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.…
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…
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…
From a styling standpoint, motorcycles of the 1980’s were going through a bit of an awkward, adolescent phase… But continuing with that analogy, major growth and changes were occurring under the skin, and Japanese race replicas like this Yamaha RZV500 featured all sorts of wild, innovative technology. Yamaha’s GP bike for the road pulled out…
Rare as a Bimota liter bike might be, finding one which has never been run is a hundred-fold more unusual. A 150hp cycle weighing 400lbs would be newsworthy today, but this one has been hidden away since 1991. 1991 Bimota YB10 Dieci for sale on eBay Made from 1991 to 1994 but in very low…
Only rarely seen outside Japan, the market for which it was exclusively designed, the Bimota YB7 is like a 3/4 scale YB4. The bike is based around the FZR400 powerplant, so it’s obviously no real powerhouse, with a claimed 65hp from the 399cc liquid-cooled four. But that just means you get a sweet-handling, four-cylinder exotic…
