Kyle_in_Tex
Super Star Member
IF, you could find one of those from Japan, in clean shape, it would be worth a lot of money. Some got "wadded" road racing. Some guys down here had put Toomey exhaust on them. If the Toomey's helped the 500 as much as they did for the RZ350, it could have bumped the hp up maybe 15-20 with proper jetting/needles.
STROKE OF GENIUS: YAMAHA RZ500.
I consider some of the bikes I've been able to ride as "bucketlist" rides. Working in Yamaha shops from age 16-26 (1976-1986) and then hanging around and being involved got me a few memorable rides.
Here's an old motorcycle story. One Saturday morning back in 1985, working at Yamaha, my boss finally decided to service and run 1 of our 2 Vmax motorcycles we had received as our allotment for the first batch. Funny thing is, it had sat on our showroom floor's raised stand with track lights on it for 2-3 weeks with little interest. Yamaha had heavily advertised it in many publications. 145 Hp and a ton of torque with a wide back tire. 10.43 second 1/4 mile. We had a fairly long road behind our shop. The boss went out on it first and when he came back, he said "nobody but me or you rides that thing. Any test rides will be passengers on back. Go ride it, BE CAREFUL!" So I put on my helmet, and off I went. It had a great torque rise power band that, if it wasn't burning the back tire off, it would hook up and go. I got back to the shop and agreed with the boss about not letting customers ride it. About 15 minutes later, some of my long time riding friends dropped in to say howdy. I said, "Tim, you have got to let me take you for a ride on this thing." He was ticked, because he could ride as good as anyone in town, but the boss didn't know him well yet as the boss had just moved to town. I told Tim as he was on back, and we were riding down towards the end of the long road, "I'm going to turn around and get it on. I want you to actually wrap your arms around my waist to hold on." He looked at me weird and I said trust me just hold on. He was about 8 years older than me and had done crazy m/c stunts with my older brother for years. We got turned around and I nailed it, rode a perfect, front tire off the ground 3", power wheelie through first, second, and third gear with the front wheel coming down with a loud "chirp" at about 110mph. Both of us had eyes as big as silver dollars! Tim was about 5' 7" and maybe 135lbs on back. We were flabbergasted and pulled back into our parking lot. He said, "Hold that thing for me, I'm going to the bank Monday morning!". 1 sold. About 15 minutes later, a known car hot rodder in our town named John came by to look at the Vmax. He did not have a lot of motorcycling experience. (This story ends OK, no tragedy). He wanted to see it run, and I told him we had just ran it that morning. John was about 6' 4", 285lb and no fat. He was a boxer. I told him I'd recommend he start with a lower hp bike but he was emphatic, had a rich wife, and a good job, and said he wanted to go for a ride on it. Telling him what the boss had strictly commanded, he said OK take me for a ride. I explained what I was willing to do and if he wanted to go for a fast ride, or just putt around. He said he was a hp man, and wanted to see what it could do. I had never met this guy in person prior, but knew of him from others. So I had to find the biggest helmet we had in stock to fit, and off we go, me with my 175lbs and this gorilla man on back. I told him to lock his arms around my waist and off we went. My 2nd perfect roll on launch same as before with the front tire coming back to terra firma at around 110mph, but did I mention the whole time I was doing a 500lb dead lift straining to hold onto the handlebars with that big moose on back? I was actually glad that was over when we rolled back into the parking lot. My boss had walked back there to see how it went, but probably more so to see how I could ride having him on back. LOL. I told John that he was surely strong enough to handle the bike, and that it would handle like a puppy, as long as he went easy on the throttle. He said, "I'm going to the bank on Monday morning, hold this for me." 2nd one sold. He did not drink alcohol, and he respected the power, and that is probably why he is still with us AFAIK today. Later that morning, the boss's brother and SIL were down from Colorado visiting. He had a BMW 1000cc airhead bike that was his fair weather commuter, so he had good experience. I was talking with another customer and heard someone start the Vmax around the corner....I saw the brother and his wife taking off and I ran as fast as I could yelling at them to hold up. They heard me yelling and stopped, wondering what on Earth was I going to say and why I was panicking. I pointed to her and said "When he guns it, you make sure your arms are wrapped around him, not just holding his belt hoops", then I pointed to him and told him the same thing to make sure she was holding on tight. At the time the brother was probably thinking, what's this young punk doing trying to tell me how to ride?....They came back about 20 minutes later, and when she got off, she came straight up to me and said "THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE WARNING, we both knew exactly what you meant the first time he gassed it!"
On Monday morning we opened at 9am, and by 9:15, two different banks called and gave us drafting instructions.
Nowadays, 145hp is a pittance compared to what is offered by many brands. Yamaha made this same Vmax 1st generation from 1985-2007 without many changes.
Yamaha VMAX - Wikipedia
My best friend has the 2nd generation Vmax, and that's another story for another day.
Good story. Wonder if it was because you weren't Catholic? Maybe they weren't ready to give away their baby girl?
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Glad you are back to normal schedule.
