Post Sale Update: This R7 sold for $34,000 after 7 bids on eBay.
The Yamaha YZF-R7 was a ready to race World Super Bike (WSB) racer with the trimmings (lights/signals/plate) necessary to make it street legal. Also known as the OW-O2, it was staggeringly expensive: with an MSRP of approximately $32,000, it was twice as expensive as Honda’s RC51 SP-1, but it was worth every penny. I also happen to think it’s one of the most beautiful production sportbikes of all time.
There’s a lot to love about the R7, but the power situation was a bit of a let down. At a time when the R1 was putting out 150 ponies, the R7 was officially sold in a state of tune that was limited to just 106. That was done by shutting off the secondary fuel injector for each cylinder, partially to comply with power regulations in Germany at the time. Yamaha offered two ‘hop-up’ kits – one of which added 25 hp, and a race kit that added 55 hp…at a cost of over $10,000. On the flip side, this is still one of the best handling production motorcycles ever built.
Two years ago, Cycle World had Freddie Spencer test the R7 with some other legendary sportbikes sold between ’86-’13, and Fast Freddie said this bike was the transition into the “modern age” because “this is the first bike that needs a steering damper”. These came with a titanium crank as standard, and full Ohlins suspension front and rear. The only concern is that the titanium cranks actually had a manufacturing issue from the factory, so many cracked. Yamaha issued a recall – so you must make sure that the R7 you buy has had the crank taken care of (this one has had the work performed). For more information, check out this profile on MCN.
This example (VIN: JYARM0112XA000391) is said to be in collector quality with just 1,024 miles on the odometer. It’s still wearing the original Pirelli tires. This example has one of the YEC hop-up kits, which includes a carbon fiber airbox, velocity stacks, high velocity fuel pump, fuel regulator, and more – all the original parts are included. The same include both keys, the owner’s manual, service manual, and YEC kit manual.
Find this R7 for sale in Powell, Ohio with bidding up to $21,169.69 and the reserve not yet met or a BIN of $35,000