Yamaha YZM500

The Yamaha YZM500 was the best known aluminium-framed motocross works bike. It also had the distinction of being the only water-cooled, open class, two-stroke bike from Yamaha. The YZM500 only raced for two years (1987-1988) by riders Leif Persson, Kurt Ljungqvist and Jacky Vimond. In the hands of Vimond, the bike won the 500cc Sweden GP overall in 1988. This bike was originally engineered for 1983 500cc world champion Hakan Carlqvist, but he was fired by Yamaha end of 1986 after having modified his 1986 works bike without his team authorization (forks change). So he never could race this bike. There were also a couple of bikes used for beach races. Only eight complete YZM500s were ever made, six in 1987 and two more for the 1988 season.^[1] Yamaha used the general look of this works bike to design the 1988 YZ 250 production motocross bike, but did not use the aluminum frame on any bike before 2005

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