A flawed motorcycle that nevertheless succeeded in its intended mission, BMW’s radical K1 was tasked with changing public perception of the slightly stodgy brand and, although it didn’t actually sell particularly well, it certainly managed to send the brand off in a new direction. A bit too futuristically-styled, and possibly a bit too ambitious in…
The Honda RVT1000 SP-2 might lack the drop-dead sex appeal of a Ducati, but Honda’s legendary reputation for build-quality and reliability offer up a charm all their own. Back in the mid-1990s, Ducati was seeing unprecedented success on and off track with Massimo Tamburini’s brainchild, the 916 and its derivatives. On-track, it could be argued…
“Wait,” you’re thinking. “Aryton Senna raced cars, didn’t he?” Well, unlike most race-replicas, the MV Agusta F4 Senna was built to help support the charity named after the famous driver, instead of being built to commemorate his race successes. Largely unchanged from the “regular” F4 of the time, the Senna came with a 174hp 998cc…
The Bimota VDue was an ambitious project from the start. Of course it incorporated Bimota’s usual jaw-dropping bodwork draped over a stiff, lightweight frame and top-spec suspension components. A 300lb, carbon-fiber dream-machine in patriotic red, white, and green paint. But the real centerpiece was a direct-injected, 500cc two-stroke v-twin of Bimota’s own design, a clean-burning…
Today’s classic and very striking Honda CB1100R was based on the CB900F and built to homologate Honda’s big-bore sportbike for endurance racing. It was powered by a 1062cc version of their air-cooled four that featured plenty of exotic go-fast bits, made 115hp, and motivated a claimed 520lbs dry. That figure sounds pretty portly by today’s…
Update 12.14.15: The seller has accepted a deposit on this bike. Congratulations to buyer and seller! -dc Located in Chicago, today’s Featured Listing is a very clean Ducati 888 SPO Limited, a rare version of Ducati’s first really modern superbike, a bike that gave them back their racing mojo and a model that has begun…
In the late 1990s, manufacturers of sportbikes had basically given up on the v-twin like the one that powers this Suzuki TL1000R. Twins could still be found in smaller bikes, but serious sport machines had mostly moved onto the inline-four configuration. Except, of course, for Ducati and they probably stuck with it because they couldn’t…
Update 2.19.2016: The seller has decided not to sell at this time. Contact information removed. -dc Today’s Featured Listing is one of our fire-breathing favorites, the Suzuki RG500Γ “Gamma.” The Gamma is a bike from another era, a period of wild experimentation we may never see again. Certainly we’re seeing almost unimaginable leaps forward today…