In the mid-20th Century, Norton occupied rarefied standing in motorcycling, making itself legendary among racers in Britain and Europe, taking home Manx TT trophies and trading wins with other big names on the continent and in the Isles. Its big-bore engines and revolutionary vibration-isolating frame designs made the brand wildly popular, cutting edge and fast.…
Looking like a modern take on the wildly popular RZ350 two stroke, the 1991 Yamaha R1-Z somehow never made it out of Japan. That’s a shame, too, because the R1-Z sports a too-sexy-for-my-fairing steel trellis frame and the powerplant from the TZR250 race replica. 1991 Yamaha R1-Z for sale on eBay Sneaking in under 300…
Update 9.29.2017: SOLD! Congratulations to buyer and seller! -dc Today’s Featured Listing Yamaha TZR250 comes to us from our neighbors to the north in Canada. This 1KT/2MA/2ME was the very first iteration of Yamaha’s little sportbike, and helped to define the 250cc class. If you’re not familiar, these little quarter-liter sportbikes were packed with big-bike…
Looking very much like someone washed an RG500 in hot water, Suzuki’s RG250Γ “Gamma” featured two fewer cylinders and half the displacement, but was still packed full of race-bred technology and performance. Built between 1983 and 1987, the quarter-liter Gamma was never officially imported to the USA, but some have found their way here over…
You know, it gets harder and harder to come up with smoking-related titles for these two-stroke posts… We may no longer allow tobacco companies to advertise in racing, but it seems to be a natural fit, considering the dangers involved in both activities and especially in the case of smoky, environmentally-unfriendly two-stroke machines. It’s also…
Today’s Featured Listing Laverda 750 SF2 is definitely more of a classic sportbike, but it’s definitely rare and such an icon we couldn’t help but publish! For fans of the site who aren’t really familiar with low-production Italian bikes of the 1970s, you could probably think of Laverda as “the Lamborghini of motorcycles,” since they…
This bike got me excited because Practical Sportbikes has been doing a project Yamaha TDR250 over the past few months, and up until I saw it, I had no idea the bike even existed. You say it’s not a sportbike? I say if it’s in Practical Sportbikes, it qualifies! So what exactly is a TDR250? Well…
It may take you a little bit to pry yourself away from this first picture. It’s OK, I’ll wait a moment. Yes, that is an honest-to-God, freaking *original* Kawasaki KR-1R. The rarest of the rare of the quarter-liter smoking set has arrived, and this is your chance (and likely your only chance) to score one…