Now, I have never been a great protagonist of the 750cc engined motorcycle. For one reason or another I'd always bypassed them, going from Fireplaces to CBR 600s' and back again. However, it was while I was at the TT in '95, accompanied by a very nice CBR 600, that I became a lover of 750s. A mate was on a YZF and although it was in Yamaha's rather gay pink and pale blue colours I blagged a couple of laps on it to check out 750 handling ... and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The bike steered better than my previous Blade, obviously had a bit more oomph than the 600 to get up the Mountain Mile and generally suited me well.

Upon returning from TT 95, I sold my 600 and ......no, I didn't buy a 750, I went to live Saudi Arabia. Upon my first R & R back in blighty I decided I needed some two wheeled transport and popped off to P&H Motorcycles to see what they had. As luck, fate, (call it what you like), would have it, there was a nice "L" reg YZF 750 R sitting there, which was well within my budget. The previous owner had gently dropped it, giving him cause to have it repaired and then resprayed in YZF SP colours and very nice it looked too. I bought it and went away happy.

The next day I took it back as it had warped discs, fitted free even though it was past it's warranty period and the problem never occurred again. Apparently Yamaha kept warranty open for this as it was a recognised fault with the 6-pot callipers etc.

I had the bike fitted with a Mueller Racetechnik exhaust can, (steer well clear of these, as they are shite) which worked well and fitted a Dynojet kit, as it HAD to have one, I was told by Nick at Ryno Dyno. Anyway, we set her up a treat and boy it did make a difference, the bike pulled like train for a 750; it was great!!

I took it to the TT in '96 and proceeded to have a lovely time on my YZF. I was getting to know the course better and also the bike. The rear shock started to spring a bit of a leak, but nothing that was too serious and a few nuts and bolts fell off, but this was typical Yamaha territory, so again I didn't mind, the bike was still doing what she needed to do.

A few days after our arrival, a chap by the name of Dave Black arrived. A very nice bloke and very sociable and yes, he could ride a bit. He was on his way from Ireland to Germany and had stopped off at the TT (well, why not?) and teamed up with us. He too had a (very horrible looking) YZF, but it's not the looks that matter!

After a couple days of rain and a heavy drinking binge, we actually enjoyed a forecasted day of good weather. We all got up at 06:00 to have a good blast round our beloved TT circuit. To be honest, I was feeling a little apprehensive, I wasn't sure why, but thought I'd take up rear gunner duties for the first lap. However, Dave seemed to be behind me. As we cut our way through Douglas (the town) and approaching the junction at the bottom of Bray Hill, the guys in front all pulled out without having to stop for traffic. I looked right and saw a Nissan Micra coming, so applied my brakes.

Just as I placed my feet on terra ferma WHAM!! I was catapulted high into the air, only to land on my back at the side of the road. I looked up to see Dave (19 stone then) combined with his YZF proceed to ride straight over my legs and what was left of my YZF, leaving tyre marks on everything, I kid you not. Luckily for me Dave possessed the skill (?) not to fall off and add to my injury list of bruising, tyre burns and twisted joints.

By the time all this had happened and I had surveyed the carnage, it turned out that Dave had looked right, saw the car coming and thought he should make it in time to stay with the others, but he didn't look up to see if his path was clear. He had opened the throttle sufficiently to make a very quick exit, that had not been there. His front wheel rim had hit my rear sprocket with sufficient force to bend his rim enough to break the bead on the tyre and flatten it. The other guys came back, worried at first and then within seconds falling about laughing, to help clear the road of plastic. I put all pieces we could find in my pockets and Dave and I rode back to the hotel. Me in first gear all the way, as I had no gear lever to speak of, and Dave with a flat front tyre. Upon arriving back at the hotel we too started to laugh as it was only really the bikes that were damaged, but not beyond repair.

