When it came to Grand Prix racing, the Yamaha TZ250 was a class-leading act. Through the late 1970s and early 1980s, Yamaha was a force to be reckoned with, and the privateer racer was the prime beneficiary. Mere mortals – with some racing creds and a pile of cash – could purchase something very close…
Spring has sprung, and you all know what that means, right? Time to dust off those leathers, spoon some fresh rubber onto your favorite scoot, and hit the track. Nothing teaches you about riding consistently like a track day; think of it as your personal canyon road with no cops. And for those of you…
We don’t normally post project or incomplete bikes here on RSBFS, but this one seemed too good to pass up: one of Cagiva’s inspired but ultimately doomed series of 500cc GP machines, the V589. Battling against the established giants, Cagiva originally experimented with an inline-four configuration but eventually followed Suzuki’s successful formula with a square…
A tiny racebike with big performance, the Yamaha TZ125 was a pure racebike and should not be confused with the TZR series of sportbikes. Handling was thought to be on par with the Honda RS125 but the Yamaha was down slightly on power compared to its rival. At 56mm x 50.7mm bore and stroke, it…
The second Honda RS125 that’s been up for sale in the past couple weeks, this looks like a more bare-bones offering than the last one we featured, although it still appears to be in decent shape. If you’re not familiar with the RS125, it’s no “race replica”: it’s an over-the-counter competition machine meant for racing,…
Growing up, my only experience with two-strokes was in leaf blowers: I didn’t ride dirt bikes, and two-stroke sportbikes were long gone by the time I got into motorcycles. A thudding v-twin sounds like sex, and the technology that allows a four to scream to 16,000rpm boggles my mind while the noise makes my hair…
Today’s Harley-Davidson RR250 may be new to most of you. We don’t get the opportunity to feature Harley-Davidson motorcycles on this site too often, unless we’re talking about throbbing pushrod v-twins hiding in quirky Buells. And all the “boat-anchor” jokes aside, Harley has plenty of racing heritage, although mostly outside of what interests most of…
While it’s a hard pill to swallow for newly-minted track-day heroes with visions of tire-spinning corner exits, the best way to learn to be fast is by building good habits in an environment where every single pony counts. Hitting the track on a GSX-R1000 will allow a newer rider to lap at some mind-bending speeds,…