In the 90s, it was foolish to take the Japanese Big Four head on: they were on a roll, and if you wanted to compete, you needed to offer something else, something different. They had the high-tech theme down cold, but no one can be all things to all people, and there has always been…
Fully-faired sportbikes of the 80s and 90s from Japan are almost without exception festooned with jagged graphics, huge logos, hilariously technical-sounding acronyms, and retina-searing colors. They’re pretty cool now in a retro way and some of them, like the famous Rothmans designs, are truly iconic, but they feel like rolling billboards. Which of course is…
The first generation of Triumph’s new line of motorcycles that followed their resurrection by John Bloor seemed calculated to avoid direct comparison with products from the Japanese manufacturers. They’d obviously learned from their past mistakes trying to match the high performance and low cost of their Big Four rivals, and the new lineup filled in…
If asked to picture a red, Italian vee twin sportbike, the majority of the world would come up with a single marque: Ducati. But in truth the Italians have been rather prolific with their sporty scoots across dozens of manufacturers, even though some brands may not be household names here in the United States. And…
No less a rider than Giacomo Agostini abdicated his dynasty at MV Agusta when Yamaha introduced the 4-cylinder 2-stroke 700cc racebike. He won the 1974 Daytona 200 with it, and its 750cc progeny went on to a 12-year run on the beach. This newly restored example has matching numbers and a nicely documented race history.…
Guzzi is generally thought of these days as a purveyor of weirdo touring rigs, butch nakeds, and alterna-Harley cruisers, all with their big v-twins turned 90° from the expected orientation and the cylinder heads sticking out by the rider’s knees. But in the 1950s and 1970s, Moto Guzzi made genuine sportbikes and competed successfully in…
Not too many motorcycles look good in screaming yellow, but I think the Guzzi 1100 Sport is definitely one of them. A two-valve version of the exotic Daytona that was developed by Dr John Wittner from his successful Battle of the Twins racer, the 1100 Sport was a very unconventional motorcycle. By the 1990s, sportbike…
Motorcycling history is littered with storied nameplates undone by economic changes, and many have tried and failed to resurrect those brands, but one of the enduring success stories continues to be Triumph. Sunk by a changing economy, a changing market, and an inability to compete with the reliable, affordable, high-performance bikes from Japan, Triumph’s long,…