Today’s Laverda Ghost will certainly have a predictable share of haters, but it offered up a unique, stylish alternative to bikes like Ducati’s Monster. Powered by an air/oil-cooled, four-valve per cylinder 668cc parallel-twin with Weber-Marelli fuel injection that put a claimed 70hp through the six-speed gearbox, the bike was down on power a bit when…
Monday morning brings us yet another whippy little “you can’t get parts for it” two-stroke ripper. This RG250Γ is one of only a couple I’ve ever seen for sale in the US, and it’s in striking Walter Wolf blue and red colors as a bonus! The little Gamma doesn’t have the mini-modern sportbike styling and…
If you’re in the market for a high-performance, quarter-liter two-stroke, then this is the one to have. As cool to look at as it is to ride, Honda’s NSR250R is a two-stroke race replica splashed with one of the most evocative paint-and-graphics combinations of the modern era, made ever so sexy by the dangerous, forbidden-fruit…
Although the 750cc class is basically dead today, there was a time when middleweight sportbikes were the bikes to have, and competition between the Japanese Big Four was fierce in showrooms and on track. Kawasaki’s ZX-7, known elsewhere as the ZXR750 was perhaps The People’s Middleweight Sportbike of the era, a far more accessible and…
If you wanted a lightweight backroad weapon decorated with speedblock graphics in the late 80s and early 90s, your choice was clear: a Yamaha TZR250. The first TZR was powered by a liquid-cooled parallel twin and the last had the familiar 90° v-twin layout shared with Aprilia, Suzuki, and Honda. In between, Yamaha’s 1989-1990 3MA…
2.19.2016: The seller has contacted us and the bike has been sold. Congratulations to buyer and seller! -dc These days, MotoGP machines are powered by four strokes, so anyone with Marc Marquez fantasies can buy a nice Repsol CBR1000 and pretend they’re getting a pretty authentic experience. But back in the 1980s, when two-strokes were…
Update 2.19.2016: I have received word from the seller that this bike is sold. Congratulations to buyer and seller! -dc Well, I knew these Honda CBR250Rs existed, but I’ve never seen one for sale before. If you’re thinking, “Oh jeez, so what? It’s a four-stroke 250. A learner bike.” Keep in mind, this is a…
Many of our readers will find it very appropriate that I’ve referenced a Ray Bradbury short story about dinosaurs for the title of this post. In a world of GSX-Rs and ZX-7s the Moto Guzzi Le Mans IV was indeed a dinosaur, long past its days as a world-class sportbike by 1987. But by then,…