Yamaha’s YZF1000 wasn’t a big seller, and was available in the US for only one year, making this an extremely rare bike here. Five valves, five gears, and 1003cc’s should tell you pretty much all you need to know about this bike. Known as the “Thunderace” in many markets, the big YZF was a strange…
At some point, I think I’m doomed to buy a K4 GSX-R1000: when I go to track days, it seems like all the older riders are using them, and it won’t be all that long before I’m one of those grizzled old track rats. But do they get them as retirement gifts from Social Security?…
Other manufacturers had to scramble a bit when Suzuki pulled the rug out from under them with their thoroughly modern GSX-R750. But they recovered quickly, and the Seven-Fifty Wars of the late 1980’s and 1990’s produced some terrific motorcycles like this Kawasaki ZX-7 that have been neglected for a long time. They weren’t particularly rare…
The iconic GSX-R750 looked ready for endurance racing right off the showroom floor. But while it set the standard in terms of racy looks, there were plenty of compromises made for production, and the 1986 GSX-R750R Limited Edition helped rectify that. The homologation LE included the regular production ’86 bike’s change to a longer swingarm,…
Kawasaki’s new H2 is the polar opposite of the original H2 in every way except one: while both bikes can lay claim to being the maddest, fastest widowmakers of their respective eras, the new machine’s premium price is a far-cry from the affordable mayhem offered by the original. Both of course offered terrifying powerplants: while…
It’s not incredibly difficult to find a ZX-11 for sale and Kawasaki did make plenty of them at the time. But it is hard to find one that looks this nice, and nearly impossible to find one with the mere 7,700 miles on the clock this one has: dead-reliable and capable of massive speed all…
Look, I love the Bimota Tesi and the Honda RC30 as much as the next guy. But if you stare too long at the sun, you’ll go blind. Also, I can’t afford those bikes. So while I do love to look and lust after them, I also love to look around for more affordable exotica,…
Today’s bike is a bit of a flashback, something a bit older than we’d normally feature here on RSBFS. But this Suzuki GS1000S Wes Cooley Replica holds a special place as the last, and maybe best of the twin-shock sportbikes. Prior to the monoshock, endurance-racing GSX-R that we all know and love, this was Suzuki’s…