Bimota’s stock-in-trade has always been aggressive, lightweight racebikes for the road but, every once in a while, they throw us a curveball. Or even the occasional knuckleball like this DB3 Mantra. An unapologetically road-biased machine, Bimota’s third Ducati-powered special featured upright ergonomics, an oval-section trellis frame shared with the later DB4, a roto-molded fuel tank…
After the relative failure of the 999 series of superbikes, Ducati needed a win, badly, and they got one with the 1098. The design was much more conservative than the Terblanche-penned 999, but it shared stylistic elements with the 916 and had a recognizable “face.” But for serious riders, the changes under the skin were…
Back in the 1960s and 1970s you could buy race cars and race bikes that were basically road-legal, vehicles you could actually drive or ride to the track and reasonably expect to be competitive with pretty minimal changes. Of course, those days are long gone: race machines often share very few components with their road-going…
It’s been a while since we’ve seen a Yamaha TZR250 3MA for sale, and the bike is both very rare and also a sportbike, so we’re posting this one, even though it isn’t in perfect condition. I’m a huge fan of this particular iteration of the TZR, because of course I’m a fan of the…
Purists and Honda fans might want to avert their eyes now… Styled like a baby RC30, the VFR400R NC30 has long offered Honda V4 thrills and character in a more affordable, less intimidating package. Of course, the steady rise in RC30 prices means that values for the NC30 are on the way up as well,…
Update 9.25.2018: This bike has SOLD! Congratulations to buyer and seller! -dc If you have the Desmodromic Flu, the guys over at Iconic Motorbikes have the cure! And it’s a very, very yellow pill to swallow! The whole range of Ducati’s Tamburini-designed superbikes are likely at a low-ebb in terms of values, so if you’ve…
In the 90s, it was foolish to take the Japanese Big Four head on: they were on a roll, and if you wanted to compete, you needed to offer something else, something different. They had the high-tech theme down cold, but no one can be all things to all people, and there has always been…
Update: This bike has sold to an RSBFS reader! Congratulations to buyer and seller! -dc I’ve always been a “slow bike [and car, for that matter] fast” kind of guy, mainly because I could never really afford the fast bikes I wanted, but also because I’m pretty sure I’d have gotten into trouble riding something…
