Yamaha OW60

The Yamaha YZR500 OW60, the bike Crosby rode to a second place finish in the 1982 500cc motorcycle grand prix racing world championship

Yamaha OW60

I joined Yamaha with the Agostini Marlboro Team in 1982 and was faced with an extraordinary situation. Kenny Roberts had convinced Yamaha to build the 82 GP bike with unconventional steering geometry. I tested the bike in Japan and was disappointed with its performance.

We decided to make our own modifications and I used Suzuki geometry from the 81 XR35 bike, and it transformed this OW60 into a weapon. An alloy chassis and power valves made it a delight to ride. It had very similar performance to the 82 Suzuki’s but I liked its colour scheme much better!

Anyway, I rode this to a 2nd place in the 500cc World Championship. I felt though it was an intermediate bike made in 82 as a stop gap measurement while waiting for the V4 to be produced.