and a rare Dunstall Norton Commando With a 642cc parallel twin…
The BMW HP2 Sport sounds slightly insane in concept: take an air-cooled 180° twin with shaft-drive and an innovative suspension designed more for touring than sport, then throw as many high-spec parts at it as you can in a serious effort to make it as fast as possible. It’s sort of the Porsche 911 story,…