Post Listing Update: This RS125R was pulled off of eBay, final sale price unknown. Honda sold the RS125 for decades, and from the beginning it was an excellent privateer race bike from the factory. Looking to learn how to race while dealing with a two-stroke powerband? Look no further.
Custom Honda GL650 Cafe Racer
Kevin Murphy is a retired master mechanic who has been working on Honda GL/CX bikes for years – I featured one of his previous builds almost exactly a year ago.
Rocket Performance – 2016 Yamaha YZ250F
Post-Listing Update: This Yammie MX bike got no interest at the BIN of $15,000. Rocket Exhaust builds parts to help privateers compete with with the big boys in Motocross and Supercross. Don Leib is the president of Rocket, and he built this bike for his son to compete with – until the son was signed to a pro team. Now …
Imported Benly – 1956 Honda JC56 125cc
The 250cc Honda Benly was one of the three initial U.S. offerings by Honda and helped establish the company’s toehold in this country. But back home smaller displacement tiddlers were the manufacturer’s bread-and-butter, meaning basic, reliable, utilitarian transport. But that didn’t mean they couldn’t be without style, and the Benly line were among the best-looking.
Needs Some Work – 1968 Yamaha YA6
The YA6 was the first Yamaha to feature “Autolube” oil injection, which led to a Safety & Engineering award from Auto & Motor Sport magazine. The Autolube concept was incredibly successful and was a mainstay of Yamaha’s line for years. The YA6? Not so much, it’s a rare find nowadays.
Homologation Special – 1992 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-7R K2
Post-Listing Update: This Ninja was pulled off of eBay, final sale price unknown. The “K” model of the ZX-7R, built between 91-92, was a homologation special built in limited numbers (500 examples) so Kawi could go racing in AMA Superbike. 142 examples were exported to the US, with an asking price that was nearly twice what Kawasaki charged for the …
1975 Honda CB750 Cafe Racer
Right now, Sildorome is asking what the best UJM is. A whole bunch of the answers are the CB750, which isn’t surprising considering what a sales success it was. Because there are plenty of examples to work with, many builders turn to the big CB when they want to build a custom. Here’s an example that I generally dig, except …
Christmas Special – 1986 Honda Z50
Considered by some as the ultimate Honda Z50, the “Christmas Special” was a limited edition – you can probably guess what time of year it was released. Honda gave two examples to each of their top dealers, though they typically called it the “Chrome Edition” seeing as nearly every part on the bike (even the frame!) was chromed. This example …
46 Years of Hondas
A seller is offering Hondas built between 1959 and 2005 – including standards, cruisers, and dirt bikes. My pick of the litter? The 1988 Honda NX250 in rare factory red.
In England – 1982 Honda CB750 Custom
Billy Mackenzie is a professional MX racer in England that has completed his first custom build, starting with a Honda CB750. He says he was inspired by the CB custom built by Hookie Co, and he calls this build X-Axis because of the horizontal and parallel lines of the design. What’s your verdict?
Preserved Survivor – 1984 Honda XL350R
In 1985, Cycle World called Honda’s XL350R the best dual-purpose bike of the year, noting that riding most dualies ‘is a lot like going shopping with your grandmother: It’s all right as long as no one see you…while the owner of an XL350R might not have the fastest, most expensive, or most prestigious bike on his block, there’s a good …
1978 Yamaha XS750
In 1973, Yamaha released the TX750 – an incredibly smooth parallel twin that journalists loved…until the fancy Omni-Phase balancer that kept the twin as smooth as a four started eating up crankshafts. Even though Yamaha fixed the issue pretty quickly, the reputation of unreliability had already stuck – the bike was out of the market after 1974. Still, Yamaha knew …
1985 Suzuki RG400 Walter Wolf
Introduced in 1983, the RG-Gamma series spanned displacements between 250 and 500cc – but the cream of the crop was the Suzuki RG400 Gamma Walter Wolf – a bike made for just two years and only sold in Suzuki’s home market of Japan. None of them were officially exported. A replica of the race bike, it was full of the …
Do You Believe? Pre-Production Suzuki RG500
Post Listing Update: This Suzuki was relisted and then pulled off of eBay because the bike is “no longer available.” The seller of this bike claims it is the only known no-mileage (though there’s 9 kilometers on the odometer) pre-production RG500 in the world, complete with a letter of authenticity from Suzuki that says this bike “is a pre-production motorcycle …
Showroom Condition – 1977 Honda XL175 With 481 Miles
Post-Sale Update: After 51 bids on eBay, this XL 175 sold for $3,500. Honda’s XL series of “enduro” or dual sport bikes began in the early ’70s and continues to this day. The early models steadily grew in displacement over the years and were all distinguished by their single-cylinder, four-stroke engines. These were not true off-road designs, but street riders …