Modern and Future Classics

I remember when I first rode one of these – it was back in 1997, it had a set of cheap, loud cans on it, and it went like hell. A hundred and seventy appeared on the clocks in no time, totally belying the rather unassuming appearance of the little Honda...

Back in the 90s and 00s, it wasn't unusual to see motors being updated every couple of years. So it's a sign of just how good Yamaha made the original FJ1100 motor back in 1984, that it's still going strong today, in the naked XJR1300. That's more than 32 years with essentially the same layout...

The 1990s was a cracking decade for superbikes. We got Ducati's 916, Honda's FireBlade and NR750, Suzuki's GSX-R750 and Hayabusa, and Yamaha's R1 and R6. Stonking sportsbikes all! But we also got some classic metal in the lower classes too...

It looked like nothing less than a road-legal 250GP machine, with upside-down forks, enormous gull-arm swingarm, huge expansion chambers and dual-stinger silencers. A full fairing yelled out the Suzuki engineers' plan – "Made with the Grand Prix spirit", no less...