Pity the US-based two-stroke fan. Few models were ever officially imported into the US, and those that did hit our shores only lasted for a couple of years. And while we should be happy we ever got them at all, vitally missing were the hard-edged smokers and the big bore machines. Casting eyes northward, we…
Before we start and this gets out of hand, you *might* remember when you could buy one of these for $12. Or $1500. Or maybe even $10k. Those days are gone. The fact is this sub 10,000 mile RG500 Walter Wolf edition Gamma is on eBay for just a tad shy of $33,000. And while…
By the late 1990s, the Suzuki GSX-R1100 was seen as a bloated sport-tourer that had lost its way as a serious sportbike. It had been eclipsed by the power and lithe chassis of a new breed of 1000s, which looked more like 600s than liter bikes. But in 1989, the Gixxer 1100 was still very…
In 1996, Suzuki endeavored to make its GSX-R 750 reclaim its spot atop magazine tests, superbike grids and riders’ wishlists with a redesigned frame that aped the RGV500 grand prix bike, and the introduction of the now-legendary SRAD ram-air system. Two years later, when this 1998 Suzuki GSX-R 750 SRAD was built, they had grown…
It came from the 80s. And while that is an accurate tag line, the truth is it sort of oozed its way boldly out of the 1970s. Like the last of the front-engine Formula 1 racers, the Katana was visually stunning and stood at the pinnacle of old-school performance. Unfortunately, that pinnacle was really a…
By every objective measure, the Suzuki TL1000R fell woefully short of its design brief over its six-year run, missing the mark as a world-dominating superbike, Yamaha R1 competitor and genre-defining street machine. Plagued by its porky waistline and relative lack of power, and dogged by horrifying tales of its disappointing rotary damper rear suspension, the…
Hmmmm. A grey-market two stroke. I doubt anyone on this site will complain, as these illicit smokers have been in our DNA and part of our regularly scheduled programming since the beginning. And if you are going to collect something deliciously rare, why not opt for colors and livery that are slightly less common? Thus,…
Ah, the 1986 Suzuki GSX-R 750. There are plenty of reasons to love “slabbies,” from their awkward-but-functional bodywork that signalled a move to full fairings for the sportbike crowd, to their no-apologies approach to out and out speed, to the fact that decent ones are fast becoming prized collector bikes. This example is a clean…