Looking a bit like Aprilia’s Falco, the MZ 1000S was a high-end sport-touring motorcycle from a largely forgotten East German manufacturer that was powered by a big-bore parallel-twin engine. What could possibly go wrong? Well, not much really: as the seller mentions, parts to maintain the 1000S are available online, they’ve got a good reputation…
MV Agusta certainly got the basic components right when they introduced their exotic and achingly-beautiful F4 750, but it was down on power and a member of the suddenly superfluous 750 class. Luckily, they were easily able to bump their displacement to play in the liter-bike class, although the new MV Agusta F4 1000 was…
This Monster S4RS was the ultimate incarnation of Ducati’s first-generation naked bike. The very first air-cooled Monsters were sporty and fun, but quickly outpaced by bikes like Triumph’s updated, bug-eyed Speed Triple, Aprilia’s Tuono, and the wild naked bikes from KTM. Luckily, Ducati already had the right engine for the job, and fitted their four-valve,…
The Zane-era Laverda Ghost and Ghost Strike are extremely rare here in the USA. They were designed to fill the same niche as Ducati’s Monster and provide a profitable, parts-bin naked that would help put the struggling company into the black. The seller claims that the bike is “light, fast, loud, and powerful” and he’s…
The parallel-twin precursor to the well-known RGV250, the Suzuki RG250Γ “Gamma” was built between 1983 and 1987. Dry weight was a claimed 286lbs, helped by the aluminum frame, so the bike’s 45hp can still move the bike down the road smartly. The little Gamma was styled to match the RG500, and was packed with technology…
Most Bimotas are about obsessive light weight as a path to improved performance, but their radical Tesi goes a step further. The name literally means “thesis” in Italian, and that’s what the series has represented from the start: an experimental alternative to traditional telescopic forks. Three-quarters of the Tesi looks pretty familiar: Bimota’s hybrid trellis/…
All of the quarter-liter two-stroke sport bikes of the late 80s and early 90s are pretty desirable, but Honda’s v-twin NSR250R is both one of the best-known and most popular. Power was a modest 45hp, but the NSR could be de-restricted for additional power safely, if not always easily, since that factory output was mandated…
Displacement creep means that although a 750cc motorcycle was considered big in the 1970s, it’s barely a middleweight now. And while there used to be a variety of sophisticated, small-displacement motorcycles, these days anything under 600cc’s is considered “entry-level” and probably has just one or two cylinders. Surprisingly for a quarter-liter machine, the Honda CBR250RR…