I’ve been keeping my eyes open for a nice Benelli Tornado to write up for a while now. These represent a reasonably successful attempt to resurrect the storied Italian brand and they’re supposedly still producing variations of this bike, although the company was bought by the Chinese Group Qianjiang and are currently being built there.…
I really wanted to post up yet another wonderfully weird and definitely non-sucky Buell but, unfortunately for fans of that misunderstood marque, I stumbled across this sharp-edged Bimota DB5R first, so all you lovers of perimeter brakes and double-duty components will have to wait for another day to get your fix. And, in a way,…
Here in the US, there’s always been a limited market for small-displacement bikes. And when it comes to sporting machines, this seems doubly true: in many circles, a GSX-R600 is a “learner’s bike,” and anything smaller might be slapped with the dreaded “girl’s bike” label. Which is sort of funny: I’ve met some girls who…
Okay, so the MV Agusta F4 is on my short list of “must own” bikes. The 1000’s are fairly common, but somehow I’m paranoid those extra 250cc’s will be the death of me. When they were released the 750’s were a bit disappointing, with performance on-par with Suzuki’s GSX-R 750 and a much higher price…
Unable to compete with the ruthless, technological march of the Japanese manufacturers, Laverda’s SFC 1000 was an attempt to capitalize on their past endurance racing glories, a last gasp before they went under, prior to their relatively brief resurrection in the 1990’s. To be honest, I didn’t even realize that Laverda was still making bikes…
In spite of their pedigree and style, these Guzzis are odd ducks. Or “geese,” I guess. They’re not really sportbikes: way too heavy, and a bit clunky. And they’re not really designed for comfort, so they’re not really touring, or even sport-touring machines, unless you start modifying them with HeliBars and Corbin seats. Back when…
I started reading the British bike magazines back in the late-90’s, when Suzuki’s TL1000S was busy making headlines for its wayward behavior and monstrous 115whp. My girl at the time was working at Tower Records in the San Fernando Valley, and every month, unsold magazines had their covers ripped off and returned to the publisher,…
Many of the machines featured on this site are pristine, beautiful examples, the best available anywhere. This is not one of those bikes. But it is rare, and it is a sportbike. And it’s worth looking at because it’s pretty hard to find Laverdas like this in any condition here in the USA. If you…