In the mid-1990s Yamaha’s sportsbike programme wasn’t going particularly well. Despite a roster of star riders like Colin Edwards, Scott Russell and Noriyuki Haga, the YZF750R (even in SP trim) was outgunned in the World Superbike championship by the Ducati 916 (although this was true of all the 750cc inline fours – Ed.), while the bigger-capacity Honda FireBlade was easily outselling it in the showrooms.
There were a few highlights, mainly in British Superbikes where Niall Mackenzie scooped three titles, but sales success was limited and so, in 1995, Yamaha’s top brass took the decision to follow Honda’s example and build a litre sportsbike at the expense of a 750cc one. It was a decision that left the door open for Yamaha’s R&D team to create the firm’s most exotic WSB homologation special ever – the glorious YZF-R7 OW-02 – to become the base for their superbike racing programme.
Under the watchful eye of project leader Kunihiko Miwa, the YZF-R6, YZF-R1 and YZF-R7 were all designed together, a strategy that ensured the road bikes benefitted from the latest WSB and GP technology bestowed upon the YZF-R7 where possible.
However while compromises were obviously made when it came to the R1 and R6, in order to keep production costs down, the R7 had no such restrictions where it mattered. Built in very limited numbers, the YZF-R7 OW-02 was a full-on homologation special that was designed to allow Yamaha to win the WSB title – a feat it very nearly achieved. But the cost to both Yamaha and potential buyers was high...
Yamaha only ever made 500 YZF-R7 OW-02 models, the minimum required to make it eligible of racing, and every one lost the company money as its £20,000 asking price wasn’t enough to cover development costs. When you consider that this price made it over twice as expensive as the R1 (£8000), it shows you just how trick the R7 was. Which was both its blessing and its curse.
Let’s start with the good bits.
The R7’s 749cc inline four motor uses Yamaha’s five-valve head design, as was the company’s want at the time. Each of its 20 valves are made from titanium and they sit within a head that is CNC-machined for accuracy. Compressing the fuel within this head are short-skirt forged pistons with plated crowns that are joined to lightweight H-section titanium conrods, which weigh just 260g each (30% lighter than the YZF750SP’s rods), and a balanced crank which is ion-nitrified (surface hardened) for extra strength.
Just as on the R1, Yamaha not only used the motor as a fully-stressed member on the R7 they also deployed their vertically-stacked gearbox (with close ratios) arrangement to make it compact and to allow for a longer swingarm. And on the R7 they added a slipper clutch, although oddly considering its race-targeting it was a wet clutch, not the more common dry clutch usually used on race bikes.
Feeding this motor was a huge 15-litre airbox with twin fuel-injectors per cylinder. The net result of all this technology and exotic components? 106bhp, which was pretty miserable when you consider the first R6, launched in 1999, claimed almost 120bhp. What was going on?
In order to sell the bike to a worldwide audience, Yamaha took the decision to make a single restricted model so that they wouldn’t have to produce unique models for markets that were restricted on power. The R7’s performance was neutered by each cylinder’s second fuel injector being turned off.
To turn it back on again required a new exhaust system, high pressure fuel pump and an ECU update, but even then you only got 135bhp. To reach 150bhp required the full race kit. For £20,000 owners quite rightly expected more, especially as the chassis was so good.
Based around Yamaha’s 500cc GP bike, the R7’s aluminium Deltabox II frame is full-on WSB-spec and comes with an adjustable steering head and swingarm pivot, as well as a super-long swingarm for increased traction. The fully-adjustable suspension is the very best that Öhlins (who were owned by Yamaha at the time) could supply while the brakes and wheels were taken directly from the R1.
Yamaha figured that racers would change the wheels and brakes for racing anyway, so why waste money putting top quality units on? It was a fair point but potential owners were once again left a bit disappointed.
Homologation specials live and die by the sword and if the YZF-R7 had succeeded on track, owners may have overlooked the road bike’s stratospheric price tag, disappointing performance and a few cheap parts here and there. It was, after all, simply beautiful to look at and incredibly exotic. But it didn’t succeed...
Ten years before the YZF-R7, Yamaha made the FZR750R OW-01, which was an ‘over-the-counter’ racer in much the same way Honda’s RC30 was. Privateer teams bought the OW-01 and won both domestic and international races – however this time around teams very quickly discovered that the OW-02 was almost impossible to make competitive. And even on the world scene, where money was no object in the full-factory team, it struggled to make an impact.
In its first year in WSB, the R7 scored just a single race victory (in Spain, with Haga riding) and two third places. Would things get any better in 2000? Almost...
The YZF-R7 came heartbreakingly close to achieving its goal of winning the WSB title in its second season racing, only to be cruelly denied due to Nori Haga’s illegal weight loss regime. After testing positive to the banned drug ephedrine, Haga and Yamaha entered into a long and drawn out appeals saga, which they eventually lost.
Haga was docked 25 points and banned for the final round of the season, a result that saw him lose the championship by 65 points to Colin Edwards. The R7’s moment to shine had been lost and with the latest crop of litre sportsbikes emerging, this homologation special was quickly overshadowed and forgotten about. Prices for unsold bikes (surprisingly there were quite a few) plummeted as the R7 was viewed as an over-priced and under-performing failure.
The R7 also marked the effective end of 750s as flagship sportsbikes. The R1, GSX-R1000, ZX-10R Ninja and CBR1000RR Fireblade became the bikes to have, while early 2000s 600s proved quicker than the typical 1990s superbike.
Nowadays the Yamaha YZF-R7 OW-02 is rightly viewed in a much better light. An incredibly special machine, prices for a good one now start at £30,000 and if it has the associated de-restriction kit, that easily adds another £5000 to the price tag. As homologation specials go, they don’t get much better than a Yamaha YZF-R7 OW-02 – in looks and mystique, if not necessarily performance or racing heritage.
Specs:
Engine: 749cc, liquid-cooled, 20v, DOHC, inline four
Power: 106bhp @ 11,000rpm
Torque: 72Nm @ 9000rpm
Seat height: 840mm
Weight: 176kg (dry)
