Rare and Smoky: 1985 Yamaha RZ500

For Sale: 1985 Yamaha RZ500

“If you are looking for a stock collector piece to keep your other mildly interesting bikes company, move along. There’s nothing to see here.”

These words from the seller set the stage for this beautifully modified RZ500:

This gorgeous RZ500 comes to us from the shop of Lance Gamma – THE place for gear for your RG smoker. Just to prove that it’s not all about Suzukis, Lance has placed this RZ with some tasty mods up for grabs. This looks super clean and ready to rock!

From the seller:
Is this the RZ500 you’ve been waiting for? I don’t recall a finer example on eBay in the last year or so. This bike is of Canadian vintage and is titled and registered here in the States. The motor is freshly rebuilt and performance tuned by the premiere RG/RZ 500 specialist, Lance Gamma (hence the eBay handle). This motor is at factory first overbore and assembled with all correct and OEM stock Yamaha parts with modestly ported cylinders and milled heads. The exhaust system is a beautiful set of Tommy Crawford chambers which are over 30 pounds lighter than stock and have a seamless power delivery with quiet tone. The shock is a premium Wilbers unit with adjustable ride height helping the bike to turn sharper along with a front end overhaul firming up the notoriously soft forks. EBC HH pads improve the braking performance and a Lance Gamma Supplemental Radiator helps even out temps front to rear and keep the motor cool. If you are looking for a stock collector piece to keep your other mildly interesting bikes company, move along. There’s nothing to see here. If however, you are wanting to discover for yourself what all the hoopla was about at the release of these bikes some 27 years ago (you remember, GP bikes for the street? What were they thinking??), this is one which will bring you up to speed, so to speak. It simply begs to be ridden.

Pricing on RZ500s continues to climb – but a RZ with Lance mods and Crawford pipes will promise to raise the roof a bit. If the bidding goes high enough, someone is going home with a very special bike. This auction has some GREAT pictures as well – so many that we could not post all of them here!

This auction is HOT right now. The bike just hit the ‘bay and there has been considerable interest. Pricing started out in the basement, and has rapidly risen near the $8k mark. The reserve has been met – which means this one is going home with somebody. If you are that somebody, you will need to start by clicking the link and jumping over to the auction. Be ruthless, don’t give up, and good luck!!

MI