Featured Listing: 2005 Honda RC51 SP2

Update 6.17.2020: This bike has SOLD! Congratulations to buyer and seller! -dc The Honda RC51 got right to the point when it came out, knocking Ducati and the other Japanese brands off their seats at the top of the World Superbike grid beneath future MotoGP star Colin Edwards. To do it, they had taken a…

King Kenny’s steed: 1985 Yamaha RZ350

The Yamaha RZ350 lived a pretty short life on these shores, eventually leaving us in the face of EPA fleet emissions regulations and sales that paled in comparison to its bigger four-stroke stablemates. But, if you were serious about roadracing, or were a serious fan of the 500cc Grand Prix races of the time, the…

Wild Wolf: 1986 Suzuki RG500 Walter Wolf

If you’re not into oil drilling and late-1970s Formula 1, you might be nonplussed at the handsome red and purple livery that graces this otherwise-standard 1986 Suzuki RG500 Gamma. But, under the alliterative name and the cool-if-dated graphics lies a story of early business success followed by a longshot investment in a passion project that…

Red, white and smoky: 1985 Kawasaki KR250S

The 1985 Kawasaki KR250S was a street-going version of a two-stroke road racer that took home four championships in the 1970s. They weighed less than 300 pounds, made 45 horsepower and packaging was kept tight with a weird “tandem twin” engine design. The mill was essentially two singles in a line with a unified crank.…

Sharp Sword: 1982 Suzuki Katana

The 1982 Suzuki Katana is a beautiful example of a manufacturer using the time-honored tradition of raiding the parts bin to make a machine whose impact multiplied the sum of its parts. With its running gear filched from the GS line, the 1982 Katana was a race-bred little brother to the GS1100 bruiser, but it…

Cleaner than most: 1990 Yamaha FZR400

The Yamaha FZR400 is becoming a rare beast, as they were only sold here for three model years and were handily outsold by their bigger siblings. That’s a shame, because the little Yammy was really a higher-spec piece than its 600cc stablemate, with an aluminum chassis instead of the bigger bike’s much less graceful steel…

Featured Listing: Low mileage 2000 Yamaha R1

Update December 2019: This bike has been sold to an RSBFS reader. Congratulations to buyer and seller! -dc As we spill countless pixels on aging, air-cooled weapons of yesteryear, bikes that ride on weird anti-dive forks and odd-size tires, it’s easy to forget that machines like the first-generation Yamaha R1 are quickly approaching classic status…