Practical Sportsbikes

Practical Sportsbikes magazine is about buying, fixing, restoring and riding sportsbikes from the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s. Every issue of PS – the magazine home of new-wave Japanese and Italian classics – is packed with: - The most inspiring and ingenious reader restorations - The most in-depth road tests and buyers’ guides - Unmissable workshop tips and how-to features Practical Sportsbikes gets under the skin of the bikes that really matter to our readers and explains how best to maintain, rebuild and enjoy them. So if you’re in to sportsbikes from the 1970-1990s, PS is essential reading.

Practical sportsbikes welcome

More than just a factory • Y’am a Yam fan, man!

NEW R7 SPLITS OPINION • Affront to a WSB legend, or just what the sportsbike world needs? Whatever it might be, they’re selling – and fast

specials we like • ★ From the shores of the Delaware Bay, something hot in burnt orange

Lithium beats lead acid

ps mail • Write a letter to The PS and if it’s Star Letter material you win a full year’s subscription to the very same. Aye

PSPB social club • Bikes and goings-on from our Facebook group

IN YOUR SHED • Part way through a restoration? Just completed a trick special? Send us your pics, and details

WIN AN LS2 CHALLENGER CARBON HELMET

WHAM BAM THANK YOU YAM • The world’s biggest piano manufacturer also happens to dabble in motorcycles. And the Yamaha name is music to the ears of countless riders. Here are a few

SAME AGAIN BUT DIFFERENT • Hag Hughes’ first LC special was standout in 1986. He’s built an almost exact replica for year 2021 (with age concessions). And still, it’s a beauty

SPECIFICATION YAMAHA RD350LC

XSR900 LC

PS SELECTOR FIRST GENERATION RETROS • They’re getting on for 30 years old now. Time (and weather) will not have been kind to their exposed cycle parts. But these tough, original throwbacks still have plenty to offer today

THE MOST INFLUENTIAL (OR NOT) YAMAHAS • You could never accuse Yamaha of failing to push engineering boundaries. Often the results were magical. Sometimes less so

Family Jewel • Race bikes are simply tools for a job… most of the time. For Clive Padgett, the YZR500 is more than that: it represents much of what the Padgett family and team is about, not to mention it being a treat for some of his favourite riders

MOTHERS OF INVENTION • Yamaha have often been first with technical innovations that have fundamentally changed how motorcycles perform. Let’s take a look at a few

POSTER: HAG’S LC

KINGS OF THE COUNTRY • Our B-roads used to be ruled by performance bikes with fairings. Not any more

BEST IN SHOW • All the major European manufacturers are now parading heavy-hitting supernakeds, but BMW’s version still takes some beating

HURRY UP AND WEIGHT • Guy is trying stuff you’d never give a moment’s thought to on any other type of motorcycle. Like attaching 15kg boxes of lead shot to the swingarm. It’s not normal this big speed lark

THE BEST R1 • The 2009 cross-plane crank R1 is more than a great sportsbike. It marks the moment Yamaha found its mojo again. Here’s why

TZ RULES OK • Yamaha’s TZ250 and TZ350 didn’t only win GPs and TTs, they also democratised racing by allowing any talented privateer to have a crack at world glory. And they were the blueprint for the legendary RD250 and 350LC

TZ TECH, ALL THE WAY FROM A TO W

LIVING THE DREAM WITH A YAMAHA TZ250 • PS two-stroke champion Bruce Dunn has been riding TZs for nearly 30 years. Who better to give you the straight oil on living with a track thoroughbred

The real deals: the models, the money, the genuinely GOOD VALUE!

Hugh Baird College • Nobody likes school, but if it’s teaching you how to fix...