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…
Introduced in the late 1960s as an over-the-counter racebike, Yamaha’s TR2 was based on the road-going R3, and was extremely popular among privateer racers of the period. At just 253lbs dry, the bike was lightweight and, with a nearly square 61mm x 59.6mm bore and stroke that worked out to 348cc, the little air-cooled, two-stroke…
In the late 1990’s Laverda was re-incarnating their past glory and made some of their best big upright twins and triples, before being purchased and then shuttered by Aprilia. Presented here is a rare yellow and very late 750S, sparkling with only 994 miles. Could be the nearest thing to a brand new Laverda out…
Competition between the Japanese manufacturers in the 250cc sportbike class was fierce, with each trying for some small advantage in terms of performance, given the limited displacement and government-mandated power cap. On paper, they all seem to follow a pretty standard template: a compact two-stroke twin cylinder engine, power-valves of one sort or another, and…
If you live here in the US and have a hankering for a two-stroke sportbike the choices, assuming you don’t want to monkey about with a grey-market import, are few and far between. 70’s two-strokes were relatively light and nimble, but still limited by the suspension and frame technology of the time, and by the…
The fact that it’s offered by a SoCal preparation shop specializing in Suzuki might be a reminder that the Aprilia RS250 used the 249cc two-stroke twin from the RGV250. As enhanced by Aprilia’s intake, top end, and exhaust, the RS250 had power that put 4-strokes with triple the displacement to shame. This first-year race…
Looking a bit like Aprilia’s Falco, the MZ 1000S was a high-end sport-touring motorcycle from a largely forgotten East German manufacturer that was powered by a big-bore parallel-twin engine. What could possibly go wrong? Well, not much really: as the seller mentions, parts to maintain the 1000S are available online, they’ve got a good reputation…
The Zane-era Laverda Ghost and Ghost Strike are extremely rare here in the USA. They were designed to fill the same niche as Ducati’s Monster and provide a profitable, parts-bin naked that would help put the struggling company into the black. The seller claims that the bike is “light, fast, loud, and powerful” and he’s…
