Written by Mark Turner of Blacktop Media. Images by Steve Watts (@stevtec). Ben and Dave live in the same small town in North Cornwall. Dave is an engineer for a local company and a keen […]
Tag: Two-Stroke
Handbuilt Show 2019: Two-Strokes
The 2019 Handbuilt Motorcycle Show, hosted by Revival Cycles and BMW Motorrad USA, took place during Austin’s MotoGP in April. Since its inception, the show and its creators have aimed at reviving the culture of […]
Triple Trouble: Framecrafters / Kawasaki H1 Cafe Racer
“I put a tricked out H1 engine with the left and right cylinders reversed into a Framecrafters road race frame and put lights on it.” This was the cryptic message we recently from Mike McSween […]
Elsinore Tribute: Honda CR250 Scrambler by Andrew Greenland
In the early 1970s, Honda unveiled the CR250M Elsinore — a two-stroke machine destined to become one of the classics of the dirt world. Strangely enough, a team of Honda engineers had developed the CR250 […]
“The Blue Duck”: Custom Yamaha YZ125 by Max Miille
On the pipe: Custom two-stroke dirt bike from Oregon… The Yamaha YZ125, introduced in 1974, boasts the longest production run of any motocross bike in the world. The liquid-cooled, 125cc two-stroke has evolved over the […]
Yamaha RD400 Street Tracker by Eber Temperan
Two-stroke tracker from a professional BMX rider… The Yamaha RD400, built from 1976 to 1979, was a lightweight giant-killer, a 44-horsepower two-stroke twin capable of embarrassing many of the era’s larger four-strokes. The bike simply […]
Yamaha R5 Cafe Racer by Zanutto Engineering
The Yamaha R5, introduced in 1970, was the first of Yamaha’s new generation of two-stroke parallel twin “giant-killers” — a design architecture which would evolve into the RD350, RD400, and even the liquid-cooled RZ350/RD350LC. Lee […]
Akin Moto KTM 300 Street Tracker
“A 2-stroke street tracker…that actually gets used on the street AND the track.” The KTM 300 EXC is a weapon — a street-legal, two-stroke enduro with a 51-hp liquid-cooled engine and dry weight of just […]
“Alpina” Suzuki T500M Cafe Racer by Paul Courbot
Paul Courbot of Titan Performance rebuilds the T500 he’s owned since age 19! The Suzuki T500 Titan, introduced in 1969, quickly earned a reputation as one of the best big two-strokes of the era, proving […]
Sick RD: Yamaha RD350 Cafe Racer
Yamaha RD350 Giant Killer from California… The Yamaha RD350 is one of our favorite two-stroke street machines of the 1970s. The 39-horsepower parallel twin could compete with larger bikes due to its excellent power-to-weight ratio, […]