When the others returned from their lap or two, we got the superglue out and literally stuck my bike back together, fairing, mirrors, indicator lenses, headlight glass, the lot. From 30 yards it looked excellent. I procured an FZR600 screen from the pits, (after trying to blag a YZF one from Rob McElnea and Niall Mackenzie, but they didn't have any bits, so they said) and made that fit and she was fighting fit again and ready for more laps. A large hammer and a new tyre sorted Dave's bike.

It certainly was a TT to remember and not just for the incident, the bad weather played a part too, but Dave, give him his due, did pay for the repairs through Vegan, but I was never to see my YZF again!! I had to return to the land of sand and the bike was repaired in my absence and then sold in my absence. Apparently it looked the business as it had to be resprayed by Frontiers as well, because all the new panels were for a standard painted YZF and mine was SP colours. I think the bill was in excess of eighteen hundred quid or so!

And that was the end of my YZF. I still say they are one of the best 750s ever put on the streets and what a brilliant track day tool too, ask Niall Mackenzie or Noriyuki Haga. Very cheap to buy now and still a good sports bike. Looks a bit dated, but the later ones do come with fully adjustable suspension and a rear Ohlins shock to boot. Mine didn't have that as it was a '93 model....DOH !!!!

The forerunner of the awful Thunderace and the excellent R1, the Deltabox Yamaha FZR1000R Exup was a helluva bike in it's day, heralding the start of decent aluminium frames and sorted suspension.

The novel Exup valve in the exhaust helped the mid-range along a bit and compensated for the 20 valves - why they had so many is a mystery, as performance was not much different from the 16 valve competition. Still, great marketing tool and it became Yamaha's trademark configuration. And great fun if you like re-shimming the things.

Steering is classic ponderous Yamaha - doesn't really want to turn unless you spend some time explaining what you want to do and getting it to go along with your ideas. Later ones had USD forks, but they were crap and the extra weight did the bike no favours, although turn-in was slightly better.

All a bit big and heavy by today's standards and the 5 speed box made life on the track a bit difficult, but in 1989 everybody had one

The fairings were renowned for their ability to withstand a good slide down the road - they were made of nice bendy plastic and sort of melted a bit in a long slide, but didn't crack.

Eventually the Exup turned into the Thunderace. The motor was tuned for a bit more power, but developed nasty high frequency vibration in the process. Although marginally better handling than the Exup, the Thunderarse was no sports bike - too lardy and not nearly trick looking enough. In fact, it looked bloody awful. It was Yamaha's stopgap while they developed their true Exup replacement, the storming R1. The Arse heralded the end of an era of heavy old tourers, and the dawn of the modern sportsbike age.

The race-rep homologation OW01, about the trickest thing you could be riding in 1989. Nothing in the power department until 9000 revs, then waaaaaaahh! round to 14000. Two-stroke power from a 750 four, but it made around 120 bhp, which was pretty good when you consider the later YZF750 struggled to top 100 bhp.

Being a proper racer the OW had lots of nice trick bits. Well, trick for 1989 that is. Superstiff deltabox frame, top notch Ohlins shock, 6 speed close ratio gearbox and plenty of titanium and magnesium. The aluminium was also top quality, so much so that the frame wasn't even anodised. Many salty winters and not a hint of any corrosion.

Riding position was uncompromising. Low bars, high fixed pegs and a bit of hard foam for the seat made the thing a bit single minded on the road. Judicious mods to the seating arrangements care of a GSXR750 saddle helped a bit.

Apart from burning a pint of oil every 500 miles (it's those 2 ring racing pistons, honestly) this pristine pre-owned example ran OK for 10,000 miles but then it seemed to lose power and wouldn't tick over. Stripping and balancing the carbs and tweaking the fuelling didn't help and it was decided that the valve clearances were tight .... or loose. So we pulled the cam cover off and checked the clearances - most of the inlet valves were closed right up. So cams out and a re-shim. All was well again ...for 1000 miles. Then, same problem, the inlet clearances had closed up again completely. Turned out the valve heads had distorted, allowing the valves to seat too deeply, closing the cam follower gaps. Nothing for it but to replace the valves. The problem just seemed to affect the inlet valves - luckily there are only 12 of them!

