Team Classic Suzuki is known for making some impressive vintage-inspired machines, but today’s example might be the pinnacle of their prowess.
With racing basically non-existent during the early days of COVID, the team found itself with an abundance of time on their hands…and idle hands are the Devil’s workshop.
So, taking an ex-Alstare Racing WorldSBK-spec Suzuki GSX-R1000 from the garage, Team Classic Suzuki created this very attractive (and potent) Katana.
Vintage racers know all too well the difficulty there can be when it comes to finding appropriate tires for the race track, as the odd rim sizes of classic motorcycles are often outside the sizing parameters of good modern sticky tires.
This leaves many racers using street-focused tires for their racing needs, but that could all come to an end, as Metzeler is expanding its Racetec RR Range to include 18-inch wheel sizes.
If you are one of those motorcycle enthusiasts that longs for the days back when men were men, and bikes were carbureted, then vintage endurance racing at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps should be right up your alley.
Throw in a superb-looking Katana race bike, with Guy Martin at the helm, and well…you’ve got some YouTube gold right there, that’s what you’ve got.
Such is the case with Suzuki and its Team Classic Suzuki Racing squad, which came out to Belgium for the second round of the European Classic Endurance Championship, at the Spa Four-Hour endurance race.
There are so many iconic names at play here, it’s amazing that the event didn’t get more coverage. Thankfully, Suzuki made a video to help share the experience, which we think you will find highly enjoyable.
This past weekend, the largest gathering of Britten Motorcycles occurred at the Barber Vintage Festival at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama.
As many of you know, John Britten was a brilliant motorcycle designer from New Zealand who built a total of ten Britten V1000 racing motorcycles before his untimely death from cancer in 1995, at the age of 45.
These bikes were definitely ahead of their time and Britten’s engineering genius has been admired, even well after his passing.
George Barber, the founder and owner of the Barber Motorsports Park and Museum, was an early Britten backer and owner, who decided to pay tribute to Britten at this year’s Barber Vintage Festival.
Nine of the ten Brittens ever produced were at the event; the most ever gathered in one place, at one time. The only Britten not present was number three, which is owned by the people of New Zealand and is proudly displayed at the Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand.
Throughout the weekend there were multiple events that paid tribute to John Britten and the amazing motorcycles he designed and fabricated. This included Brittens on the track during the daily lunch intermission.
Back when men were men…yada yada yada, and all that. You know, the real interesting thing about watching this footage from 1985 is, well…how interesting the racing is to watch, even with the commentary being in Japanese. Front wheels several feet in the air on acceleration, plenty of rider-on-rider corner stuffing, and the only traction control coming from the rider’s right wrist.
Perhaps making this 26-year-old clip such a keeper is how cool racing at Seca used to be is the recurrent wheelies the riders are popping coming down the corkscrew. Jaws dropped when
Mondays can be a little rough, especially if you were up at 5AM PST like we were to catch the MotoGP race on SPEED. If that’s the case for you as well, or if you’re just not a morning person, we’ve got just the thing to help you transition into a functioning human being this Monday morning. Grab a coffee from the office kitchenette, and get ready for 28 minutes of old-school motorcycle racing pontification from none other than Freddie Spencer.