While the roadgoing two-stroke era ended here in 1979, it continued for several more years around the globe, a few makers templating their Grand Prix bikes for the showroom. This example looks under used and has a super-clean stock appearance. 1987 Yamaha RZV500 for sale on eBay The RZV was destined only for Japan, and…
Fully ten years after Barry Sheene won the GP world championship on his RG500, Suzuki had tamed the beast for the showroom. Though the delay missed the window of opportunity in the U.S., many examples have been imported, and this looks like one of the finest. 1986 Suzuki RG500 Gamma for sale on eBay Unthinkably…
If you’re not into oil drilling and late-1970s Formula 1, you might be nonplussed at the handsome red and purple livery that graces this otherwise-standard 1986 Suzuki RG500 Gamma. But, under the alliterative name and the cool-if-dated graphics lies a story of early business success followed by a longshot investment in a passion project that…
By 2001, the entire quarter-liter sportbike class was basically dead, leaving the Aprilia RS250 Cup a bit of an orphan. Yamaha TZR250 production ended in 1995, Honda’s NSR250R in 1996, and the Suzuki RGV250Γ held out until 1998. But I guess Aprilia still had some of the older 90° RGV250 engines lying around, so they…
Two-stroke sportbikes of the late 1980s and early 1990s followed a very similar format: aluminum beam frame, full fairing, racy ergonomics, and a small two-stroke powerplants packing cutting-edge technology and serious power per cubic inch. But the formula wasn’t really the result of a lack of imagination, it was convergent evolution: the class was ruthlessly…
The 1985 Kawasaki KR250S was a street-going version of a two-stroke road racer that took home four championships in the 1970s. They weighed less than 300 pounds, made 45 horsepower and packaging was kept tight with a weird “tandem twin” engine design. The mill was essentially two singles in a line with a unified crank.…
The 1996 Suzuki RGV250 VJ23 was basically the last gasp for road-legal two-stroke sport bikes, and one of the most technologically advanced. Sure, Aprilia made the RS250 for a few years beyond that, but it was actually powered by the previous generation of Suzuki’s RGV250 engine, and the final examples weren’t even road legal in…
I’m not always a fan of race-replica paint schemes: they’re obviously designed to be as eye-catching as possible, so they’re usually not very subtle… But the Loris Reggiani Replica Aprilia RS250 keeps thing pretty simple, with a distinctive scheme that flatters the bike’s simple good looks. It’s so understated that, for the longest time, I…