Big Cubes

At the time everyone was riding GSXR1100s and 1000 Exups and mucho discussion eventually led to the decision to replace the peaky 750 engine with a 1000cc Exup lump. The litre motor has the same crankcase mountings as the 750 but the heads sit some 10mm higher and further forward. Space gets tight trying to squeeze the heads between the frame rails, needing shims to adjust the clearance which was down to a couple of mm either side of the carbs! Lots of fiddling about to make little brackets and things took several days and modding the air box to fit was a pain as I had to make up a new intake out of aluminium sheet to allow the petrol tank to sit properly. It all took a while but eventually everything was done.

The bigger engine spoilt the handling a bit, I guess because of the greater weight of the 1000 engine which is also carried further forward than the 750's, upsetting the front/rear balance a little.

But the upside is a fat torque-monster which makes for easy A-road riding in amongst the cars. On the track the bike's probably a little slower on lap times, the product of the poorer balance.

Some old planks

The old nail was reliable apart from eating rear wheel bearings every couple of thousand miles. Then on a trip back from the 'Ring the main tank ran dry and a casual flick of the reserve switch didn't produce the expected going forward again reaction. A rapid panic beside a busy motorway in the middle of Belgium followed by slightly less panicky inspection under the fairing showed that corrosion had eaten the actual pump switch and all that was left was the rocker bit on top of the fairing .. Too may salty winters had wreaked their wreakage on the bike.

Then the inlet valves went after 30,000 miles so had to be replaced. 10,000 miles later 3rd gear started to go - it's the most used gear on back roads. Rather than simply replace the gear the original OW six-speed close ratio box was sitting in the shed, so a complete gear cluster transplant seemed sensible. This was forestalled however by the arrival of a GSXR750W, and the venerable OW passed on to a more appreciative owner.

Say what you like about the old plank, the rear suspension is top kit - proper Ohlins stuff with remote hydraulic preload and all. Gives a lovely soft ride, guvnor, with top notch handling to boot.

Bodywork is Replica Fairings ... painted lovingly in my specialist workshop (or garden as it is otherwise known). Original stuff is too expensive for tracks!

The bike has now fallen into the hands of Mark, so he can amuse himself whilst recovering from his large off and squished leg. A YZF750 transplant is scheduled, plus lots of removal of ancillary equipment to turn the OW into a track bike.

And so we say Goodbye

Well, the OW started its metamorphosis into a track day butterfly in the hands of Mark le plomber.

Just about everything that could come off came off, and the old 1000cc Exup lump was discarded with some disdain into the far reaches of Ian's shed. The plan was to insert a YZF750SP motor with the choicest bits of the OW engine to pep things up. This plan went a bit haywire due to lack of any decent SP motors and selling the OW engine to Tony of Uckfield, the well known mechanic and general fiddler.

The ignitor box fitted was an Exup one, but the OW unit gives a 14,500 rpm rev limit - nice if the motor can take it. The theory was that the OW cams should slot straight into a YZF head to give a bit more overlap and peakiness - gotta be peaky for track use. So peaky YZF lump with 14,500 rpm limiter should equal ... um, probably a big bang and a lot of oil over the back tyre.

The wiring loom was scrap thanks to black wire corrosion, but hey, this is a track bike after all. Minimalist wiring required ...

Just take a look at that luvly titanium conrod

YZF SP forks were planned, and a kit swingarm would be nice but they're pots of money. Harris still sell copies for around £800. Existing Ohlins shock is a bit tired but should respond well to an overhaul, and it has the trickest ride-height adjuster around ...

All this went by the board in the end. Mark sold the whole lot off the Tony eventually and he is rebuilding the bike to standard. Seems nice original OWs can fetch a bit of money.

Mark decided that the best trackday tool is really a ratty CBR600, and he's probably right.