The engine of any motorcycle is its living, beating heart and the powerplant of Aprilia’s funky RSV Mille R was, at the time, as unconventional as the bike’s styling. A 90° v-twin is generally considered ideal for sporting applications, as the angle between the cylinders provides “perfect primary balance” where the unpleasant vibrations caused by…
Honda had tested the market with the NS250F/R in 1984, and sampled in the MotoGP waters. On the heels of Freddie Spencer’s 1985 championship in the 500 and 250cc classes ( ! ), the factory introduced the NSR-250R in late 1986 as a 1987 model. This early example of the winning two-stroke twin is almost…
Like rock and roll bands, manufacturers of premium motorcycle brands always have their eyes on the US market: a land of seemingly endless wealth to buy expensive, high-end motorcycles and wide-open spaces where big-bore motorcycles can roam free. In Europe, smaller motorcycles were very popular, owing to taxes that punished larger machines, expensive gas, and…
The very definition of an “affordable exotic,” the Ducati Monster M900 was designed from the beginning to be cost-effective: their proven air and oil-cooled two-valve v-twin and six-speed gearbox combo, the frame from the 851 with suspension, wheels and brakes from the 900SS meant everything except the minimal bodywork was off-the-shelf. Originally available in 904cc…
If you want a machine with charisma, humane ergonomics, and a dash of tradition, the early 90s Ducati 900SS is a modern classic that offers a less frantic experience than similar bikes from Japan. Straight-line performance for the two-valve v-twin is modest, but these were all about midrange power and torque. Powered by a 904cc…
From the “jeez, if you’re going to post your bike for sale, couldn’t you at least wash it” files comes this Honda NSR250R MC28. Early NSRs have become relatively common on this site recently, with containers full of them coming over from Japan, now that they’ve become relatively easy to register in some parts of…
To the uninitiated, Honda’s alpha-numeric naming convention can get confusing, and it’d be easy to mistake this RS250R for something like a garden-variety NSR250R with a set of track-day fairings. But unlike the road-legal, race-replica NSR250R, the RS250R was a production race-bike, a Grand Prix machine in miniature. With the fairings removed, the elegant simplicity…
A mix of sleek styling and proven Japanese power, the Aprilia RS250 was the Italian company’s entry into the hotly-contested quarter-liter sportbike class battles and intended to take the fight to Honda’s NSR250, Yamaha’s TZR250, and Suzuki’s RGV250. The monochromatic style was a far cry from the vivid speedblock and tiger-stripe designs of the Japanese…
