1988 Honda CBR250R In the modern era of sport bikes, it’s easy to visualize how much displacement is needed to propel you into the ditch of one of the two mildly curvy sections of blacktop in your sprawling suburb. Just think of all the times you got a 36oz Big Gulp. Our Harley brethren have…
Suzuki’s original GSX-R750 is arguably one of the most influential sportbikes of all time. Other bikes may have incorporated some of its design and performance elements, but none were able to combine them all into such an affordable package, or were able to capture the public’s imagination in the same way. Every iteration of the…
If you’re looking to get close to your racing heroes, style yourself a Very Serious Motorcyclist™, or just like the idea of riding something with genuine links to legitimate race bikes, homologation specials offer their owners a taste of the trick parts and lightweight performance available to professional racers, all in a streetable package. This…
Built for 1987 and 1988, the NC24 version of Honda’s VFR400 was powered by a 399cc V4 with a lofty 14k redline, although it used a more conventional 180° crank instead of the later bike’s 360° “big bang” unit, which should give the bike more of an inline-four sound but with the added bonus…
All of the quarter-liter two-stroke sport bikes of the late 80s and early 90s are pretty desirable, but Honda’s v-twin NSR250R is both one of the best-known and most popular. Power was a modest 45hp, but the NSR could be de-restricted for additional power safely, if not always easily, since that factory output was mandated…
Although it’s often the slinky bodywork that people remember about Bimotas, the frames are what really define them. The Bimota YB4 was designed around Bimota’s signature and unmistakable beam frame they used throughout the late 80s and 90s. No soft, moulded contours here: the spars look like girders that were extruded by some giant, industrial device, then cut and welded…
The road-going two-stroke fours from Suzuki and Yamaha normally tend to look a little awkward to my eye. The wheels and tires look too skinny, the brakes too small, the fairing bulbous and a little ungraceful. That all goes out the window with this 1988 Suzuki RG500Γ race bike, which seems better balanced all-around, and…
Well this one’s pretty exciting: the recent influx of two-stroke sportbikes has been notably lacking in Team Green Kawasakis like this KR-1, thought by some to be one of the best, or at least the craziest, of the breed. Considered by the press to be a significantly better performer than the RGV, the KR-1 was…