I was almost hesitant to post this monster, concerned that our passionate but sometimes purity-obsessed readers would find it less of an object of desire and more an abomination. For sure, this Nico Bakker-framed Yamaha TZ750 is a mongrel, a beast. A chimera, if you will. The engine? A ferocious liquid-cooled two-stroke four-cylinder race engine…
Sure, it may be decades older than yesterday’s RS250, but the elemental simpicity of this 1980 Yamaha TZ125 and racing heritage visible at a glance, just as it was with that bike. The TZ125 was the successor to the earlier, air-cooled TA125 and was an over-the-counter racebike. Just add talent. The tiny, liquid-cooled two-stroke put…
By the late 1970s, it was pretty obvious that Ducati needed to update their line: performance wasn’t really all that much of a problem, but their famous L-twin was very expensive to manufacture. So when the time came… They simply tossed the whole thing out the window and started over, with a parallel-twin that used…
This very classic black-and-gold Ducati 900SS represents the polar opposite of the little two-strokes that have been cropping up on our site lately. Both are motivated by v-twin engines, but that’s where the similarities end. One was a product of ruthless and very close competition between arch rivals and used cutting-edge technology to eke out…
The Yamaha TZ125 was an evolution of the company’s TA125, a privateer GP machine in miniature. It might look like a glorified scooter but, although the TZ’s displacement was small, it came with sophisticated specification to match much bigger machines: liquid cooling, dry clutch, disc brakes, and a six-speed gearbox. The highly-strung engine made a…
In an era where 200bhp, 200mph superbikes with MotoGP electronics packages can be had for less than the cost of a Honda Civic, this little Yamaha TZ125 might seem a bit like a joke, not much more than a racy moped. A moped with a dry clutch, a six-speed gearbox, and a pair of disc…
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…
I seem to be headed backwards in time with my recent posts… This Yamaha TZ350 is a little bit older than I’d normally write about here, but was too cool to pass up. Yamaha’s water-cooled TZ bikes were pure production roadrace motorcycles with no direct street versions. Weighing in at about 250 pounds [dry] with…