Today Dennis from Denmark forwards us this modern sportbike legend, the the Yamaha OW01 homogolation special. Produced in limited numbers it featured a very peaky 5 valve 750cc engine that breathed through huge flat-slide carbs and was mated to a close ratio gearbox. Ohlins rear shock and fully adjustable suspension up front made it one of the best on the track. Power output stock was a claimed 119bhp and it weighed just over 400lbs.
1989 Yamaha FZR750R OW01
This particular example was recently treated to a restoration and featured in the November issue of Practical Sportbikes. The seller goes on to describe a story associated with this particular bike and that it may have originally been given to Carl Fogarty by Yamaha. While the seller notes he has not been able to credibly verify this information, it’s seems plausible. What I do know is that offered for £11,995 (~$20k USD), this sounds like a great buy even if shipping is required.
dc
from the seller:
1989 Yamaha FZR750R OW01 following a 2 year fastidious detailed restoration which is fully detailed in Practical Sportsbikes’ magazine article and ride test of issue 37, November 2013. One of an original run of only 500 bikes produced worldwide to homologate it for the new World Superbikes series, this example is really stunning.
The bike has had an extensive and detailed restoration over the past two years costing thousands of pounds and taking many hundreds of hours. It’s now complete and has a current MoT for UK riding, long road tax and comes with the elusive genuine toolkit and owners manual.
The work done has replaced every seal, bush, bearing and consumable on the chassis and those requiring replacement in the engine. This includes chain, sprockets, all caliper pistons and seals, wheel bearings, brake lines, Ohlins shock rebuild, hard chroming and fork rebuilds, brake disks, you name it, it’s been done and the bike is immaculate as can be seen in the PS magazine article and the photos here.
In addition, when I bought the bike I was told it has history relating to Carl Fogarty although as I haven’t yet been able to substantiate these claims, treat the information as “interesting” for the time being. Having said that there are some changes on the bike from standard that are very intriguing and may lend more weight to the story of brief ownership by Foggy.
The story has it that before the 1992 TT, Yamaha gave Fogarty a road based OW01 to familiarise himself with. Carl at that stage of his career would sell everything a sponsor gave to him, and so the OW01 was alleged to have been sold on to a member of his 1992 pit crew.
Lawd, another polished frame?
That’s not the only glaring issue with this example. “Full restoration”? OK, but not to the original factory appearance. Not only is the frame polished. so is the swingarm, chain guard, triple clamp, and front forks. The forks are supposed to be painted flat silver, the rest should have been a satin brushed aluminum finish. Also, the wheels on all OW01’s are white- not black. Why go to all the trouble to resurrect this example and not do it correctly? I struggle to see the reasoning behind some of the highly visible choices made here. These are rare and iconic sportbikes and deserve the highest standard, and as nice as this is it’s honestly worth less to serious collectors than a more original example. And I don’t care if Foggy lifted his hind leg and peed on this bike- if you can’t document or prove it before offering it for sale, please don’t dangle it out there. You aren’t really increasing it’s value and may well disappoint your buyer.
I like all the changes that were made. It means there is one less good example out there making the original ones worth more.. lol
Not to pile on but polished frames are a crime against humanity.
I like this bike and would snatch it up if it was in the US. I’m not hung on polished frames, its a sweet bike.
Agreed, if it was in the US, I’d be a buyer. Polished frame or not.
jeff and mark, buy it and ship it home. It’s not that expensive to get them here
what about customs
no problem.. I do bikes like these all the time. If you need help let me know.
I did look into buying and shipping back to the US. It seemed that the shipping part was the simplest piece in the equation. Then the hurdles of DMV, EPA and any other three letter agency that could get involved, will. Has anyone else had real world experience doing this? I’d like a 1:1 discussion if anyone has done this before and can spare the time. There are some great bikes outside the US.
K3, how can we get in-touch?
mark, shoot me over your email address or phone number and we’ll see if we can get this done.
markroberts@bellsouth.net
Would this be Mark Roberts- “Ctune1” from Illinois and Yamaha Enduro.com? If so…duuude, I thought you had higher standards and better taste than to seriously pursue a dodgy and blinged out bike from the other sideof the globe!
Take a deep breath and count to ten before make any illogical decissions based on an emotional whim.You are talking about purchasing a motor vehicle,site unseen,from the other side of the planet,via ebay….VIA EBAY!!!!
Wow, this site is just turning into a bitch forum for all the jumped up,egotistical elitists who want to prove to everyone their almost encyclopedic knowledge of all things rare and exotic.
If any of the knockers actually asked Jose,or whatever name their illegal hired help goes by,to pop down to Borders/Barnes & Noble and grab the November issue of Practical Sportsbikes and actually aquaint themselves with the story of the restoration,they might actually understand what passion is all about!
Some people do actually purchase these machines to ride them,not park them in their climate controlled mansion!
“Passion”- LOL! That’s what you call forever changing the surface finish of all external aluminum components, chopping off the rear fender, painting the wheels the incorrect color, creating that silly little back rest pad…it goes on. These are all tasteless early 1990’s customizations the GSXR squids preferred. The OWO1 is rarer than the RC30- why would you choose to devalue it forever? “Passion”- right. You may find somebody with lower standards to buy it now, but when comes time to sell it, you’ll have to find someone outside the collector world to buy your choices and permanent changes on an extremely rare bike.