The Ducati 888 filled the gap between the brand-redefining 851 and the legendary 916, bumping the 851’s fuel-injected, liquid-cooled, four-valve L-twin to 888cc. The inbetweener status didn’t phase the bike much, though, as it was enough for Doug Polen to net back-to-back World Superbike championships in ’91 and ’92. Production ended in ’94 as the…
With a great portion of the country below freezing ( so cold here yesterday I couldn’t tell if my heated gear was even working ) the palm trees in this eBay offering got my attention – and the S4RS in the foreground isn’t too shabby either. The 1098-based flagship is a bona fide naked superbike.…
Both a flamboyant racer and a cautionary tale, Anthony Gobert was a hugely talented rider who fell from grace after a failed drug test. Several times, actually. Racing today is obviously a far cry from the wild days of the 60s and 70s, where playboy racers partied with stewardesses well into the night before getting…
There are no points for second place. Unbeknownst to Kawasaki and Honda, both manufacturers were developing the Next Big Thing in the 1970s, an affordable, reliable, inline four-cylinder motorcycle displacing 750cc’s. Unfortunately, Honda’s CB750 was first to market by several months, leaving Kawasaki with the unenviable choice: be the also-ran, or delay their machine to…
Yet another spotless machine from Gary’s Utah collection, this 1989 Yamaha FZR750RR OW01 is the second of its kind from the collection that we have written about this year. Like the one before it, it is spotless, though it has a few more miles and is ready to ride, shod with a brand-new set of…
The early ’80s were a great time to be an enormous Japanese superbike, as Wes Cooley, Kenny Roberts, Freddie Spencer and Eddie Lawson were busy catapulting your fortunes into the stratosphere. The Kawasaki KZ series in particular was enjoying the fruits of Lawson’s labor, as the flat tracker from Upland, California won the AMA Superbike…
In the American idiom, there is no substitution for cubic inches. Kawasaki understood the unmistakable allure of power and created what many regard as the iconic hot rod of the 1970s. And as hard as it may be to see, today’s mega-hyper-super bikes can trace their lineage back to the Z1R. The recipe remains the…
Update 10.27.2017: SOLD! Congratulations to buyer and seller! -dc In 1978 Honda stunned the motorcycling world with a technological tour de force. The six cylinder, 24 valve CBX was the most ambitious – and the most visceral – Honda project to date. Dominated by an air-cooled inline format mounted transversely, this Honda made a statement…