This YZF 1000 Thunderace bike from 1997 immigrated from Europe. These were only sold in the US for one year, so they are not in abundance this side of the pond. This fact however does not translate into hard-to-find parts as this bike was created from other Yamaha parts. In a nutshell, this bike combines…
Here’s a rare bike in the U.S., the YZF1000 Thunderace! Imported for only one year here, these are so rare now that this one was actually imported from Europe. Bodywork looks clean and all the bits are there, but the rest appears a bit weather worn. On the other hand, the seller states everything works…
If you don’t mind the typical Italian quirks, the Bimota YB11 currently offers tremendous bang for the buck. It’s as rare as hen’s teeth, with just 650 made worldwide, packs a Yamaha YZF1000R motor and gearbox, is clothed in lightweight bodywork, and generally trade at $10,000 or less. It doesn’t get much rarer or more…
This Bimota YB11 Superleggera isn’t just a sportbike, or even an exotic sportbike. It’s a high-performance boutique motorcycle, one of just 650 ever built. Of course, that’s pretty much mass production by Bimota standards. It doesn’t have quite the cachet of Honda’s limited-production homologation superbikes, but consider that Honda made almost 5,000 Honda RC30s, compared…
Superleggera means “super light” in Italian, and has been applied to everything from aluminum-bodied Ferraris to modern Ducatis. For the time, the Bimota YB11 offered pretty outrageous performance, compared to mass-produced open-class superbikes. In the YB11’s case, the claimed 403lbs dry is on par with something like a modern superbike, with a bit less power.…
It seems like most of the Bimotas that come up for sale these days aren’t really for sale. I mean, if people wanted to actually sell them, the asking prices would probably be a bit lower… Bottom line: the Bimota YB11 is a cool bike and still pretty fast, even compared to modern bikes. But…
It’s pretty common for cars in the USA to get evocative names like “Cougar” and “Charger” or components with nonsensical, but cool-sounding names like “Vortec” or “Jetfire.” In the motorcycling world, the reverse seems more common, since today’s bike was known as the Yamaha YZF1000 here in the USA while overseas it was the “Thunderace,” big…
1990s Bimotas currently represent an amazing value, and this 1998 YB11 Superleggera has superbike performance, Yamaha reliability, and is very rare, all for under $10,000. “Superleggera” or “super light” is a style of construction that stresses lightweight materials and construction: Ducati’s Superleggera is so super and leggera that it actually weighs less than the British Superbike…
