Looking to start your own vintage race team? Well today’s brace of 1991 Yamaha TZ250s and a whole raft of included spare parts is ready to help you do just that, just add trailer.
And talent.
Sports two-strokes from the 80s ands 90s are very rare and desirable these days, with fresh imports from Japan making their way here regularly. And as always, the issue of titling them comes up. In some states, it’s easy to get grey-market bikes titled. In others, particularly California, it’s very difficult without spending years gathering incriminating information about prominent politicians or spending a small fortune to bribe public officials.
Fortunately, today’s pair of TZ250Bs solves that problem for us nicely by being pure racebikes that never had titles in the first place. Obviously, there are some rough similarities between the TZR250 and TZ250, but the TZR was a sporty roadbike meant to ape the real-deal, “closed-course only” TZ.
Powered by what was basically half of a V4 from the TZ500, the 1991 TZ250B was the first v-twin powered TZ250: earlier bikes used a parallel-twin configuration, long after competitors from Honda and Suzuki had switched to v-twin engines. The B also featured upside-down forks for the first time and a distinctive banana swingarm to clear the right-side expansion chambers, something that wasn’t required on the “reverse-head” parallel-twin TZs from 1988-1990.
From the original eBay listing: Pair of 1991 Yamaha TZ250Bs for Sale
Rare opportunity: for sale two very nice Yamaha 250B’s, VIN#3YL000397 and 3YL000409. Both bikes are race ready and have two races on new top ends.
I do not know the miles on either bikes’ cranks but when I did the top ends they checked OK.
I have approximately $10,000 in spares, mostly new, not a bunch of junk. I will provide an inventory list upon request and I have included photos of them.
The bikes are sold on a BOS, there were no titles for these bikes. I had to put something in the eBay listing for title condition and miles.
These are very nice machines, I love the color scheme, and a big box of spares to keep a pair of obsolete racebikes running sounds like a peach of a deal… But at $30,000 Buy It Now for the pair, you’re looking at a lot of cheddar for this package.
-tad
Beautiful beautiful bikes..would love to have them…can’t lose with a two stroke..there in awesome shape…good luck with them..and who ever buys them..lucky mother ….!!!! Metallica36.jm@gmail.com!!!!good luck with them….
The price is about right. Figure $10,000 each for the bikes, $10,000 in spares add $1500 for shipping and you have a reasonably priced lot.
Those spares are the key – along with the note books and notes – that is gold right there. Worth every penny and then some.
I think this “Team in a box” is a better buy than one of those $30,000+ WW RG500’s or zero mile RZV500’s – specially if you want to actually ride the bikes – but then again, the fact it is a complete “Team in a box” puts the price at a level that few will be able to just up and buy it as it will be hard to recoup the money spent on a vintage toy 🙂
BTW, for the Raresportbike writers, the privateer TZ250 V twins are really based on the factory works YZR250 V twins that where even then (in 1987/88/89/90) more than just “half a YZR500”, they where designed as their own 250 motors from the get go and as such share nothing with the TZ500 – and still struggled to chase the works Honda NSR.
That’s why the TZ was switched to a V twin in 1991 so that it could start to share R&D trickle down with the works V twin and actually compete properly with the Honda privateer RS250 that had an advantage due to the shared R&D trickle down from the works NSR250 effort.
The privateer TZ500 was never a V4, but rather ended life as an inline 4 in 1982, by which time the works YZR500 had been a square and a V4. By the time the TZ500J retired, the square4/V4 had diverged so much from the inline 4 they where really no longer related other than by heritage.
🙂
as Pam Poovey on Archer would say,. sploosh
One of the best looking, performing and handling motorcycles ever produced! High strung,high maintenance and high dollar parts for sure, but being able to spank a liter bike with 250 cc’s makes it worthy…Next…