![]() ![]() This beautiful motorcycle from Italy was powered by a stunning masterpiece of an engine engineered by Massimo Tamburini himself. If you thought sports bikes were all about inline-four engines and Japanese engineering, think again. To some, the Ducati 916 was the most influential crotch rocket of the early 90s – and that’s a fair point. It’s one of the most badass motorcycles in history. The first, and certainly not the last, but without the CBR900RR, modern crotch rockets may have evolved differently. Weighing in at just over 400 lbs dry, the CBR900RR was the first motorcycle to offer the kind of power you’d expect from a 1000cc motorcycle, but equipped with the agility and responsive handling of a 600cc machine. What really made it special was its 893cc inline-four engine – not particularly groundbreaking, sure – but when combined with a lightweight chassis that was focused on agile, nimble handling, a new breed of crotch rocket was born. This particular model was revolutionary because it wasn’t developed for racing and watered down for public consumption – it was built purely for the road. Designed by Honda’s incredibly talented Tadao Baba, the CBR900RR was developed simultaneously with the RC30 and NR750, and originally was planned to be a 750 – but Baba had other plans and upped the displacement, and Honda’s first ever “RR” CBR model was born. If you ask anyone to name an iconic crotch rocket from the 1990s, you can bet that they’ll name the 1992 Honda CBR900RR. It’s no wonder that the legendary Suzuki GSX-R750 has been in constant production since 1985 to the present day. However, it’s the powerful performance, the lightweight chassis, and race-ready technology, wrapped in an affordable, road legal package, that makes the GSX-R750 a revolutionary crotch rocket. Even compared to today’s crotch rockets, the original GSX-R750 is still pretty light on the scales. Race aerodynamics, an aluminum frame, lightweight 18 inch wheels, and an engine that could make grown men weep – boasting 106 hp from its oil-cooled 747cc inline-four engine, a top speed of around 160 mph, all wrapped into a very svelte and nimble package. Weighing in at a mere 385 lbs, dressed to impress with aerodynamic fairings and a race-inspired livery from Suzuki’s XR41 endurance machine, this truly was a race-ready but road legal crotch rocket. Unlike other sports machines of the early-80s, the GSX-R750 was light, agile, handled exceptionally well, had huge power, but with brakes that were actually useful. And fun to hear about an Evinrude connection to Harley.We started with the first Ninja, but what about the first Suzuki GSX-R750? The 1985 GSX-R750 is arguably one of the most important motorcycles in the evolution of the crotch rocket. I know I’m weird, but while I love a wood Lyman, I have have gel coat in my blood, not varnish. But most are long gone, and the ones still in business have often evolved into a very different type of boat company. Others are still building boats – Sea Ray, Chris Craft, Rinker, Larson, and many more. For example, MFG is still going strong, but got out of the boat business in 1980, interestingly the same year Lyman did (original company). Most of them have come and gone, but a number of them survive to this day. Those companies were often bought and sold several times over their life. ![]() MFG made the Corvette fiberglass bodies, and still makes about 25 carbon-fiber and resin composite body parts for the C7 Corvette to this day.ĭiving into fiberglass recreational boat companies opens up an order of magnitude of new stories, with often surprising connections to other companies, because there were just so many more fiberglass boat companies. One of these days, I’m going to have to write that article for the Rudder I’ve been thinking about for years on MFG boats, and how they got into the boat business when GM cancelled (temporarily) the Corvette in late 1954. So it was a leftover or slightly used one, if the whole rig is original, which from the pictures, sure looks like it is. In 1959, Evinrude (and Johnson) was still selling only the 50HP V4. Happened all the time.īTW, that Evinrude is a 1960 75HP, first year for that HP. My 1966 boat has a leftover 1963 on it, and was sold that way. He later bought a new 1966, but the dealer put on a slightly used 1964, again to save a few bucks. My dad’s first boat was a new 1963, but took a new leftover 1962 on it to save a few bucks. Often, leftover outboards were sold on later boats. Mostly, a Johnson, Evinrude, or a Mercury. On the outboard: yes, the motors were not bundled in those days, and dealers sold “loose” motors to go with their boats, selling whatever brand(s) they carried. ![]()
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