The Honda CB450 Black Bomber is easily one of the most significant motorcycles to ever come out of Japan. Produced for just three years, it was the company’s first ‘big bike’ (and the first production bike with DOHC). At the time, it was considered to be one of the best bikes ever built, though it didn’t sell as well as …
1979 Suzuki GS850
A few weeks ago I shared some photos from a visit I took over to Jeff Skinner’s place, Best West Fasteners. The first bike I shared was an interesting Suzuki GS850 that had been painted to look like a Wes Colley Replica…and now it’s for sale!
7/11 With No Reserve – 1994 Suzuki GSX-R750/1100
A popular mod with 90s GSX-Rs was to shoehorn the 1100 motor into the 750 frame – the resulting creation was often referred to as a “7/11”. According to Old School Suzuki, the first 7/11 “was built by Bradley O’Connor and it was featured in the September 1992 issue of Performance Bikes magazine.“
1967 Bridgestone GTO 350
The Bridgestone GTO 350 was the scrambler version of the absolutely incredible GTR, a bike that could leave 650 and 750cc bikes in the dust in the quarter-mile. What did Bridgestone think would be required to turn a street bike into a scrambler? The only change was the high exhaust pipes. The GTO was the much rarer variant of an …
Jetski Body – 2016 Honda PCX 150
The seller of this contraption has a heck of a description: “this is the pinnacle of engineering, you literally can’t go anywhere without strangers throwing themselves at you. Lee Health has asked me not to ride this because it’s breaking peoples necks trying to look at it. If you want to own a piece of what makes this country great, …
BMW K1200R Power Cup
6-26-2024 Update: 11 years later (!), it looks like this bike is up for sale again. It actually sold on Bring a Trailer in April for $10,000 and now it’s up at a dealer for roughly 50% more. It currently has 1,280 kilometers (795 miles) and ti’s sold on an off-road title. I have to admit that there’s part of …
2004 Ducati Multistrada 1000 Custom
Custom built by Spirit Lake Cycles, this Ducati is an interesting take on what the Italians called the Multistrada, which translates to “many roads.” That reflects the broad capabilities built in by Ducati and Pierre Terblanche – their attempt at a touring bike you could hustle with. As MCN put it, “On face value, the Ducati Multistrada 1000DS shouldn’t work …
1967 Bridgestone 175 Dual Twin
One of the many high quality (and somewhat pricey) small displacement bikes from a company we now only associate with tires, the Bridgestone 175 Dual Twin was basically a baby sport bike with two of their 90cc single engines merged together.
Solvang Motorcycle Museum – 1921 Mars A20 Replica
Founded in 1873, the Mars company (not the one that makes chocolate) got their start building tools and bicycles. They expanded to motorcycle manufacturing in 1903 but their most famous machine came in 1921. Called the “White Mars” by some, it featured a 986cc Maybach boxer twin engine good for 7 horsepower. They were built to a high standard and …
In Australia – 1985 Ducati TT1
Ducati’s TT1 was a 748cc race bike based on the iconic TT2 (600cc), a bike that won multiple world championships. The TT1 ultimately wouldn’t be as successful as its predecessor, but the 750 was nonetheless a solid racer that would lead to a street-legal variant we know as the F1 750. This example is not one of the original (50-60 …
Abhi Races a Honda CB160, Part 11 – A Semi-Successful Shakedown
Due to a rainout, it’s been quite a while since I had an update for you on my CB160 (now 175) race plans this year. Let’s fix that!
Video Intermission – The Bike I Regret Selling The Most
Over at my main gig we’re starting a video series called “Ask Iconic” so people can learn more about all the folks at the company. This started out of a question I randomly asked a couple of our technicians for a social media post: what bike do you regret selling the most? I figured that if I was going to …
1988 Yamaha TDR80
Never sold in the US, the TDR80 is a mini version of the awesome TDR250…that we sadly didn’t get here, either.
No Reserve For Solly Mervis – 2023 Honda NSF100R
As I noted when sharing a recent press release from Kramer, over at Iconic Motorbikes we currently support two young American motorcycle road racers: Kensei Matsudaira and Solomon Mervis. This week we are donating one of our Honda NSF100Rs to Solly – we’re auctioning it off with no reserve and we’ll be giving him the amount of the winning bid!
1987 Honda Super Magna
For the 1987 model year, Honda added some dragster style to the Magna to compensate for the slight displacement reduction due to the ’83 motorcycle tariff (which expired in 1988). In other markets, this generation of the Magna was offered with a 750cc engine, but Americans got a 700cc motor. I’ve featured a couple of these before and both times …