As Mat Oxley argues in this piece called The Day MotoGP Nearly Died, ” the early 90s were the “nadir” of premier-class motorcycle racing. “The reasons for the empty grids were simple: there was no money, there were no bikes and the bikes that were there kept hurling their riders to the ground and breaking their bones. Too many riders were skint, too many were in hospital.” To solve the money issue, Wayne Rainey convinced Yamaha to sell YZR500 engines to privateer racers who could stuff them into “cheaper” (relatively) frames from Harris or ROC. “Overnight the grid expanded from 18 or 19 starters to 28 or 29 starters. A few years later Honda built its NSR500V twin, which it sold to privateers. The 500 class had been saved.” Here’s one of the ROC-framed YZRs, which was campaigned by Bernard Garcia.
Per the seller, the 500cc V4 2-stroke motor in this MotoGP competitor puts out 170 horsepower – the bike weighs just 350 pounds! They state that the Yamaha-licensed bikes utilized 1991 motors in frames between 1992 to 1995, at a cost of 92,000 pounds at the time. This bike “will come serviced, 12 months MOT, 3 months warranty, and fully gone through by our factory trained technicians.”
Find this YZR for sale in Preston, England with a classified price of 99,500 pounds (~$125,000) here on eBay.
This bike-uriousity brought to you by Adam T!