Update: Greg notes that this bike is sold! Congratulations to buyer and seller! -dc Like real estate, they’re just not making any more V-four 399cc sportbikes, and every one that appears has some kind of history – used or abused, neglected or cared for. This Ohio-registered NC30 looks nicely preserved and has survived 25 years…
Honda is well known as an engineering company. It’s where engineers thrive on unique challenges, novel solutions, and experimentation. It is what brought us such varied hardware as single cylinder 2-strokes and 4-strokes, twins in every conceivable combination and vee angle, V-3 2-strokes, V-4s, inline fours, horizontally opposed fours, and of course a wonderful mix…
Some motorcycle enthusiasts are looking for a perfect, time-capsule example of their favorite bikes. Me? I’m glad perfect examples are out there for collectors, but I want something I can ride and enjoy without being worried that a tip-over or low-side or just a few extra miles on the odometer will destroy the value of…
The 1980s were a crazy-good time for motorcycling. Every major manufacturer was exploring the boundaries of what was possible. Everyone was in search of the silver bullet for performance; be it at the racetrack or the showroom. This was a heady era for Honda, as they pumped out new motorcycle variants seemingly every year. From…
Performance motorcycles have gotten so powerful and fast that they’re only even rideable by normal humans because of sophisticated electronics. If 99% of riders need traction-control just to keep their 190hp superbike on the road, couldn’t it be argued that they’re too powerful? ABS and all the other safety systems are amazing, but should be…
In the hardcore world of RSBFS, two strokes rule and four strokes drool (oil). The simple reason is power to weight: Take this 1990 NSR250R as an example: a 250cc v-twin producing approximately 45 HP in Japanese restricted configuration, has only only 290 lbs of bike to move. Similar four strokes have 10-15 less HP…
In the mid-1990s when Ducati was dominating World Superbike racing and the all-important bedroom-wall-fantasy-poster competition, it seemed like everybody wanted to get into the v-twin market and “beat Ducati at its own game.” It shouldn’t have been that hard, right? I mean, Ducati made fast bikes, but part of why they were so successful in…
Designed for racing, the Honda VFR400R was – in may ways – like its homologation big brother the RC30. Except in size. Based around the same format as the RC30, the NC30 brought all the goodness of the 750cc class scaled down to a mere 400cc. The smaller package included the same go-fast plan as…