The Yamaha RZV500 was released by Yamaha in 1984 and were like a race replica V4 2-stroke motorcycle. They were touted as a GP Racer with lights and it’s giant killing performance was proven in 1984 Castrol 6 hour. The bikes drew their inspiration from the all concurring YZR500 GP bikes of Kenny Roberts, the American who won 3 consecutive GP Championships from 1979-1980.

The engine was in effect a pair of 180 degree parallel twins gear driven together. They also had a removable cassette style gear box, a feature rare in production bikes of the day and still today. The RZ500 was the closest thing to a racer on the street as it won the David vs golliath win of the Castrol 6 hour in 1984 with Michael Dowson and Richard Scott taking it to a thrilling victory over the Honda VF1000R of Wayne Gardner and John Pace, a bike with twice the engine capacity of the RZ. The RZ500 was the last 2-stroke motorcycle to take outright victory in the famous race.

The RZV500 is the Japanese home market version, which has a hand-welded aluminium chassis and other much lighter componentry, aluminium handlebars, adjustable front forks with air assistance and fuel gauge resulting in a machine that is 10kg lighter than the more common steel frame version. This higher specification machine was only offered in Japan and the total number built was reportedly only 1900 bikes.

This particular bike was part of the Moto Gallur motorcycle collection from Sydney. It is a great original example of this famous bike, showing only 12,000kms on the clock. Starts and rides beautifully and would be a great addition to any serious motorcycle collection or ride and rally as you see fit.