The Yamaha FZ600 broke cover in 1986, right as the fully-faired sportbike wave seriously started to swell, and helped start the careers of myriad young racers and hobbyists. When it debuted, it was aimed squarely at the Honda CBR600F and the Kawasaki Ninja 600 and gave its competitors some serious worries at the racetrack. 1987…
Update: A reader reached out to note that, “The forks are missing the compression and rebound clickers, those are R forks.” Seller replied back to us, “I pulled out the books and it looks like the first year for the RS model was a 3XV8 which had the same forks as the standard R model.…
The Yamaha RZ500 promised GP-bike glory for the every man when it hit the scene in ’84, with a quartet of exhaust pipes poking out at odd angles producing a biblical scream. By ’85, Suzuki had rained on the parade a little with the RG500, which was lighter, more powerful and a few notches crazier,…
12.13.2017: Bob has decided to upgrade to a Featured Listing after we first posted this bike on November 30th. Links updated to latest auction. Good luck to buyers and seller! -dc When Yamaha and Suzuki dropped their 500cc two-stroke race replicas in the middle of the 1980s, the bikes effectively stopped the oil-burning horsepower wars…
Bikes today are faster, lighter, better-handling, and safer than ever before. But while there have been huge advances in terms of electronics and the materials used to build them, they use basically the same layout and suspension since motorcycle design became codified sometime in the late 1980s. The familiar telescopic forks are most definitely a…
Yamaha dreamed up a 50th birthday present for them and us in 2006, and made only 1000 copies. Serial number 002 was put in storage without even a celebratory ride and is available as new. It’s a show and go affair with Roberts-era racing colors and 174 hp. 2006 Yamaha YZF-R1 50th Anniversary #002 for sale on eBay The R1…
Yet another spotless machine from Gary’s Utah collection, this 1989 Yamaha FZR750RR OW01 is the second of its kind from the collection that we have written about this year. Like the one before it, it is spotless, though it has a few more miles and is ready to ride, shod with a brand-new set of…
1989 Yamaha FZR750RR OW01 for sale on eBay The Yamaha OW01, also known as the FZR750RR, is a unicorn in any condition, with just 500 bikes spread over a three model-year run. They were more exclusive, marginally more powerful, and a big chunk more expensive than Honda’s genre-defining RC30. 1989 Yamaha FZR750RR OW01 for sale…