New Page 1

Not officially offered for sale to the UK market the R1-Z is indeed a rare motorbike !
Looking like a combination of different Yamaha bike parts from the late 80's & early 90's !
It shares the same motor as the TDR/TZR 250 as well as the rear caliper ,
The front calipers look very much like the FZR 400 RR ,
The headlight looks very much like the RD/RZ 250/350 LC ,

Please check the following images taken by the former owner to see for yourself !
( Thanks Keith )

'Neil '' a R1-Z owner in the UK has sent the following information to share with others }
I have looked through the R1-Z parts book and pulled out various items that might be of
some interest to you ! The method of cross part recognition is done with some guesswork
at times by using the Yamaha model prefix e.g. : R1-Z = 3XC : 89 TZR 250 = 2MA etc .. etc

Barrells / Head = 3XC ( Due to porting arrangement / midrange etc )
Head Gasket = 1KT ( TZR 250 Parallel Twin )
Powervalve Unit = 1KT ( TZR 250 Parallel Twin )
Pistons = 2YK ( Tzr 125 )
Airbox = 1KT ( TZR 250 Parallel Twin )
Exhaust Gasket = 3MA ( Tzr 250 Reverse Cylinder )
Rear Mudguard = 1JK ( ? )
Shock = 3XC
Front Wheel = 3LN ( Fz 250 RR )
Brake Calipers = 3XC
Rear Wheel = 2XT ( 88 Tzr 250 )
Rectifier = 47X ( RD 500 )
Cdi = 3XC
Engine Casings = 2YK
Generator = 3XC ( Had some coils rewound TZR/TDR readings used )
Powervalve Servo = 2XT ( 350 Powervalve + V-Max carb boost unit almost identical )

Thank you Neil '' Top Stuff '' with some additional info from Xavier Blanc :-)

If you know any other information on the R1-Z and would like me to share it with others !
Please send mail as information on the R1-Z is hard to find !

Before I got hold of my R1-Z and like many other have done before '' I had a Vision ''
OK !! Well not a vision but I saw images of trick R1-Z's in a book given to me by a friend in Japan !
There were many in the book but the one that '' took my fancy '' has white bodywork and is fitted with
TZR 250 R ( 3XV ) Running gear it also looks like the standard pipes have been modified / extended !
Please see the images for yourself and '' Try not to Drool on your keyboard '' :-)

And so with this vision in my head and a cash in my pocket a start was made on project TZR1-Z !
The idea is to make my R1-Z look as close as possible to '' The Vision '' time & cash permitting !
After a strip down to the frame the bike will be rebuilt / painted / powdercoated & polished !
How long this will take '' God Only Knows '' you can be sure that its build will be posted on here !!

Very late in 2003 ( December 28th ) a start was made on stripping the R1-Z !
This was done outside to start with as the weather was dry but the wind was very cold ?
Good progress was made stripping all the large items from the bike ! bodywork / Motor etc !
After a few hours though with no feeling in my hands / fingers the bike was taken inside for a start
to be made on the little bits ? Headlight / Wiring Loom / Rear section / Clock / Brackets / Battery etc !
When finished all that was left of the bike was the frame with the Front & Rear still attached !
A great tip for anyone that is thinking of stripping a bike for the first time ( This is Mine ? ) is to
take lots & lots of pictures as you strip the bike then as you start to put it back together again in say
2 weeks / 2 months / 2 years you have a full record as to were all the bits went / came from !
Don't forget to then save them onto a CD Rom as you never know when your PC is going to crash ?
I did just this so here are some of the images for you all to see '' Thank God for Digital Camera's ''

As you can now see the R1-Z is almost stripped so a search had to be made to find the TZR 250 R
( 3XV ) running gear ! This will not be easy as the ( 3XV ) was also not offered for sale in the UK !
As if by some miracle a chance e-mail was sent to me from Mick with images of his Yamaha RD
collection to add to my gallery ! After replying to the mail with the usual '' Thank You '' more images
arrived of other bikes that Mick has in his collection and '' Could I believe it '' when their pictured was
a Yamaha TZR 250 R that Mick was '' Thinking of getting rid of '' It had obviously been in the wars
as the front fairing had been replaced with with a '' Scooter '' type fitting '' Street Fighter Style '' !!
It did start & run but the main thing to me was that the running gear was all intact !
After a few calls to Mick a purchase price was reached between us and off I went to Huddersfield with
my son to collect it ! It truly was '' The Dogs Bollox '' ( Well that's what it says on the bodywork ) :-)
Not thinking as the urge to go get the bike was strong I had nowhere to store the thing ?
Along came a good Friend ( Ian G1 ) who offered to look after the bike for a few days !
Good job he was a good friend as days soon turned into weeks ! While construction of a new bike
Garage / Workshop was undertaken at home , Please see images of the TZR Before its stripdown !

