We all love focused, hard-core sporting machines. It’s right there in the website’s name, so why else would you be here? But there comes a time when past injuries, the debilitating effects of aging, and old war wounds start to make the fully-committed, racer’s-crouch position required impossible to maintain for the length of time it…
Pantah Week continues with this very rare, and very oddly-styled machine. When you say “Ducati” to pretty much anyone, it conjures up images of sleek, exotic, often uncomfortable machines designed to win at all costs on track and inflame the desires of motorcyclists all over the world. What you wouldn’t normally imagine is something like…
Until pretty recently, Ducati’s 750 F1 was the redheaded stepchild of the Ducati family: it wasn’t a bevel-drive and so wasn’t really considered worthy of being considered a “classic” Ducati, didn’t have the reliability [cough, cough] of the modern two-valve twin, or the performance credentials of the liquid-cooled four-valve superbikes. But values have been rising…
The Ducati 916/748 was the poster child for performance motorcycles throughout its production, with the same sort of ubiquity the Lamborghini Countach enjoyed in its heyday. With so many of them made over such a long timeframe, it’s easy to forget how huge an impact the bike had when it was new: Tamburini’s creation may…
If you’re looking to get close to your racing heroes, style yourself a Very Serious Motorcyclist™, or just like the idea of riding something with genuine links to legitimate race bikes, homologation specials offer their owners a taste of the trick parts and lightweight performance available to professional racers, all in a streetable package. This…
Ducati’s first motorcycle was the Cucciolo [or “puppy” in Italian], which was basically a simple engine strapped to a bicycle, an affordable tool to get the Italian population mobile and back to work after the end of World War II. Certainly a far cry from the frameless, race-inspired exotica they’re famous for today. This NCR…
Racing fans naturally gravitate towards sportbikes that feature graphics and colors associated with their favorite racing teams. Since those designs are often chosen for their visibility over any concerns about taste, it’s rare that a design stands out for being both striking and classic. It’s a shame that some of the most memorable and iconic…
Before the introduction of their conventional, but devastatingly effective S1000RR, BMW was known for their durable, quirky motorcycles and “old man in a Roadcrafter suit” image. But in the lead-up to the introduction of the RR, BMW attempted to revive their forgotten, but very legitimate sporting image with the limited-production HP2 Sport. BMW already had…