We generally try to post relatively stock, good-condition bikes here on CSBFS but, every once in a while, we like to throw you guys a curve ball, and this highly-modified Yamaha RZ500 certainly qualifies as that. At a glance, there’s little left of the original, two-stroke GP-replica bike but the changes should make the bike handle like a much more modern machine. This one might generate some controversy and we want to hear from you, but keep the comments polite please!
The seller appears to be going for a 90’s YZR500 look for the bike, but he doesn’t indicate exactly where he sourced the bodywork. It seems like it retains the original RZ500 frame, but suspension front and rear has been updated to more modern spec, with the front using parts from a Yamaha R1. He mentions that the two-stroke V4 engine is by Rick Lance, which is a good thing as he’s a well-known name in the two-stroke tuning community. Unfortunately, he doesn’t really describe exactly what’s gone into it. Interestingly, you can see that the bike does feature a headlight tucked back in the fairing and it is claimed to be titled and street-legal!
From the original eBay listing: 1985 Yamaha RZ500 for Sale
Up for GRABS… My sweet 2 stroke! I’m done with bikes, I need a new plane. Wyn Belousky built and Rick Lance powered rocket ship. List of goodies as follows: Öhlins rear shock, R1 front forks with Öhlins internals, JMC custom mega braced swing arm, 28 mm Mikuni flat slides, brand new Jolly Moto carbon silencers on Jolly Moto GP pipes, ginormous ZX7-R radiator. Handles like my R6 just much lighter and then there’s the 2 stroke hit, lol! It’s a shame just to leave in my garage somebody needs to ride the hell outta this thing. Merry Xmas happy bidding. Oh! And I have a bunch of xtra parts to go with it, street legal clear and clean Florida title.
There are no takers yet at the $17,000 starting bid, and this is the second time the bike’s been up for auction. The asking price might be out of line, but I think the bigger problem is that the description is pretty vague: with something drastically customized, a list of the cool upgraded parts isn’t going to be enough. A video of the bike in action, and pics of the bike with the fairing off might help as well. For the most part, it looks pretty professionally put together, but those primitive tabs mounting the fairing to the frame cast a bit of doubt… It’s obviously a pretty cool machine, but not worth much to collector-types since it’s so far from original and, without more information on this one-of-a-kind build, folks are obviously going to be pretty hesitant to drop the kind of cash the seller is asking.
-tad
I know this bike, and can provide a little more information. Fabrication work was done by the late, great Wyn Belorusky. The rearsets are Wyn, along with all custom bodywork brackets, custom subframe, swingarm adaptation, front end install. Wyn was able to borrow a set of real yzr500 bodywork long enough to make molds, which he used to create this fairing. Wyn built 3 yzr500 replicas, his own bike, my yzr500 replica, and this one. Rick Lance builds a very solid, strong and reliable motor. It’s a nice bike, and would cost over $25k to reproduce, if you could find someone to do the custom work, and good luck finding real deal yzr500 fairing!
Jim, beautiful piece of machinery you have there. Wyn Belorusky was a true craftsman.
Beautiful.
Tad,
This type of listing is what draws me to RSBFS. Custom builds like this should be listed more often! This one is out of my price range, but if I had an extra 20G’s I’d snap it up!
Keep up the great work!
Best-
Mike Perers
Beautiful, but what concerns me is thr 17 digit vin number, we all know these came with 11 digit VIN so what does this come up as?
What’s not to like? I don’t think anyone will have a problem with this 500. The updates are definitely upgrades. 2T race fans can’t help getting warm fuzzies looking at this bike.
RZ has 17 digit , rzv has 11 digit in
Wyn is dead?
Nice bike, have seen it for sale a couple times now.
A great, classic and now typical RZ500 YZR clone build formula. Stock frame,modern front and rear ends, Rick Lance/Bill Wilson/Brian Turfey or similar engine build and widened YZR500 fairing and YZR500 tail, fancy wheels brakes and street title. A nice bike for sure!
Fairing was easy to source while I still had the last 4 made from Wyns molds (bought from a friend when he got out of bikes) – but since this 90/ 91/92 YZR is not my favorite I sold 3 of the fairing sets (which are widened to fit the RZ500 frame). I kept 1 set just in case I get my current 1985 Eddie Lawson YZR tribute finished and decide to do a 1990 Rainey bike. But might be convinced to let it go to the right project build.
As for the $17,000 price, it is a cheap way to get into the YZR replica game but I always expect a modded bike to sell for much less than the sum of the cost of its parts.
To replicate this bike expect to pay anything from $8 to $10 to $15K for your donor RZ500 to start your YZR clone, And by the time you add up the cost of donor suspension mods/updates, motor work, body work, your rime, farmed out time odds and ends – you can quickly be $20,000 or more into the build.
This also assumes you are using street bike donor parts – some of us have gone off the deep end and are using race spec and ex-works suspension, brakes & magnesium wheels, custom frames, magnesium pieces and titanium fasteners in a pursuit of authenticity & lightness.
So in the grand scheme of things, the $17,000 asking/starting price for a known quantity and quality build is not bad – although on the other hand I am enjoying the build and pursuit of parts – like when I finally located a set of early 1995 YZR500 works recently.
In a way, the right buyer of this bike might not really want the finished bike as much as they may be after the entire project experience – that is always the challenge of trying to sell these project bikes, finding someone who wants what you built but is not interested in the build process.
In the end my YZR500 tribute even with its real YZR suspension, YZR Kevlar bodywork, all manner of magnesium and titanium bits and modded TZ250 frame/tank, will still just be a YZR clone powered by a massaged RZ500 engine – so the selling price would never be close to the real cost.
Bottom line is $17,000 is a very realistic price for this bike.
I’ve listed a few bikes on eBay. I find it best to give enough info to interest the buyer but not so much the add is to big or confusing. All my listings have my phone number and I suggest potential buyers call me. Adding to much and nobody reads the add. Plus you’re only given 24 options for pics. It’s hard to say what pics would be best for each potential buyer. In my experience a real buyer that actually has he cash and would like to purchase will contact the seller. That’s when the seller can flood all the info and pics into somebody’s inbox. I’ve seen a Dropbox file of this bike with A Lot if pictures. A friend of mine was considering the purchase of the bike and contacted the seller. If I had the coin I’d be happy to pay the $17k. It’s got it where it counts and he seller has all the info any one would ever need to know before buying.
Agreed – this is drop dead gorgeous. As much as I like to see unmolested bikes, I do appreciate individuality. THAT’S what brings me to RSBFS – keep ’em coming cos one day there’ll be the funds in my account to pull the trigger on something like this….
I wonder if he’d swap a low mileage pristine MV F4 and an equally nice RC51 for it….. LOL
Man…this is the perfect track bike, but because it’s so unique, I’d think you’d need a mountain of cash for the inevitable high side.