As you can probably see in one of the images of the TZR the R1-Z has now been fully stripped !
Its Front End is leaning up outside the garage ! The R1-Z has now been stripped back to the frame
with the original Front & Rear ends removed , The TZR has also now had its Front & Rear removed !
This has now been sold to Andy hopefully keeping other 3XV's on the road or track ?
The project is now at the end of the stripdown this is were I've been told the '' Fun Starts ''
Getting the TZR Running gear into the R1-Z Frame !! '' Wish Me luck '' Please see more images !

It's about time I got round to telling how my TZR-1Z project is moving along ;-)
To be honest with you the summer came to soon and the only '' Fun '' to be had round my place was
in the form of the dreaded '' D-I-Y '' with me and the family building a small extension on the house !
The project was going nowhere !
I did not have the time or the skills to undertake the Front & Rear conversions !
But from my local RD Meeting at Shardlow came special builder '' Nigel Kimber '' from '' NK Racing ''
After a few phonecalls and e-mails to Nigel to discuss how I wanted to project to look the whole lot
'' Frame / swingarm / wheels / yokes / motor / forks were taken over to his workshop to join onto
the end of a very .... very .... very long line of other bikes waiting for Nigel to work his magic !
Amongst my requests were the need to have a set of handle bars fitted to the TZR top yolk ?
I wanted a smaller rear caliper and for it to be underslung of the swingarm !
I also asked if Nigel could take some images of his work on the TZR-1Z project to show later !
So while me and the family got on with the building ...... Nigel worked his magic ;-)

Please see some of the images that Nigel kindly took of his work on my TZR-1Z project

At last a little time to update the information on Project TZR1-Z :-)
Things have been moving along quite well since the Christmas break !
A dry build was done just to make sure that all the parts still fitted to the bike after Nigel had
finished the Front & Rear mods ! Also with the dry build old brackets that were not in use anymore
could be marked for removal and new bracket that were required found homes on the frame ?
One such '' new '' bracket has been fitted to the rear of the frame ?
On the R1-Z frame there are some pins for a cargo net to attach just under the rear panel !
Having no use for these and with limited space in my garage a set of '' Grab Handles '' would
prove more useful to me ! if the need to carry any luggage is required then a set of straps will do ?
These new handles along with the new 2 stroke tank were made up by a good friend at work !

With the Front & Rear modifications I found that the Battery and 2 stroke tank would no longer fit ?
The only place I could see for there new home was under the tail section of the TZR-1Z !
The battery fitted well but a new tank would have to be fabricated in the only space left available ?
Along to the rescue came the good friend from work '' Richard '' who made up the new tank and handles !

Now happy that everything was OK it was time to sort the Shotblasting & Powdercoating !
Lucky for me there is a powdercoaters not far from home ! So I popped in and made enquires about
doing the frame and other bits that I had in mind such as the swinger / hangers / calipers / frame cradle !
I found the service absolutely fantastic '' John '' the owner could not of been more helpful :-)
A biker himself he knew what sort of finish I would be looking for and were to bung holes and threads etc !
John pointed me in the direction of a local shotblasting firm '' Bosworth Brothers '' who again turned
out to be very helpful :-) Paul from the firm took time to listen to my requests for blasting and was
very interested in knowing more about the TZR-1Z project having a few projects on the go himself
like an old MG car / a few '' British Bikes and also a rare 1930's Austin 3 litre x army truck !
As you will see in the following images the standard of blasting and coating is great :-)
If you are thinking of getting stuff done yourself then I highly recommend you use them :-)

Bosworth Brothers Blast Cleaning Services
Home Farm Derby Road Stanley Ilkeston Derbyshire DE7 6EX
Telephone '' Paul Bosworth '' on 07970 734764

John Whiteman Engineering
Unit 8 Cavendish Mills Bennett Street Long Eaton Derbyshire
0115 9468566 / 07803 775049

