Please welcome Jay as our newest author. He has an extensive racing and sales history with most of the bikes we’ve featured on these pages and should fit right in around here. Welcome aboard Jay!
What can I say? Located in Florida this is definitely a bike that any modern day collector should have in the garage. To homologate Yamaha’s 750cc race bike Yamaha had to make a street version for the public. In 1999 these bikes were about $33k and they really didn’t sell well at all; I mean who pays that for 750cc’s and oh BTW it looks like your buddies YZF750 he just bought for $8k. Once the body works off though there lies the difference, dual injectors (only one per cylinder is hooked up though) Ohlins, coil mounted spark plug caps, big airbox (holds two $5 foot longs), data logging ECU,etc, etc.
Capped at 105 hp you can buy the Yamaha race wiring harness that will enable the second injector and then install a proper race exhaust and a few other bits like neon grips and bingo, you’re near 135hp. One problem though, so you’ve got the bike, you’ve bought all the race bits and $60,000 later you’re cruzin’ through your favorite “hood” and BAM, the crank falls out. Yup luckily Yamaha will replace your crank with a nice shinny new updated one for free since they all had this problem. This one doesn’t say its had a new crank but who knows maybe Yamaha may still honor the warranty. Anyone got $26,500 bones I can borrow? See the ad here
Ad Reads:
1999 Yamaha R7 Description
1999 Yamaha R7, All Original, Garaged, Mint Condition, Never Raced/Dropped or Safety Wired, never sold to end user. Yamaha Homologation model only 500 made/sold in the world only 50 in the US, Still shows nipples on tires. No other on the road and certainly not in this condition. A collector’s wish list item. No it is not a modified R6 or tricked out R1! This is the real deal!
The bike is a definite favorite for me, and if it’s “as described” I think the price is not too far off, I’d like to be closer to the lower $20’s. It goes in my book as a “must have” if you are serious about collecting bikes like the RC45, RC30, OW01, etc, just watch out for the flying cranks, enjoy!
– Jay
Jay:
How do you compare the R7, a 500 unit, homologation special, to an $8,000 YZF 750? And then go on to use phrases like “really didn’t sell well at all” “neon grips” and “and BAM, the crank falls out.” to describe what really was the closest we, the consumer, could get to a factory race bike prior to the Desmosedici. The Desmo really didn’t sell all that well either if you take into consideration that Ducati still has unsold new ones in crates, or did a few days ago. But no one describes the only MotoGP bike for the street that way, other than maybe you.
Recently, there was a NR750 for $160K on RSBFS and there were no phrases like, “I’d like it to be closer to the lower $20’s” for the NR like you used to describe the price of the R7.
How do you question the price of a bike that there are almost 30% less of when compared to the 700 unit, $160,000 NR750??? This is what was written about the $160K bike: “If you have the means, I would encourage you to pick up a NR at some point as it would be hard to top being able to plop the nickel, silver, and carbon fiber ignition key on the bar after an amazing ride.”
“Anyone got $26,500 bones I can borrow?” What are you trying to say? I hope you are a better used bike salesman than you are at describing limited production race bikes, because you suck at writing. Next time, leave the “beware of flying cranks” comments to yourself.
Tom-
By no means do I intend to mock this motorcycle. You seem to pull out of my text only the “joking” remarks. This bike is a real favorite of mine and one of my firends has one. The comment about the R7 and the YZF is that an untrained eye (which can be many) see the bike no better (on the outside) than an $8k YZF. The comment about the seidici is very true but mainly because Ducati made too many and the economy hit, bad timing, and it still had issues. If one gets posted here I’ll make sure everyone knows the facts.
Regarding the NR, I’m new here so I did not see that post. I know when the NR’s came out they were $65k and a hard sell for Honda at best. What are they worth now? Surely not $160k or even close. About 3-4 years ago one was offrered to me at $65k
I know of R7’s that have sold for less, thus my comment. The economy is hurting everyone, yea rewind a few years ago and you’ll buy them for $32k again. My comment about the cranks is true meaning they all need to be replaced. I am sorry my humor offends you, please understand all write ups are personal comments by each author. If you pull out the humor you are left with some very hard facts about the R7. As far as my credibility in the Industry, I have been in it for 35 years and counting with a list of National and European Top awards.
Please try to accept my appologies but I hope you understand my posts may be a bit more joking but the facts are all there.
Thank you for your comment.
Jay
[…] saw an R7 out of Florida with 2,800km on the clock and an asking price of $26,500 which can be seen here. See our other R7 postings here. The pricing on this one seems good for an R7 but, a little […]