Brightest And Raddest Neon Motorcycles of the ’90s

[Hugh Janus]

Motorcycles have always been a source of freedom and self-expression. As such, they move with the style of the times, and when those times were all about hot neon colors, well the results are pretty retro-fantastic. The decade of the 1990s was full-on neon and spawned some pretty funky, bright, and crazy motorcycles, both custom and regular production. From customs handcrafted by legendary builders to a few very cool Cycle World racebikes (and matching leathers!) to one of the loudest graphic packages ever to grace a motocross bike, we take a look back at a selection of neon dreams from the CW archives.

Motorcycles (and colors) that scream the late 20th century. (Kirk Willis/)
First, a KTM-powered dirt-tracker that has a “color that, whether you liked it or not, you saw it.” (Kirk Willis /)
This Vance and Hines-modified Yamaha FZR600 was painted to resemble the teams’ early ’90s racebikes. (Kirk Willis/)
The Honda Mantis prototype had a computer to control suspension and driving force to its wheels. (Honda /)
This Britten V-1100 racebike pairs innovative engine and suspension tech with minimalist bodywork. (Harry Ruffell/)
Radical orange zig zags with cyan and pink underneath brighten up this Arlen Ness Dyna Glide. (Jeff Allen/)
Builder Denny Berg referred to his custom’s appearance as “kind-of-a-surfer-punk-on-acid-look.” (Kirk Willis/)
Known as The Sled, this Arlen Ness custom is eye-popping in color and price of $100,000 in 1993. (Cycle World Archives /)
<em>Cycle World</em>’s road test editor Don Canet had sick custom leathers to match his YZF750 racebike. (Kirk Willis /)
This <em>Cycle World</em> YZF racebike was built to tackle the Daytona 200—a race it did not finish. (Kirk Willis/)
Hot-rod car collector Tom Shiffilea got back to his motorcycling roots with this 650cc Triumph. ( Jeff Allen /)
Even with stock paint, the 1991 Honda CBR600F2 is bold both track- and paint-wise. (Kirk Willis /)
<em>Cycle World</em> said the 1992 Suzuki RM250 was “dazzling in eye-popping coats of multiple colors.” (Suzuki /)
The neon orange color scheme of the Honda Fireblade was available in European markets. (Cycle World Archives /)

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