Now the project could start to be put back together or so I thought ?
I had forgot that all the old fasteners had suffered from corrosion and rust !
Now way did I have the cash to buy new screws / nuts / bolts / washers for the project but
along came Andy R from the East Midlands LC Club with an offer to replate most of my old stuff
through his contacts :-) he also helped me out with Stainless Cap Head bolts / Nuts & Washers :-)
Were would we be without our friends ? Thanks Andy you are a star :-)

Now finally the rebuild could start :-)
Still a long way to go yet but hopefully we will be rolling for '' Summer 2005 '' as you will see by the
following images I have made it to the '' Rolling Chassis Stage '' :-) this is were I must also give a
'' BIG '' thank you to the good lady wife and my 2 kids who must of wondered who this strange
'' Caveman '' like figure was who popped in the house from out of the workshop :-)
Hours & Hours locked away just me and the project ?

............................................................................

May 2nd 2005

After what seems like a lifetime working on the project there is finally some some progress being made !

The motor has been cleaned / painted & powdercoated and placed back into the bike :-)
A full rebuild was not done as the motor was fine when the bike was stripped !

The only problem I've had so far is that the wires from the switch gear are too short !
This was soon sorted with a few evenings sitting with the soldering iron and some spare wire :-)
This started a panic thinking that if the switch gear don't fit then what about all the cables ?
'' Panic Ye Not '' as if by magic all the cables have fitted OK although the routing was a pain !

Another thing that has been sorted was the clocks ?
The R-1Z speedo is fitted with kph clocks and the only thing on the market to convert them to mph
for use on UK roads are stick on type numbers that just look real '' cheep & nasty :-(
Yet again another member of the East Midlands LC Club came to the rescue :-)
Simon 5 who is known for making LC related graphics was asked if he could possibly help ?
I left the clocks with Simon to see what he could come up with along with a special request ?
After a few weeks I received a call from Simon saying that the clocks were done :-)
I shot round the next night to see what sort of job he had done ?
Again Simon had done to business converting the clocks to mph and doing my special request ?
White Clock Dials :-)

.........................................................................................................................................

The project still manages to cause headaches & problems ?
An attempt to fit the standard pipes onto the bike found that the end cans were catching the swingarm !
To the rescue came another member of the East Mids LC Club '' Tee Emm '' :-)
He builds pipes & tunes bikes in his spare time ( not that he has that much ) so the R1-Z project
was moved over to his place along with a set of new '' SPEX '' pipes that had come in from Japan :-)
Tee Emm decided it was better to start again with the stinger section of the standard pipes and also
to take the opportunity of fitting the '' Spex '' alloy end cans as the standard cans had seen better days !
While the bike was over at Tee Emm's place getting the pipes reworked contact was made with another
East Mids LC Club member !! This time it was '' Trig '' :-) who made up the new braided brake lines !

While the R1-Z had been away at Tee Emm's place my attentions were turned to the paint scheme ?
What colour was the R1-Z going to be ?
I did fancy having it in the traditional Yamaha TZ Race Colours of White & Red :-) But as I already had
A White & Red Yamaha in the garage the only option left was the classic Kenny Roberts black & yellow !
Many evenings were spent studying pictures of other Yamaha's in the classic Black & Yellow scheme !
Then with the aid of the computer and my children's colouring crayons I set about designing the scheme !
Finally I came up with a few idea's that in my oppinion looked good on the R1-Z :-)
Next I was going to need someone who was going to paint the bike for me ?
'' Yes '' this is starting to sound a bit boring now but guess what ???
To the rescue came another member of the East Mids LC Club '' Martek '' :-)
Martek said he had a good friend who paint's bike bodywork and that he could get me a price if I wanted ?
After a few days Martek came back to me with a price that sounded good to me :-)
That evening I took all my designs and the bodywork over to Martek's place for his friend to start work :-)
A few days later I was surfing the Internet looking on e bay and '' Booooommmmm ''' there it was !!!
Someone was selling a tricked up 350 Powervalve that was in the best Kenny Roberts I'd ever seen !!
Quick as a flash I mailed the item over to Martek and called him just to make sure he'd received it ??
The next thing was had the painter already started on my original designs ? Lucky for me he hadn't !
The painter was told to throw away my designs and copy the tricked valve's scheme onto my R1-Z :-)
Martek popped round to my place one evening to see how the R1-Z was doing !
He noticed something else that I'd forgot about ??
The seat needed recovering ??
Can you believe it ?? Martek's brother is an upholsterer and he could recover it for me :-)

