Update 7.22.2020: This bike has SOLD! Congratulations to buyer and seller! -dc Before the three MotoGP world titles made him synonymous with factory Yamaha, Jorge Lorenzo made a damn solid case that he was the next GOAT on 125cc and 250cc two-stroke Derbis and Aprilias in the big show’s feeder series. After three seasons on…
Update 3.12.2020: The VJ22 with Arrow exhaust has sold. Gary’s FINAL gray market bike from his outstanding collection is now on eBay with No Reserve. This last Lucky Strike is a fitting way to close. Links updated – act quickly before it’s gone! It shouldn’t need to be explained how deliciously apt the Lucky Strike…
Oh god, I can only imagine the backlash in the comments as our unofficial Honda Week rolls on! Today, we’ve got a clean MC18 version of the NSR250R, Honda’s little two-stroke sportbike that took the fight to the Suzuki Gamma, Yamaha TZR, and Kawasaki KR-1. And like those bikes, it was a technological powerhouse, squeezing…
If you haven’t seen Honda’s legendary RC30 in person, it’s easy to mistake the smaller, 400cc VFR400R NC30 for that iconic homologation machine. The smaller headlights of the more widely produced NC30 give the game away, although it shares very similar looks, like an RC30 that was put in the dryer on high heat for…
The original Suzuki GSX-R750 that was introduced in 1985 may have been a “race bike for the road” in theory, and it certainly gave privateers an excellent foundation on which to build a pretty competitive machine. But there are always areas where compromises are made for production efficiencies, so there’s always room for improvement when…
When you see “Oro” in a motorcycle name these days, it immediately conjures images of low-production, high-spec exotics like the MV Agusta F4 750 Serie Oro. This little smoker was really anything but “limited-production” or “high-spec,” and Aletta Oro translates to “golden wing.” Of course, it’s obvious that it has nothing in common with Honda’s…
Two-stroke sportbikes of the late 1980s and early 1990s followed a very similar format: aluminum beam frame, full fairing, racy ergonomics, and a small two-stroke powerplants packing cutting-edge technology and serious power per cubic inch. But the formula wasn’t really the result of a lack of imagination, it was convergent evolution: the class was ruthlessly…
Practical sportbikes like the Yamaha FZR400 generally weren’t babied and pampered, or cherished in the way that seems so common with Italian superbikes: for an FZR400 fan, “to cherish” means to flog mercilessly on a canyon road or tight track, passing bigger bikes around the outside on that skinny 140-section 18″ rear tire… But nice,…