Designed as something of a poor-man’s Ducati 916, with a trellis frame clearly intended to evoke that more exotic bike, the Yamaha TRX850 is a rare and odd duck in the US. It’s far from beautiful, but possesses a chunky charisma, and although it was never imported to North America, these aren’t particularly rare overseas.…
When it was introduced in 1985, Suzuki’s original GSX-R750 set the standard for production sportbikes that’s lasted through the modern era. Interestingly, the first GSX-R’s eschewed water-cooling to simplify the engine in a bid to save weight at the expense of overall power. The aluminum beam frame and monoshock rear suspension and fully-enclosed bodywork with…
In 1986, one year after it was introduced, the GSX-R750 got a delinquent bigger brother, a misfit bike with race track looks that wasn’t eligible for any race track longer than a quarter mile or one with corners… As in the original Gixxer, the 137hp, 1074cc inline four-cylinder that powered the GSX-R1100 eschewed liquid-cooling to…
In an era of mass-produced sportbikes, it’s easy to miss the details that made bikes like the Bimota SB4 so special. Virtually every modern manufacturer makes concessions to mass-production, and machines that, at first glance, look gorgeous can get a bit ugly in the details. MV Agusta’s F3 675 is a beautiful sleek, wasp of…
The GSX-R750 is one of the longest-lived sportbikes in existence. But there’s really just one version that I actually lust after, the second-generation Gixxer that was made for just two years, from 1989 to 1990. The look and the proportions are just right, and those dual round headlights are one of the best design elements…
Update 3.19.2015: The seller has decided to hold on to this one. -dc Today, we’ve got a very original and very clean first-generation GSX-R750 for sale. The point cannot be made strongly enough: the original GSX-R750 was ground zero for modern sportbikes. The underlying principles of light weight, mass-centralization and purpose-built focus on speed had…
If you’re looking for a truly collectable Suzuki RG500Γ, your unicorn has been spotted, so move quickly. No seriously: this thing has zero, nil, null, 0, nada miles on it. Absolutely none. Race replicas from the 1980’s obviously needed appropriate powerplants to complete the illusion, and featured two-stroke engines like the machines racing in Moto…
If you’re a fan of two-stroke GP replicas, then this little Honda NSR250SP needs no introduction. Interestingly, it looks like there are two different bikes in the photos, but a quick read of the listing indicates that he’s got two complete sets of plastics, one Repsol and one Rothmans, although the headlight configuration is obviously…