While the bodywork was away the brakes were all filled with fluid / bleed and tested !
The motor was filled with oil and the coolant was added into the cooling system :-)
The standard air box was modified so that It could fit back onto the carbs ?
I had to cut down the air box because the position of the new rear shock took some of its space ?
The modified standard pipes were cleaned / rubbed down & painted with high temp paint !
Then came the phonecall I'd been waiting for ??
The seat and bodywork was ready for collection !
With cash in hand as payment I set of to meet Martek half way from his home !
The seat and bodywork looked fantastic :-)
As soon as I got back home the tank and seat were fitted to the R1-Z :-)
'' WWWWhhhhhhoooooooooooo ''
Over the next few evenings all the other bits of bodywork were fitted and my dream had come true :-)

Well what a ride it's been :-)

The plan had always been to have the bike ready for RD05 the air-cooled RD rally at Ashbourne !
With only a week to go to the deadline the R-1Z it was taken for its MOT but it failed :-(
The bike was booked in on the Sat before Ashbourne 02-07-05 for its MOT but I'd had a problem with
the aftermarket indicators ? they would not flash ? not having the time to sort the problem
I removed the indicators thinking that bikes did not need indicators to pass the MOT !
I was wrong !
It seems that all motorbikes built after 1986 need to have indicators fitted !
A good thing to come from this problem was the fella at the MOT test center put me right with
the answer to the indicators not flashing ? The standard flasher unit was not up to the job of
powering the aftermarket indicators and needed to be changed :-)
So Monday it went back to the test center for a retest and passed with flying colours :-)

'' Yet another problem ''

The bike would not tick over & would not pull away from a standstill without revving the bo**ox off it ?
It seemed that I'd totally forgot about the front and rear sprocket sizes ?
The standard sprockets for the R1-Z are 12 front & 45 rear !
This setting has the R1-Z buzzing through the box to fast for my liking so Nigel from NK Racing
had made a new offset sprocket with 14 teeth for the front and this should make the gears last longer !
The problem was that I'd totally forgot about all this and had gone and fitted the standard 3XV
37 tooth sprocket to the new 3XV rear wheel giving a mix of 14 X 37 !!! I was way out with the gearing !
It would be a gamble but with no time left I'd have to struggle with it until after Ashbourne RD05 !
Thursday it was time for The East Mids RD meeting at Shardlow and it was only right that the
R1-Z would be revealed there first after all the help the Shardlow boyz had given me with it :-)
Things were going so well untill I turned into Wilne Line ( 100 feet from the meeting ) ?
Suddenly there was a very loud change in the exhaust note ???
I stopped to see what the problem was ?
Had a end can blown off the exhaust ? Had the exhaust split ? had the exhaust come off the headers ?
'' No ''
The right hand powervalve cover had blown off !!
I crawled into the East Mids Meeting ! Left the bike with the boyz and went for a walk back up the lane !
After about 30 minuets I found the powervalve cover under a car :-)
The East Mids boys again came to the rescue this time with allen keys to attach the powervalve cover :-)
While I was there the tick over problem was talked about and it was decided that the pilot jet was to small !
It seems modifying the standard exhausts & airbox had caused this problem !
Again with no more time left before Ashbourne I was going to have to run with it !

Well I made it :-)

I traveled up on the Friday evening 08-07-05 sleeping bag tent and all :-)
With the bike parked & tent set up it began ??
Drink .... Drink .... & .... Drink :-)
Myself .... Trig .... Andy R ..... Ian G1 ..... set about emptying the bottles to build a bottle tree :-)

Saturday morning came round way to early with many suffering from the nights events :-)
Heads soon cleared as the legendary Ride Out began with 150 + Yamaha 2 stroke bikes setting off :-)
I struggled with the R1-Z gearing and lack of tick over but eventually made it to Matlock Bath
This is were the rideout eventually finished .... A chip butty was soon polished off for dinner :-)
I took a steady ride back to Ashbourne with a few other Yamaha 2 strokes and enjoyed the atmosphere
of the rally talking bikes and listening to the comments and thoughts of others on the R1-Z
Soon it was time to pack away the tent and make my way back home !
If you get the chance to attend RD 06 next year then do '' Its A Blast '' :-)

A few pictures of the R1-Z at Ashbourne / On the ride out and at Matlock :-)

