Does anyone know where a guy from California can pick up an R7. I cant find one anywhere. i have tried cycle trader, ebay, and just searcherd the net. nothing....

God would be your best bet....pray hard. The R7 was produced in such limited numbers (and sold ONLY to race teams), and raced so hard there aren't many left. I do believe Yamaha only brought 50 of them over...all 50 went to race teams, and I think only 1 team got a bike for street usage. If you think about how old they are, and how much bikes are wrecked at the top level I wouldn't bet on more than 20 being in the US, then out of those I'd guess only 2 or 3 are in good shape...and how many of those are "for sale".

there is always luck....i will still look though

i agree with dyezak. very very limited. my best female friend's boyfriend just got one shipped to him from his dad who's a racer. lucky guy! I'm hoping i get to move his R7 to their new house since he doesn't have a license or permit yet to ride it. hehehehe...

That and they run upwards of 30,000. So unless you want one as a collectors item just spend the 30k on a Duc 999r

Check ebay.
I've seen them there from time to time. They were sweet during their time and definately a topic of discussion if I ever sold my soul to the devil. But now they are dwarfed by the competitors.

I mean your talking in the ballpark of 140hp and an iverted ohlins superbike fork. Hell the r1's have stiffer chasis and for the money you could cam up an R6 and put ohlins front and back and smoke an R7.

I heard that Ben Affleck has one, I don't think he rides it much so he might be willing to sell(lt's not like he needs the money though). :D

Speaking of the R7, when I first heard of it on a forum, I thought someone had accidentally hit the 7 key instead of the 6. Until they started talking about it, I didn't know it was a real bike! Can someone tell me everything I need to know about the R7?

OKay before the AMA and WSB and most sportbikes went insane, there were displacement rules in racing.
Basically if you ran 2 cylinders you could go to 999cc, and if you ran 4 cylinders you could run 800cc max displaement.
Back in the day, you had 3 classes of bikes. Superstocks... (599cc and less) which are your r6's cbrs zx6rs and what not. Then you had the superbikes which were your gsxr 750s, your yzfs and so on. And then your ultimate bikes for your cbr900, gsx1100, zx10s and the like. These weren't in sanctioned racing just the best of the best at the time.

So Yamaha tried to run the "homologation" game. Where they would build a bad-ass race only bike that would exploit all the rules of superbike racing. And to make it legal to use, they would make their quota 500 units that needed shipped to the US of A.

Basically it was a race bike with turnsignals. It had an inverted Ohlins front end, Ohlins rear, rear sets, clip-ons, braided lines (if memory serves), no rear seat. Again a race bike that could barely pass a states inspection laws. Oh and an akropovic exhaust sticks in my mind.

These things were the cats for a while. Noriyaka Haga raced a factory R7 in world Super Bike. And it was standard limited edition affair. Each dealership was entered into a lottery to vie for the few that would be sold to the public. As stated above, these were raced hard. Not many survived.

So it was 140hp (roughly, emory fade and I can't find an article on them) Like 425 pounds. Super agile, super quick, not all that fun. The speed and agility came at an un-yamaha like expense of being nervous and twitchy. Because it was a Superbike that got riden on the street.

So they lived at the top of the ladder until Honda came out with the RC51. Which had it's glory until the racing sanctioning bodies allowed 1000cc 4 cylinders into the mix and the gsxr1k kicks. I mean Matt Mladin is working on his 900th consecutive AMA victory or something equally ridiculous. (Honestly I think it's like his 7th champion season).

But technology has gotten better that you can get a much better bike for a lot less. So at this point it'd be more of a nostalgia thing. I'd love one because of the rareity. It's like the guys who still race vintage bikes. There's much better equipment now but you just want one.

Whoa, what a great explanation! Thanks!

This is from www.motorcyclenews.com

HEN'S teeth and flying pigs are a more common sight around Britain's roads than Yamaha's R7. Only 500 have been built for homologation purposes, and just 40 of those have made it to the UK.

But even then it's virtually impossible to get hold of one without extensive race team contacts or the kind of financial muscle that does million dollar deals before breakfast and has an unlimited expense account.

Built for just one purpose , to win superbike races , the R7 is the purest distillation of racing spirit Yamaha could put on sale, this side of making their YZR500 Grand Prix bikes available at your local dealers.

But even if you were lucky enough to get hold of an R7, it's just a starting point. Customer bikes are merely platforms on which to build full-on race winners and are strangled as standard accordingly.

The handling, stability and overall tautness of the road bike might be enough to completely rearrange your concepts of cornering dynamics, but the standard power output won?t set your trousers on fire.

That's because in road-going trim the R7 puts out only 106bhp at the crank , which equates to just under one hundred rear wheel horsepower. This makes the bike legal in many different countries (France and Germany have 100bhp limits, for example) and negates the need for the factory to spend money on developing versions for many different markets.

Splash out either an extra £750 or £10,000 for the two stages of race kit, however, and the true potential can be unleashed. The lower specification kit adds around 25bhp by, among other things, allowing the throttle bodies to open completely and the second set of injectors to fire, while the full-on stage two race kit helps the engine develop its full potential of around 160bhp at the crankshaft.

For that huge amount of wedge Yamaha will also throw in racing carbon bodywork, race wheels, suspension adjustment parts, as well as ignition and wiring loom tweaks , so it's money well spent?

And the track is where the R7 really needs to be, since diesel-slicked roundabouts and the odd corner are never going to even slightly test the Yamaha's vast reserves of handling, braking and near perfection.



Hope that's some help!!

Saying that.............There is one for sale in one of my local dealerships. The price tag - £18000!! Looks like it has been raced as well!!

Hi,

I have a blast with mine....and the person I bought it from had 2 :D...

perhaps the 98 R1 modded engine with Kehin 41 FCR's helps...(original is all nice and wrapped...)..she is a BIT nervous though when I slam it...:D

regarding the rest...I still have to try the K5 K7 Gixxer but the only other bike that I found was as good handling was my F41000....

Unfortunately I took a dive at the Mugello circuit in April during free testing before a race...but she's ok...pieces just got in from Japan...

I'll see if I can find a photo to post...

Cheers

John

There's a guy on R6messagenet who has one for sale.