AMA Superbike champion. AMA Superstock winner – in both 600cc and 750cc classes. Formula Extreme winner. MotoGP rookie of the year. MotoGP world champion. Dethroned Valentino Rossi by interrupting his 5-in-a-row championship streak. Three time MotoGP winner and 28 time podium visitor. Scored at least one point in each of his 14 seasons in the…
Pardon the title of this post. To be fair, I don’t know if this bike was well ridden, or ridden well. But I can tell you that it was ridden a lot. To the tune of nearly 28,000 miles, that is. That is not a problem for your typically over-engineered Honda motorcycle, but it is…
In 1992 Honda lit the world on fire with the introduction of the FireBlade. The original project was headed up by legendary designer/engineer Tadao Baba, with the design goal of reducing or removing every ounce of weight possible while also ramping up horsepower. The 900RR was to the current sport bike world what the original…
During the early 1980s, the future was a bright and amazing place to be. The world was full of optimism that technology would solve all of our problems and provide us with transportation that eclipsed the cave man cars and bikes of just a few years ago. And during this time manufacturers pulled out all…
Let’s set the record straight right up front: The Honda VF1000R is not as rare as true homologation machines such as the RC30 or the RC45. It was not as hard to come by in the US as the NC30 or grey market two strokes such as the NSR250 or NSR400. Yet it still has…
Update 2.17.2021: This bike was relisted in late July and we’ve just learned it has SOLD to an RSBFS reader. Congratulations to buyer and seller! -dc From the mid-1980s through the late 1990s, superbike development burst forth hot and heavy from the engineers behind the big three Japanese brands, with each redesigned or all-new bike…
With attribution (and apologies) to Charles Dickens, this was the best motorcycle, this was the worst motorcycle. This was an age where technology soared, yet this was an age where average triumphed. This was the time of lag, this was the time of boost. This was the Spring of hope, this was the Winter of…
Michael Jackson’s Thriller. Personal home computers. Digital displays. The Space Shuttle. Princess Diana. The Falklands. Epcot Center. The early 1980s were a time of excess, and of Turbos. For this was the era of the factory turbocharged motorcycles, and leading the charge was the 1982 Honda CX500 Turbo. For certain the concept of boosting intake…
