During the 1980s and early 1990s, the Japanese manufacturers engaged in heated competition in the quarter-liter class, creating some of the most exciting small-displacement motorcycles of all time. They were lightweight, highly-developed, and looked great. Unfortunately here in the USA, we didn’t really get to experience them at the time, as ever-tightening emissions regulations effectively…
Honda’s famed RC30 was basically designed from the ground up for competition, and seemingly only sold to the public to satisfy production-based racing requirements. That’s one way to go about it, but if you don’t have Honda’s practically endless resources, how do you create a machine that will help your racers to compete at the…
While most small-displacement bikes these days are relatively simple, economical singles and twins, the Yamaha FZR250R spec sheet reads like a much bigger machine: aluminum beam frame, four cylinders, four valves per cylinder, dual 0verhead cams, an EXUP exhaust valve, and a six-speed gearbox. That adds up to a claimed 45hp and 18 ft-lbs of…
Most of the time, I try to walk the straight and narrow with my posts, sticking to highly-strung, fully-faired speed demons and racetrack refugees. But sometimes my obsession with the weird and rare gets the better of me and I just have to post stuff like this Yamaha MT-01, even if it’s coloring outside the…
Aprilia was late to the quarter-liter two-stroke party when they introduced their RS250 in 1995, but the bike stayed in production long after the NSR, TZR, and the RGV that donated its powerplant had gone the way of the dodo, with road bikes available until 2002 and “for off road use only examples” several years…
The stories of our favorite motorcycle manufacturers are often littered with failures and bankruptcy. Some brands even saw multiple deaths, followed by zombie-like resurrections where the victim simply came back wrong, like Gage from Pet Sematary… Truly, “Sometimes dead is better…” Luckily, Italian purveyor of accessible exotics Ducati seems pretty stable these days, rumored purchase…
The later NC30 version of Honda’s VFR gets most of the attention, due to the fact that the style and specification so closely mimics the iconic RC30 at about half the cost, but this earlier VFR400R NC24 still makes for an appealing and attention-grabbing ride. The NC24 was sold in 1987 and 1988 and featured a…
Looking very much like someone washed an RG500 in hot water, Suzuki’s RG250Γ “Gamma” featured two fewer cylinders and half the displacement, but was still packed full of race-bred technology and performance. Built between 1983 and 1987, the quarter-liter Gamma was never officially imported to the USA, but some have found their way here over…