BIKES YOU’VE NEVER SEEN BEFORE: PEARSON/RICKMAN JAP 600
J.A.P was a British Speedway engine from the 1930 that got its name from the initials of designer John Alfred Prestwich
Browsing tag
J.A.P was a British Speedway engine from the 1930 that got its name from the initials of designer John Alfred Prestwich
A bike that wasn’t very good when it was first built, but due to a change in fate it became a winner based on the one thing it did well
How big is too big, but more obviously, how wide is too wide—the Byra four-cylinder two-stroke pushed the limits
And even if you had seen one before, you would have had to look quick because it changed its name right in the middle of its 7-year run
Way before Harley-Davidson went racing with Sonny Defeo, Rex Staten or Rich Eierstedt in the AMA Nationals, they were carving up Italy in 1960
Izh stands for Izhstalzavod, but don’t mess with the “Presidium of the Supreme Council of the National Economy of the USSR”
A special kit designed in 2000 to transform a CR250 motocross bike into a freestyle bike. First step, buy hacksaw
They stole Hodaka’s ball reciever transmission, the PW50’s chassis design and Yamaha’s monoshock suspension — the trick was to steal those ideas 15 years before those other bikes existed
Or perhaps you remember this Hungarian-built motocross bike as the Danuvia, Tunde, Csepel, Panni or Pannonia
One of the greatest racing motorcycles of the 1950s. Mondial, was reduced to making 50cc Boy Racers to stay afloat
Maybe! Maybe if they had a twingle, maybe if Rinaldi or Rahier had ridden it, maybe if the FIM hadn’t banned it
The price for thinking too far out of the box is that they give your idea a funny name and it disappears in three years
The Ducati Jupiter was built for the American market for scrambles and flat track—mostly on the Eastern seaboard. Its success convinced Ducati to make a real motocross bike in 1971
During the explosive growth of off-road riding in the early 1970s Giorgio Mazzilli made his mark in Italy… actually 400 of them
The Yamaha YZ125 that never saw production or the light of day—just one night race at Irwindale Raceway in 1975
The Suzuki 125 works bike that never saw production and once you see it, you’ll know why
If you were 16 years old in Rome in the early 1970s, you would have dreamed of owning a Tiger Cross
The Tyran 125 MX was designed by Ted Wassell, who designed a series of bikes from his W.E Wassell Limited company in Lichfield, near Birmingham, England.
A name from Shakespeare, the Red Hunter engine, an embarrassing end & its name on the Ariel Atom sports car
Two brothers, not named Vertematti, build a super-exotic 450 four-stroke out of chromoly, aluminum and carbon fiber
They marketed the Moto Trans-AMA in Italy by a saying the majority of its bikes were sold in the USA
You know it as a bicycle, but it was actually a motorcycle company until 1967
In 1966 Ducati made the move to design machines with the off-road look that was popular with young Italians
Ted Wassell’s idea was to mimic what the Rickman brothers did for big British single-cylinder four-strokes, only with small displacement two-stroke engines—as seen on the Tyran 125, Penton Mudlark, Wassell 125.
Ariel 500 HS Cross was both a last gasp for Ariel’s 500cc four-stroke engine, but also the end of the dominant era of the Big British Single in motocross
When you love a motorcycle brand you will go to any lengths to keep it from falling into the dark recesses of history
How the smallest Spanish motorcycle brand became the biggest Spanish brand! No not Bultaco! Nope, not Montesa either. Don’t even say Ossa—it’s Rieju
The Flink 250X was way ahead of its time. It was very light and narrow. The gas tank and airbox were part of the aluminum frame, as was the exhaust pipe.
Built by an honest to goodness genius, but it still couldn’t make it in the motocross world
A reworked 1983 V-twin 350cc Moto Morini turned into a resto-mod motocross bike by Rudolfo Covallero