Over 20 years of riding, 30+ bikes owned, and an opinion on every one of them. The Ross Rides YouTube channel and this site are the result.
I have been riding for over 20 years and have owned more than 30 motorcycles in that time. Sport bikes, naked roadsters, adventure tourers, cruisers — most categories at most price points. Some I loved, some I sold within months, some are still parked in the garage.
The YouTube channel started because I got tired of motorcycle journalism that read like it was written by the manufacturer press office. Reviews of bikes the writer had spent 90 minutes on at a press launch in Spain, conclusions that politely avoided saying anything that might lose the magazine its next test bike. Useful for spotting new models, useless for actually deciding which bike to buy.
So the channel does the opposite. If a bike is overpriced, I say so. If a bike is brilliant but the brand is unreliable, I say that too. Sometimes the manufacturers do not like it. That is fine.
YouTube is great for "what is this bike like to ride." It is terrible for "how does this bike compare to the one from 30 years ago, and what should I actually buy used in 2026 with $5,400?"
This site exists to answer those harder questions. Each lineage page compares one bike across four eras — 1996, 2006, 2016, and 2026. Real spec data, real prices adjusted for inflation, real production gaps where the bike did not exist. Sources cited at the bottom of every page so you can check the numbers yourself.
The format is deliberately constrained. No video reviews. No long-form opinion pieces. Just the data — laid out so you can see what 30 years of motorcycle development actually changed, and where the underpriced used buys sit on the curve.
US edition status: the data audit for the US market is complete. Every lineage page now carries real US MSRPs — sourced from manufacturer press releases, Motorcycle.com / Cycle World / RevZilla archives, and J.D. Power historical values — with inflation recomputed against the US BLS CPI-U index. The lineup has been adjusted for the US market: bikes that left the US (VFR1200F, ST1300 Pan European, GTR1400, Bandit 1250, etc.) are flagged with their final-US-year data; bikes that never sold in the US are noted as such. Used-market ranges reflect current US private-sale data from Cycle Trader, KBB, and J.D. Power Motorcycle Values, May 2026.
Every spec on this site comes from manufacturer technical data, Cycle World, Motorcycle.com, RevZilla, autoevolution, Total Motorcycle, or manufacturer press materials. Each lineage page lists its sources at the bottom.
Inflation conversions use the US Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U index. As a rough guide for May 2026: $1 in 1996 ≈ $2.07 today, $1 in 2006 ≈ $1.62 today, $1 in 2016 ≈ $1.34 today. Used market prices reflect current US private-sale rates from Cycle Trader, KBB Motorcycle Values, and J.D. Power Motorcycle Pricing — not optimistic eBay listings, not dealer trade-in valuations.
If you spot something wrong — a price that looks off, a bike I have miscategorised, a delta that does not stack up — tell me. The corrections list is part of the methodology, not a threat to it.
This site takes no money from manufacturers. No press launches, no review units, no embargoed access. The independence is the point.
It is also not a database of every motorcycle ever made. Total Motorcycle has 100,000+ pages and covers everything. This site covers the lineages worth caring about — the ones with a 30-year story, the ones with surprising price arcs, the ones that died and the ones that should have. If a bike is not on the site, either I have not got around to it yet or it does not have a story worth a 4-column page.
Honesty about uncertainty. Some prices are estimates. Some historical specs vary by source. Where I am confident, I say so. Where I am not, the page says so too.
Honesty about taste. I have favourite bikes — the GS, the Triumph triples, the air-cooled Bonneville. I try not to let that bias the data, but the editorial framing inevitably reflects it. If I find a Honda boring or a Harley pointless, the page will say that. If I find a forgotten Suzuki Bandit or an unloved Aprilia underrated, the page will say that too.
Not press-launch test rides. Not 90 minutes in Spain. Bikes I bought, lived with, and either still ride or sold on.
Some bikes own you twice — the multipliers (2× R 1250 GS, 3× Buell XB9S) tell you which ones I went back for after selling.
