Well, last week’s seemingly ham-fisted resto-mod Gamma went over like a lead balloon, so let’s see how this one flies: a very bright and shiny Yamaha RZ500 fitted with some FZR bits! Built from 1984 to 1986, the RZ500 was also known as the RD500LC in some markets. It was Yamaha’s entry into the Moto…
Introduced in 1999 and sold for just two years, the exotic Yamaha YZF-R7 OW02 was the long-awaited successor to the OW01 of the late 1980’s, a barely-legal roadbike intended to homologate the R7 for World Superbike competition. But after just two years, Yamaha pulled the plug on the bike and their WSBK team as well.…
Shortly after the Superbike World Championship opened in 1988, manufacturers were compelled to prove their production bikes were up to the task, by providing comparable bikes to the marketplace. Numbers of bikes homologated depended on the size of the manufacturer. Though it did not result in a championship, Yamaha provided the OW 01 to the…
Built between 1986 and 1996, the Yamaha TZR250 came in a variety of forms, from the original liquid-cooled, parallel-twin “2MA” to the “3MA” that came along in 89-90 and featured an interesting “reversed” cylinder design that had the carburetors mounted on the front of the engine, exhausts running directly out the back to through the…
While many motorcycle fans are sticklers for originality, I take a more flexible view: basically, if you make changes, even significant ones to the bike, but manage to maintain the spirit of the original, I’m probably on board. And while this Yamaha RZ350 isn’t quite stock, the seller obviously wanted to stay close to the…
Mint 1987 Yamaha YSR 50 on eBay One need only look at the price and the bidding activity to know that what these little YSR 50s lack in size, they make up for in desirability. In barely 24 hours on eBay, the auction has pushed past $3600 with 19 bids. I would expect that it could exceed $5000…
1997 Yamaha YZF-750R on eBay As a YZF-750R owner myself, I’m always looking for them and at them. They don’t turn up very often. Unfortunately the YZF-750R will always be overlooked as it comes in between the legendary FZR-750 OW-01 and the drop dead sexy Yamaha R7 and also the revolutionary Yamaha R1. However, it really is a…
Yamaha made a name for itself in the US building giant-killing two-stroke parallel twins that powered the RD and later RZ models like this 1985 RZ350. The 347cc engine reatured liquid-cooling and made over 40hp stock, with plenty more available with careful tuning. While Honda largely focused on their heavy, but very sophisticated two and…