Features

It’s 1972 and the tin roof of the school bike shed is reverberating to a new vibe. The sixteener law has killed the elderly Brit and slightly shabby Jap 250s acquired via countless cold ‘n’ wet paper rounds in favour of mopeds. Naively HMG believes this new anti-youth dictat will condemn kids to an asthmatic,…

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Suzuki RF900 Like last month’s Kawasaki ZX-9R, the Suzuki RF900 was a stop-gap machine which had the right capacity to lure people away from the then-dominant CBR900RR FireBlade, but – alas like the Ninja – it didn’t really slice the old mustard. So what was wrong with it? Nothing if you read the launch reports…

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Moto Guzzi S3 classic Italian motorcycle Italian motorcycles have always been loved for their singular character. Like most Italian design, they have been the result more of passion than a desire for business success. It is only recently that Italian motorcycle manufacturers have enjoyed financial security, and that is ironically largely due to massive foreign…

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A white knuckle ride: Kawasaki 750H2 10 1972 Kawasaki H2 750 All the vices and perverse virtues of its Mach III forerunner in 750cc form. Although no faster than the Mach III 500, it was a shade quicker over the standing-quarter and the difference was enough for it to claim the title of the fastest…

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Kawasaki Z1300 The colossal six cylinder, watercooled Z1300 came along just a year after Honda’s own ‘six’, the CBX. That had been awesome enough but the Zed boasted 15 more horses at 120 bhp! Fierce debate in the bike press was already under way about just how far the Japanese could go in terms of…

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Kawasaki KE175B To misquote George Orwell’s Animal Farm “all trail bikes are equal but some are more equal than others”. If you’ve never ridden a KE175 against any of its peers you’ll probably wonder what on earth we’re on about. However, if you’ve played with 1970s trail irons you’ll already know that Kawasaki’s fairly rare…

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Seats can be rejuventated with a new cover At some point when owning an old bike or during a restoration it’s likely that the seat will need re-covering. There are several well known companies that offer an excellent service and I’ve used at least a couple for my various projects. However, I like to do…

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Yamaha XJ900 Launched in April 1983 at Yamaha’s test track in Japan alongside the YPVS RD350LC two-stroke twin, the XJ900 offered a more wieldy alternative to the bulk of the XS1100 four of five years earlier. But the combination of a slim, compact but highly potent multi-cylinder engine – clearly a sporting package – with…

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Iconic Kawasaki GPZ600R Everything was going for Kawasaki’s GPz600R when it was launched at the end of 1984. The factory was basking in the glory that it had created with the GPz900R, a machine that set new rules for superbikes. Like the 900, the 600 was liquid-cooled, the first of its type. It had Grand-Prix…

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Suzuki RG500 (left) and GSX-R 750 Imagine, if you will, two design teams at Suzuki working in complete isolation. Each has been tasked with designing and building the best road-going motorcycle they possibly can. Both teams working late into the night fuelled by strong black coffee. Both working with cutting edge technology. And what a…

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