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…
Nice first-generation Ducati M900 Monsters are getting very hard to find: they’ve been very affordable machines for the past few years and get used accordingly, ridden hard instead of being squirreled away in garages as collector items. Certainly, that’s what I’ve done with mine… But if you’re looking for a pristine machine to ride or…
Grab your leg warmers and get ready to dial up your favorite Tommy Tutone number – we’re going back to the 1980s! Hard to believe that Suzuki dropped the Katana on a flabbergasted world more than 35 years ago. With looks dominated by a big-block inline four and scantily clad with an itty-bitty bikini fairing,…
There is something about big Guzzis that set them apart. It’s not just one thing, either; it’s the overall package that sets the mind wandering. Italian, long legged good looks, wonderful booming V-twin sounds, some degree of exclusivity due to relative rarity, and a reputation for longevity and long ownership. Moto Guzzis evoke class, elegance,…
Different motorcycle manufacturers have different ways of mining riders’ nostalgia and their own history: Triumph makes motorcycles that look like they rolled straight out of the 1960s but perform like modern machines, while Harley Davidson makes actual 1960s motorcycles, only heavier and with 1980s brakes and electronics. Ducati’s retro bikes manage to straddle the…
Today we find a fun rare model that is – for once on RSBFS – totally affordable. The Yamaha SRX series included multiple displacements, although in the US we only received the XT-derived 250cc model and the XT-based 250cc machine. Home markets also included a 400cc variant. Based around a nimble, single cylinder air-cooled engine,…
This is it. The end of the line. The last hurrah. The final countdown. The Ducati 900SS FE or “Final Edition.” Well, not really: 1999 saw the introduction of a brand new-ish, fuel-injected, Pierre Terblanche-styled SuperSport that carried over most of this bike’s strengths. But this is the very last of the old-school, carbureted SuperSports…
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…