Time for the new project.
After completing my
TZR250 build I started thinking about what to do next and set about selecting a bike. In all honesty I'd been looking out for one of these bikes for some time but the only ones that were around were a little over priced. Eventually though an unregistered one came up on eBay at a slightly more reasonable price and I decided to take a gamble on it.
The original plan was to restore it to standard but with a couple of modifications like the TZR as a NOS tail unit was included in the deal but the longer I looked at it the more I wanted to do something different this time. My inspiration came in the form of "
The Unrideables".
Everyone knows that the best top level bike racing was the two stroke 500 Grand Prix era and as the bike is from the 80's then this is ideal. Looking around at the results of others who have taken on a project like this there are some great bikes out there, but they all have a flaw. You see most of the GP replicas are based on a 250cc frame with a 500cc engine in, and without taking away from what is accomplished they are all starting with the wrong base machine.
So I've decided to start with what was originally marketed as the road going version of the championship winning YZR500 with a plan to take what Yamaha gave me and make it more race, more prototype, more Grand Prix...
Thus may I present the 1989 Yamaha YSR50:
And yes renting a Transit to pick it up in might have been a little on the excessive side.