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.
Factory Racer – 2001 Aprilia RSW 250
Post Listing Update: This RSW is incredibly cool, but apparently not $65,000 cool. It did not get any action at that BIN number. Plenty of riders are familiar with the Aprilia RS250, what some consider to be the best 250 street bike you can get. But Aprilia also offered the RSV/RSW250, the true factory race bike designed to compete in …
Needs Some Work – 1977 Jawa Type 653 ISDT
One of Jawa’s many ISDT racers, the Type 653 featured a 350 (344.5) cc engine and some fiendishly good looks. This example has been with the seller for 12 years, but he’s let it sit for a while and it will need only a little bit of work before it races again.
New In Crate – 2006 Triumph Bonneville Multi-Union
British designer Paul Smith is known for his style of ‘classics with a twist’, which is what made him a fitting choice for a partnership in 2005 when Triumph asked him to take their classic Bonneville…and add a twist. He responded with 9 different one-off designs which were for sale through Smith’s shops. While I don’t care for any of …
Treat Yourself – Motorcycle Classics 2005-2015
Motorcycle Classics is one of my favorite websites on the vast interwebs, thanks to their desire to preserve classic motorcycling and their classic bike database. You’ve probably seen me link to their site plenty of times for supplemental information on featured bikes. I was pleased to discover recently that they’ve accumulated all of their content in the first 10 years …
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?
Rotary Tourer In England – 1989 Norton Commander
There’s a lot of cool stuff going on with the Norton Commander – just 253 examples were built, it uses a Wankel rotary engine, it’s got some Yamaha parts in it…and it just looks so delightfully 80s!
1975 Reliant Robin
2-6 Update: About 16 months later, this Robin is back up for sale but it’s now on eBay with more information and pictures (plus you can watch the Top Gear bit again). This example (VIN:9519203V) has 74,600 miles and because it’s now on eBay instead of at Mecum, we know what the asking price is – find it in Anaheim, …
“Monster Killer” – 2004 Benelli TnT 1130
TnT stands for Tornado Nuda Tre, which should give you a few ideas about this bike. It’s naked, it’s fast, and it’s powered by an awesome triple engine. If you’re a patient rider, you’ll be rewarded by what MCN called “one of the best ever incarnations of the naked motorcycle.”
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 …
In England – 1990 Moto Morini Dart
When the Dart was introduced, Moto Morini was owned by Cagiva – at the time the latter had no mid-sized bike in their model range. They decided to remedy that by taking the frame of their Freccia 125, and then shoving in a Morini 350cc V-Twin. It’s odd to see an air-cooled engine surrounded in plastic, but hey, this was …
World Record Attempt – Wheelies and Stoppies on Ice!
Live near Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin? Before you get all cozy for the Super Bowl this Sunday, you may want to head over to Norm’s Hideaway, where some crazy people are going to try to set some Guinness World Records on the adjoining lake – fastest and longest stoppie on ice, and fastest wheelie on ice.
Video Intermission – Mini Bike Mayhem!
Did you grow up with minibikes? Come have a quick nostalgia rush as HOT ROD unlimited visits Joe’s Mini Bike Reunion back in 2013:
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 …