It’s fitting that the last couple of Bimota YB4s we’ve featured have been race bikes, since the YB4 was a competition machine first, and a road bike second. In fact, only a racing version was built at first, until World Superbike homologation rules required 200 roadgoing examples be built. The YB4 competed head-to-head with the…
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…
The Japanese home market for sport motorcycles is the stuff of dreams for those of us based in the US. Some of the best and most extreme examples of high-tech performance sadly never makes it out of the country of origin when it comes to the Big Four. Take the V4 two-stroke RZ500 from Yamaha.…
The late ’80s dawned with a series of ominous signs: The economy turned south, Full House debuted, I was born and the tariff on Japanese bikes over 750 cc shipped to the U.S. was in its full, dreadful swing. That meant that some of the decade’s meanest street/track machines were prohibitively expensive to buyers on…
The Yamaha FZR 400 is the kind of bike that manages to get ignored by wide swathes of the motorcycling population, but instill deep devotion in those who have discovered its fantastic chassis, sprightly engine and general friendliness. 1988 Yamaha FZR400 for sale on eBay 1990 Yamaha FZR400 for sale on eBay That appears to have…
The 1992 Yamaha FZR600 Vance and Hines was little more than a garish factory-applied graphics package to celebrate the two manufacturers’ AMA Supersport partnership. We’ve covered a few of these things over the years, and I might be the only person on the RSBFS team who legitimately digs heinous ’90s graphics packages. 1992 Yamaha FZR600…
By the end of the 1990s, it could be argued that Bimota was basically irrelevant. After all, the whole point of a Bimota was simple: take a powerful, reliable engine from a bike from an established manufacturer, then slip it into a stiff, lightweight frame with the best suspension money could buy at both ends,…