Look, they made a lot of Ducati 916/996/998’s over the years, and while they’re truly iconic machines, they’re also kind of cliché, especially in stock form. Not that I don’t love them to pieces. I have every intention of owning one at some point. Part of the reason for their ubiquity is the fact that…
The first year of Honda’s long-running two-stroke race-replica series, this NSR250R looks to be in very good, unrestored shape and has a valid title and is currently road-registered! The NSR250R was powered by an ever-so-slightly undersquare 249cc, liquid-cooled two-stroke v-twin. It was fed by a pair of carburetors and featured Hondas ATAC torque-boosting system to…
Originally posted in July, this NSR is back on eBay. Links updated. -dc This is actually a very nice NSR250R SP in Rothman’s livery, a road-legal version of Honda’s 250 race bike that obviously includes all the necessary lights and signals to keep you looking suitably responsible. The little 250cc two-stroke v-twin pumped out about…
Even a storied manufacturer with a portfolio of glorious bikes can make a misstep. A trend of questionable taste taken just a bit too far, a design compromised by budget, a stylist given too free a hand. The Bimota Mantra may have been all of these things working against it: it’s a bit of an…
Introduced in 1997 and made until 2001, the TL1000S was a shot across Ducati’s bow. Tired of the Bolognese firm getting all the press for their sexy, thunderous twins, Suzuki did them one better: a reliable, low-maintenance, liquid-cooled v-twin that made the power of Ducati’s 916 at the price of their air-cooled 900SS… While 125hp…
Until very recently, Bimota’s exotic, Ducati-powered offerings like this DB2 featured the air/oil-cooled two-valve engines, instead of the more powerful four-valve water-cooled engines from the 851/916 models. This meant that, although the bikes weren’t the fastest straight-line performers, they were light and lithe, enabling riders to make good use of every horse available. This was…
Motorcycle Designer Pierre Terblanche is a somewhat controversial figure in the world of motorcycle design. Notably held responsible for Ducati’s controversial 749/999 bikes and Sport Classics, you’ll find a great deal of internet hate directed at him. I happen to be a fan of the 749/999 bikes but I acknowledge that they’re not especially pretty…
I’m really not sure what it was that made Erik Buell stick with Harley Davidson power for so long. Maybe it was patriotism? Stubbornness, a desire to do something simply because no other sane person would even attempt it, let alone succeed? Who knows, but the bikes he came up with, especially in those early…