9-7-26 Update: A whopping thirteen years later and Rod M. has tipped me off that this Ercole is back up for sale. It’s a little cosmetically worse for wear and it doesn’t run anymore, hopefully it just needs a carb clean/battery/fluids? Amusingly (at least to me), the seller includes a screenshot of the old Bike-urious post from over a decade …
Rare Project – 1958 Rikuo RT2
I generally try to avoid sharing projects that are this rough but Rikuos are too cool and too rare for me to ignore. During the Great Depression, Harley-Davidson was on the verge of bankruptcy – partially due to the 1921 Safeguarding of Industries act which imposed a 33.3% tariff on American products like Harleys that were threatening UK manufacturers. Because …
Rare Import – 1985 Suzuki RM500F
1985 was the final year of the Suzuki RM500, and Suzuki decided not to export it to the US for that year.
3,125 Miles – 2005 Honda CBR600F4i
I wouldn’t say I have a particular soft spot for the F4i, but it’s been a long time since I’ve seen one this cosmetically clean so if you’re looking for one (maybe to capture some nostalgia), this might be worth purusing…
1964 BSA Beagle
Known as the Beagle in the UK, this little 75cc BSA commuter was marketed as the Starlite in America.
Video Intermission – $7M European Collection
Alright, here’s one of the reasons I’ve been a bit behind on Bike-urious posts the last couple of weeks – over at Iconic we’ve been asked to find new homes for 140+ motorcycles out of an incredible motorcycle collection that’s mostly from European manufacturers. During a recent visit, my business partner Adam and I decided to film a video sharing …
#11/25 – 2019 Aprilia Tuono V4 Factory Summit Attack
Aprilia introduced the V4 1100 generation of the incredible Tuono in 2016 and they made sure to continue offering the up-spec “Factory” variant in the process – it got the same 175 horsepower engine and highly capable chassis as the base model, as well as being bestowed with top-of-the-line Öhlins forks/monoshock/steering damper, Brembo M432 monobloc four-piston calipers with revised braking …
Swiss Headlight – 1988 Bimota YB6
This bike is in Poland so I don’t think any Bike-urious reader will be rushing out to buy it any time soon but I always get caught off guard when I see a bike that’s been modified for the Swiss market. Why? Because lots of beautiful motorcycles with dual round headlights had to be converted to have a single square …
1995 Triumph Daytona Super III
In the early 1990s, famed engine experts Cosworth assisted Triumph in their quest to build a faster version of the Daytona 900. It was a rare bird, as just 805 examples of the “Super III” were sold, 179 of which made it to the United States.
2007 Buell Lightning XB12S “Cherry Bomb”
I’ve been on a little bit of a Buell kick as of late because…I actually just bought one of these exact bikes myself (though mine is a 2008 and one of the 25th Anniversary models). I always thought the Buell offerings with translucent plastics were interesting so when a friend had one for sale I had to try one for …
1977 Honda MT125R With Zero Miles
Over on the auction site we got a never-ridden example of a bike that started many a race career!
2015 Honda Grom with CR”325″ Engine
A stock 2015 Honda Grom is good for about 9 horsepower. Over the years we’ve seen several people stuff 4-stroke CB300 motors (~30 horsepower) but this is new to me – someone’s taken a 2-stroke CR250R motor, bored it out to 325cc, and shoved it into a Grom. He claims an output of…60 horsepower.
1987 Kawasaki KLR650 with 1990 Honda CBR1000 Engine
There’s plenty of people out there that would love to see more power out of their KLRs…but this is an unexpected way to do it. This Frankenbike combines a KLR with a Honda CBR1000 for something that will definitely get attention.
Video Intermission – 1988 Ikuzawa-Harris Honda TH1R
Over at Iconic Motorbikes I’m lucky to see all kinds of rare machines come through on a regular basis, but right now we have something that even I’m shocked by: 1 of 20 examples of the TH1R built by Tetsu Ikuzawa. As I was writing up the auction listing for this bike it became clear to me that there wasn’t …
64K Miles – 1993 Honda CBR600F2
The successor of the Hurricane, the CBR600F2 was considered to be quite innovative when released in 1991. This example stands out as its been ridden a healthy 64,000-plus miles! The 599cc motor in the F2 produced 84.5 horsepower at the rear wheel through a 6-speed transmission and wet weight was 470 pounds. This bike absolutely dominated the AMA under Miggy …