Just thought I'd update the site a little !!!
I've still got the R1-Z and love every minute on it :-)
As spring time is here and summer will soon be with us I thought I'd spend some cash on the bike :-)
'' Tom Mac '' former LC Club top man has set up a small business making stainless & shiney parts !
'' Links Engineering ''

It's been some time since I updated the R1-Z pages with information on my own bike !
There's so much to tell but were to start ?
I'll start with July 2006 :-)

Things had been going well with the R1-Z until one summer Sundays run to Matlock Bath ?
I started to notice while riding along that something was not quite right with the steering ?
Turning right was getting quite difficult ?
It got that bad that I was physically having to fight the bars to turn !
Not a good thing so when I finally got home I had a good look at the steering ?
With the bike's front end lifted off the ground turning the bars felt like I was turning on sandpaper ?
Strip down time just to see what was going on ?
What I found was '' Grit & Road Crud '' had managed to get into the bottom bearing ?
This being the first special I'd built I had not realized that having a spacer on the bottom bearing
would open a direct gap for ' Grit & Road Crud '' to make its way into the bearing assembly :-(
Nothing else for it but to bin the bearing and start again with new :-)
This time before the bearing was fitted I sorted an oil seal ! sealing it away from the road debris :-)
Once back together I took it for a quick test and found everything was back to normal :-)

Thinking that the R1-Z was now finished I was just happy riding the thing :-)
But when you have a '' Special '' you'll find its never quite finished ?
Looking on the TZR Forum one day I spotted some ''Must Have Goodies '' ?
As my R1-Z is fitted with TZR ( 3XV ) running gear the '' Goodies were gonna easily fit !
The '' Goodies '' being carbon fiber parts :-)
Steve Laplume an American working in China and playing with a 3XV track bike had started to
make many one off parts for the 3XV as a result of the parts being impossible to get hold of in China ?
Steve had gone to all the trouble to make one part ! it was just as easy for him to continue his
order and offer more bits to the TZR community world wide :-)
Steve was more than happy for me to have parts for my R1-Z :-)
Shipping from China only took a few weeks and when the parts arrived I was speechless ?
The quality is Unbelievable & Totally Fantastic :-)
Once fitted the parts just added to the overall look of the bike :-)

Not long after I'd fitted all the wonderful carbon fiber goodies I received more good news ?
Early in 2006 me and the R1-Z attended the Donnington Classic Japanese Bike Show !
Along with other members of the East Midlands RD Owners :-)
At this show was 2 stroke owner & collector Andy Bolas who had just got hold of a recently
restored totally standard white R1-Z ! well I say totally standard but it was fitted with a set of
trick jap market BEET Racing rearsets ? Me and Andy talked about one day swapping over
rearsets so that Andy's standard bike would get a standard set and my special would get the BEET set ?
I went home and to be honest had almost forgot about Andy's BEET set when a few months
later I received a call from Andy asking if I was still interested in swapping over ? Yes Please :-)
The following weekend I removed my rearsets and went over to Andy's to swap ?
It did take two visits as we had both not realized that we also needed to change the rear master cylinder plunger and I'd not bothered to take it to Andy's thinking the change would be a straight swap :-(
After the second visit and all correct on Andy's bike I got home and fitted mine :-)

Some images of my R1-Z with Andys at Donnington !

.........................................................................................................................................

R1-Z Owners Gallery
A gallery for other owners of this wonderfull 250cc Yamaha stroker


Terry's R1-Z 250 ( UK )	Yoshihiko Yokohama ( Japan )	Martin ( Germany )	Neil's R1-Z ( UK )	Neil's R1-Z ( UK )	Jon Salmon '' Pre Resto '' ( UK )


Jon Salmon '' Pre Resto '' ( UK )	Mitchy Race R1-Z ( Japan )	Mitchy Race R1-Z ( Japan )	Jon Salmon ''Ready To Roll'' ( UK ) NEW	Jon Salmon ''Ready To Roll'' ( UK ) NEW	Jon Salmon ''Ready To Roll'' ( UK ) NEW


Fred & Jon's Ashbourne RD 07 ( UK ) NEW	Fred & Jon's Ashbourne RD 07 ( UK ) NEW

.........................................................................................................................................

R1-Z Brochures / Books / Magazines
A section showing R1-Z's in everyday publications

If anyone has other R1-Z images / scans then Please send them in to me :-)
Note : If you own any of the images shown .. magazines ... brochures ... books and your
not happy with me showing then please contact and I will remove them ... Thanks :-)

.......................................................................................... ...............................................