Little sportbikes like this very nice Kawasaki ZXR250 were never imported to the USA for a very good reason: there was basically zero demand for them. In other countries, licensing limitations, high taxes on larger-displacement bikes, and much more expensive fuel mean that riders don’t necessarily graduate from a 250 to a 600 to a…
When it comes to quarter liter two stroke imports, the usual suspects are in (relatively) plentiful supply. While never officially available in the US, all sorts of fine, Japanese and Italian hardware make it to our shores thanks to creative individuals, and of course, our friends up in Canada. We usually don’t go a month…
One of the all-time classic marriages of Japanese power plant technology with hand-built racing frame know how all wrapped up together in a tailored Italian suit is the little Rimini company of Bimota. Founded by three like-minded individuals who liked to go fast (and look good doing it), Bimota utilized donor engines and transmissions to…
From the 30-something files comes the epitome of the quintessential 1980s sport bike: the Kawasaki GPz. Conceived during what was to become the eve of the classic sporting motorcyle, the GPz led the way right up to the next real era of technology and died out with the introduction of the hyper bike. Making the…
I know that for many of our readers, RSBFS is all about the import smokers. And while we do love our grey-market popcorn poppers, variety is – as they say – the spice of life. Two-strokes did not always dominate the sport bike scene, as evidenced by today’s example of what ruled the streets in…
In the 1970s and 1980s, the Big Four Japanese motorcycle manufacturers appeared to know little about frame design and its effect on handling. Enter the small shop known as Bimota, formed as a hobby by Valerio Bianchi, Giuseppe Morri and Massimo Tamburini. Using existing motorcycles as a jumping off point, the Rimini firm created stout…
Looking like its bigger brothers of the ZX7 family, you would be forgiven to mistake the ZXR250 for a larger displacement motorcycle. But as we all know, small bikes rule in Japan, and when it comes to small sport bikes, Japan really does rule. Built to work around restrictive licensing rules in the home market…
While we see the occasional CBR400RR here on the site, and FZR400s aren’t too hard to find if you go looking, it’s been quite a while since we’ve been able to feature one of Kawasaki’s bantamweight superbikes, the ZXR400. With a liquid-cooled 398cc inline four and a six-speed gearbox to make the most of the…