Much more than its bigger brother in different clothes, the Ducati 749 is very much its own bike with a unique personality. Smaller, lighter and trading off power for responsiveness, the 749 combines much of what you want in a canyon carver. The “R” version takes that same package, but wraps it in carbon and…
New Cagiva managers enlisted Massimo Tamburini to design the next Ducati, and installed the desmodue 750 in the Paso. Unfortunately it didn’t lead to a sales boom and a limited edition was issued to bump showroom interest. This Virginia example is very stock and very, very clean. 1988 Ducati Paso Limited for sale on eBay…
It’s not a new thing to scan a sportbike forum and find a subset of self-professed sportbike cognoscenti espousing the virtues of supersport 600s over literbikes for daily street use and getting the most out of yourself on a mountain road. The big bikes, they argue, are almost too much for most racetracks, let alone…
We don’t post too many racebikes here on RSBFS. Ex-racebikes are tricky to value. By their very nature, they evolve and change over time to remain competitive and, unless a bike is retired immediately after an historic race win, it’s not likely to be in anything like “original” condition. That very word contradicts what racing…
Superleggera means “super light” in Italian, and has been applied to everything from aluminum-bodied Ferraris to modern Ducatis. For the time, the Bimota YB11 offered pretty outrageous performance, compared to mass-produced open-class superbikes. In the YB11’s case, the claimed 403lbs dry is on par with something like a modern superbike, with a bit less power.…
I co-opted Jaguar’s old motto for that headline, but it does seem to apply to the short-lived Yamaha YZF1000. Known in some markets as the “Thunderace,” the YZF1000 was quickly superseded by the class-breaking R1, but it was an open-class motorcycle in the GSX-R1100 and ZX-11 mold, offering handling, reasonable comfort, and real-world performance. Weight…
Most 1979-80 GS1000S’s we see have beaucoup miles on them – after all, they are eminently rideable. And though presented in team colors, the model was never officially referred to as a special Wes Cooley edition. Fans of the bike and rider took care of that for them. This one has rather low miles and…
How is this for international intrigue? Take a smoking two stroke iconic super bike built in Japan. Export said bike outside of the home market into Europe, the Pacific Rim or Canada. Later years on, that bike finds its way into the US and now lives in the state of Jim Beam, Maker’s Mark and…