As Laverda rose from the ashes of the 1970s, they saw Ducati as a natural rival, inspiration, and target. Yes, I know that Laverda continued to produce new motorcycles into the 1980s, but those were just 1970s engines wrapped in new clothes, a pattern that would continue when the company was reborn in the 1990s……
Long before “mass centralization” became a popular marketing buzzword for sportbikes, Honda was investing its bubble economy-inflated budget in a bike that took advantage of that very concept, the exquisitely-engineered VFR750R, otherwise known as the legendary RC30. Honda was so invested in sportbikes at the time that it actually sold an I4 and a V4…
The 90s sportbike market is booming right now. Folks that grew up riding or lusting after vintage 1960s and even 1970s bikes are steadily aging out of the hobby, and values for bikes of that era are already pretty high. Many people that lusted after 90s bikes, on the other hand, are right in that…
Ah, the Good Old Days, when a top-flight superbike could offer serious performance, all-day comfort, and room for a date-night passenger in the same package. An era when tires were skinny and powerbands were fat, when one steering damper probably wasn’t enough, and engines were fully on display, stuck out into the breeze that served…
Update: it looks like the listing for this bike was pulled early. Not sure why the seller took it down or if the bike sold, but this post was already scheduled so I let it stand. Interestingly, this month’s Fast Bikes has a feature on the Aprilia RSV Mille, and they describe the bike as…
Ducati’s two-valve engine variants have long been seen as the affordable, low-performance option for novice or “mature” riders and bikes far from the leading edge of performance. Which makes the choice of an air and oil-cooled Ducati Sport Classic as the foundation for a high-performance racing machine like this highly-developed example pretty surprising. When the…
Examples of the Ducati 998S with zero miles have been popping up recently. No surprise that a few folks mothballed them in their original shipping crates, since Ducati kind of telegraphed their intent to discontinue the Tamburini-designed superbike with the whole “Final Edition” thing… I sometimes wonder just how long they could have continued to…
Let’s get this out of the way up front: the seller is asking $16,000 for this bike, and that’s a big number for a Yamaha TZR250. But obviously, a thing is worth what someone will pay for it, and I’m not sure that the seller won’t get what they’re asking here, since prices have been…