Yamaha R7

Saw one yesterday in the Macsport showroom at Brackley.

Never heard of this model before, looked nice, bloody expensive though.

According to the interweb they are very rare.

Anyone here ever ridden one?

Review found here:
http://www.motorcycle.com/mo/mcyam/99r7.html

--
Dan L (Oldbloke)
My bike 1996 Kawasaki ZR1100 Zephyr
M'boy's current bike 1990 Suzuki TS50X (Heavily fortified)
M'boys NEW bike 2003 Honda NSR125R
BOTAFOT #140, DIAABTCOD #26, BOMB#18 (slow)

 

IIRC it was built purely for WSB homologation, & was the bike Haga
started out on.

It recently came second in a test of the best 750s ever, only pipped to
the post by the MV Senna...

 

Oldbloke secured a place in history by writing:

Friend of mine has one for the track, along with a couple of Dukes and a
1200RS Beemer for everyday use [1].... He considers it the best track
machine he has ever owned

[1] Brain surgeon size salary required, which is handy as that's what he
does for a living.

 

Built of homologation of the WSB bike.

The ones they released for the rode were strangled to 100bhp, so you
actually got better performance if you bought an R6. They a few but
only enough to pass the homologation.

Big cock up on Yamaha's part I reckon. They should have released in
full spec making 130-odd bhp and they'd have wiped the GSXR750 off the
face of the planet.

 

Close but no cigar. It was the replacement for the YZF750 but, unlike the
YZF, was an homologation special (even thought it, too was called a
YZF....). But Haga first rode full time in WSB on a YZF750SP and nearly won
the WSB title on a YZF750-R7 in 200 but lost points due to failing a drugs
test for taking a 'weight loss supplement' before that season started...

Prior to 200, Haga, Colin Edwards and a chap called Nagai (who died in a
stupid fucking pitland accident) all campaigned YZF750s in WSB and Niall
Mac. Jim Whitham and Chris Walker did rather well, amongst others, in BSB on
YZFs. But the R7 never made it 'cos as soon as it was released the rules
started to get changed so Yamaha didn't plough in the required factory
millions and so Ducati (or, in Honda's case, Ducati-style copies) carried on
winning WSB.....

Arse! As standard, at any rate.

And that's the only way to test bikes, back to back.

*Any* bike can be the best in class with enough money thrown at it, but as a
standard bike the GSX-R wins every time in the last 8 years......

Dave

 

Partial arse, I just re-checked & I got it wrong; the R7 came 4th, 749
was 3rd, GSX-R 2nd, MV 1st. They were all tested together, including on
the road, a track day at Brands, & a day at another circuit. They were
standard bikes apart from the usual cans & Power Commanders, & the MV
they used belongs to a mate of mine (he came on our MV group Swiss tour
in July).

It was a close call between the gixer & MV, but the MV came out on top,
especially on the track. They did say the gixer would've won if cost
was an issue.

 

<snip>

Pitland? I was at Assen when Nagai fell off in front of us[1] and his
bike landed on his head, think that was what did for him... He came off
on some oil dropped I think by an 888 as it blew, can't remember the
name of that rider. Also the day that Fogarty won the championship and
gave some brit bloke a ride round on his bike, both were pretty pissed
later on in the bar.

[1] At the "Strubben Tribune" according to this map:
http://www.tt-assen.com/Welcome/The_circuit/the_circuit.html

 

Pitlane, obv. Must've got my stories mixed up, then... Who was the guy
who got killed when someone with a borrowed pit pass walked in front of him
as he was on his way out, causing him to crash? I thought it was
Nagai......

 

Hmm dunno. It was deffo Nagai at Assen though - can remember Edwards
looking over his shoulder and shaking his head as they bundled him into
the back of the ambulance. Also the crowds "oooh" was the bike landed
right on his head at the point of the rear of the fairing iirc, he kind
of went limp after that.