Small-displacement, entry-level sportbikes are a tough sell here in the USA. With an emphasis on big bikes, no licensing limitations, and lots of cheap used machines available, there’s little incentive for new riders to pick up something like today’s Honda CBR250RR. Which explains why they were never sold here in the first place, although examples…
A now-legendary presence at any formula car race, Ayrton Senna won three F1 championships but succumbed to injuries sustained in a 1994 crash at Imola. The Senna edition of the MV Agusta F4 1000 is a tribute and benefitted a charity formed in his honor, and has some significant improvements in the numbered edition of…
MV Agusta’s Brutale represents the sane and reasonable option compared to their take-no-prisoners F4. Limited development budget meant the bike shared plenty of the fully faired machine’s DNA and it used a similar, if not identical frame, single-sided swingarm and wheels, along with a slightly detuned version of the radial-valved inline four. But the Brutale…
Junior welterweight-sized FZR 400’s were made for markets with progressive licensing laws, and couldn’t last in the U.S. displacement arms race. Still, they are revered for their handling, light weight and fun factor. Many were fed into the racing mill, but this rare black version survived beautifully. 1990 Yamaha FZR400 for sale on eBay Pushing…
MV Agusta certainly got the basic components right when they introduced their exotic and achingly-beautiful F4 750, but it was down on power and a member of the suddenly superfluous 750 class. Luckily, they were easily able to bump their displacement to play in the liter-bike class, although the new MV Agusta F4 1000 was…
Displacement creep means that although a 750cc motorcycle was considered big in the 1970s, it’s barely a middleweight now. And while there used to be a variety of sophisticated, small-displacement motorcycles, these days anything under 600cc’s is considered “entry-level” and probably has just one or two cylinders. Surprisingly for a quarter-liter machine, the Honda CBR250RR…
With lightweight bodywork held on by just a few bolts [note the one-piece tank-and-tail unit] and a plastic fuel cell, the Bimota YB8 used plenty of tricks learned on the racetrack and was pretty far ahead of its time. Based on the previous YB4 and YB6 but powered by the larger FZR1000 engine, approximately 250…
You read that right. This is not an H2, it’s an H2R, modified to be street legal. If you’ve, up until now, been confusing the two, let’s be clear: we’re talking about two different animals here. The Kawasaki H2 is the relatively mass-produced version of the bike, with headlight, taillight, turn-signals, a mere 200hp, and…