Manufactures of sportsbikes have been engaged in an arms race for decades. Constantly pushing the performance envelop. Adding technology to tame the ever increasing power and chipping away at lap times in order to be able to market their creation as the top of the heap. KTM had a brief, but meaningful foray into the…
I know that the RSBFS reader loves a good two stroke. And what better to post than a well-kept Yamaha RZ350? The last of the true factory street bike smokers, the RZ was successfully imported into the US – and even California! – for a short while. And so while these are not grey bikes…
I must admit, I’ve been sitting on the sidelines on this one. After the 3rd or 4th time around on eBay, I figured it was about time I wrote it up here (it was already on our Facebook site). After all, it is a freaking Krauser frame with seemingly pristine bodywork. That makes this a…
The RZ market is pretty crazy right now. RSBFS staffers have seen bikes of all types of condition with pricing all over the map. We’ve seen bargains, we’ve seen riders and we’ve seen basket cases. We’ve come across amazing time capsules of authenticity, and seen the results of ambitious projects (sometimes gone bad). The bottom…
In the soda wars of the 1980s, Coca-Cola was the big dog. But others were keen to move in on the success of Coke, including Pepsi and RC Cola. Each had a slightly different take on the same theme, and competed for the same set of customers. Fast forward to the late 1990s and you…
When the 999 series was introduced in 2003 as the successor to the fantastic 916/996/998 genealogy of Ducati Superbikes, the world collectively groaned. Far removed from the sexy, flowing lines of the Tamburini-penned predecessors, the Terblanche-designed 999 series was rough and angular. The stacked headlight arrangement made the bike instantly recognizable in the sort of…
Honda designers set their sights on a slighter, lighter superbike for the early 1990’s and based the new model on a 750cc in-house prototype. With a new 893cc engine installed, the resulting package was just a tad heavier than Honda’s own 600, and had a substantial weight advantage on other unlimiteds. 1995 Honda CBR900RR for…
Prior to the “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” S1000RR, BMW’s sportbikes were decidedly offbeat. They were almost like the Saab of the motorcycle world, with remote-operated brake master cylinders, shaft-drive, unconventional suspensions, and that durable and charismatic, but very, very wide horizontally-opposed engine. And their last hurrah before the stunningly capable S1000RR was…