Look, just to be clear: if you’re in California, you’re not getting this bike. The seller is most emphatic on that point. See below. It’s not that it’s completely impossible to find or to title a grey-market import Suzuki RGV250Γ in California, it’s just that you’re not getting this particular bike: apparently the seller tried but didn’t…
Many of the coveted bikes in the quarter-liter two-stroke race-replica class were never officially sold outside Japan. They were certainly seen in countries where “parallel-imports” or “grey-market” bikes were commonly sold, but 250cc sportbikes were intended primarily to meet the needs and requirements of that market. And that means buzzy little animals like this Honda…
Unlike modern, small-displacement machines like the Ninja 300, the Suzuki RGV250Γ “Gamma” is a high-performance machine in miniature, not a sporty-looking commuter based on a very basic platform. Emissions legislation meant we never officially got any of these little rippers here in the US, but the 250cc class really took off in the mid-to-late 1980s and saw absolutely fierce…
If you’re looking to import a rare and unusual vehicle that was never intended for the US market into the country like today’s Yamaha TZR250, there are a few ways to go about it. Some of these desirable machines can be found in Canada, and others can be found already here in the US, imported at…
Introduced in 1986, the Yamaha TZR250 was the follow up to their RD family of sportbikes. Yamaha’s first go at a quarter-liter TZR had middling success: it wasn’t especially competitive next to more focused rivals from Kawasaki and Suzuki on track, but it was a far better roadbike. The TZR followed the standard two-fiddy two-stroke formula of…
The Honda CBR400 was produced between 1988 and 2000 and was a perfect middle step between the entry-level 250RR and the supersport 600. Don’t let that “learner bike” displacement fool you: the CBR400 was in every way a grown-up sportbike: the liquid-cooled inline-four featured gear-driven cams, a six-speed gearbox, triple disc brakes, and a lightweight,…
Well here’s a real curiosity, another bike from the era of experimental engine configurations. Prior to the introduction of the KR-1 featured earlier this week, Kawasaki’s quarter-liter two-stroke sportbike reputation was upheld by this bike, the KR250. Although it’s powered by what is technically a parallel twin, the Kawasaki KR250’s engine is configured more like…
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…