1987 Yamaha YZM500 at Farleigh Castle VMXDN

[Martin I Henry]

This ultra rare works Yamaha YZM500 was one of 6 made for the 1987 season, and was ridden by 250 World Champion Neil Hudson at the VMXDN meeting at Farleigh Castle last weekend.

It was not just ridden, but raced hard ! How good is that ? The YZM500 must have been the quietest, most powerful, and most expensive bike at the meeting. A real joy to watch.

Dave R

[knudsen]

Wow, that would be sweet to ride!

[cloggy]

Neil Hudsen's last ever ride.

[scalejockey]

Simply....AMAZING!!

I remember reading about that in 87.

[Martin I Henry]

Here is the bike being warmed up before the last race :

http://www.youtube.com/user/310cadet?feature=mhee#p/a/u/1/0iRj17BpXbM

Dave R

[Qqqqqqqqqqqq]

i saw Neil ride in australia in 1976 at noble falls

he beat the 125 world champion Gaston Rahier

[ctune80]

Thanks for sharing! My favorite GP bike of the 80's, and I was always a Neil Hudson fan too! How did he do in the races? Who owns that bike now?

[Martin I Henry]

Here are the results :

http://www.mylaps.com/results/showevent.jsp?id=720891

Neil Hudson was racing in the EVO 500 class. He appears to have come 5th overall.

Great site that ! Never knew it existed until someone sent me a link.

Dave R

[Martin I Henry]

Found the Official Programme for the 1987 event :

http://davestestsandarticles.weebly.com/uploads/4/8/4/5/4845046/farleigh_castle_1987_programme.pdf

Some great names there !

Dave R.

[proformance cycle]

Too bad Yamaha...

...made Broc Glover:bonk: ride a warmed over YZ 490, imagine if he had that against Bailey or if ya turned Hannah loose on that??

Oh, Yamaha you so f-ed up:moon: and should have supported the open class and produced that right there, lots of guys would buy them! ?

[Rot Box]

That's not a bike you see everyday.... or ever in a lifetime for 99.9% of people?

[dirtaddict23]

One of the coolest works bikes ever. Awesome to know at least one of them still exist. Ohhh to have a chance to ride it..........

[rob the snail]

chooken..i was racing that day. I remember gaston had a sprained/broken wrist and still was so so fast on that 125..I had the priviledge of being lapped by him that day..

[T.RexRacing]

That's one of the coolest bikes ever. Sadly one of few.

[MaxPower]

Too bad Yamaha...

...made Broc Glover:bonk: ride a warmed over YZ 490, imagine if he had that against Bailey or if ya turned Hannah loose on that?

Oh, Yamaha you so f-ed up:moon: and should have supported the open class and produced that right there, lots of guys would buy them! ?

I dont think people give Broc and RJ the credit they deserve competing production based bikes against the trickest Works bikes ever made in the history of our sport

[beck941]

I remember seeing that bike in black n white in some of my old magazines! I was in awe. Wish we could have gotten it over here. Looks better in color!

[ctune80]

Here is a pic of Jacky Vimond's YZM at the USGP in Hollister Ca, 1988.

I think it is Lundqvist's YZM #4 behind Jacky's.

He finished one positon ahead of Broc on a "Air Hammer" YZ490, Broc

threatened to win overall, but a Haybale in the middle of the track and

a bad start in one Moto thwarted him.

[DEMI]

makes me feel fortunate to have seen this bike in action at the '87 MXdN... one of the coolest bikes of all time!!

[ctune80]

makes me feel fortunate to have seen this bike in action at the '87 MXdN... one of the coolest bikes of all time!!

I was there at Dilla too! Mainly by the Gravity Cavity but I slogged through the mud to other areas too.

Got any pics from that day? I have a few, not many. PM me!

I can hear the chants of "The other side sucks!" now!

[scottiesbe]

This ultra rare works Yamaha YZM500 was one of 6 made for the 1987 season, and was ridden by 250 World Champion Neil Hudson at the VMXDN meeting at Farleigh Castle last weekend.

It was not just ridden, but raced hard ! How good is that ? The YZM500 must have been the quietest, most powerful, and most expensive bike at the meeting. A real joy to watch.

Dave R

what a gem! My brother owned the mass produced air cooled 87 yz 490

it had great power but it was a pig to start cold