Yamaha’s Daytona Special, the OW69 (1984)

A photo of a very special motorcycle, the Yamaha OW69. This was the bike built for one purpose – to win the Daytona 200 and hold Honda at bay. A lot of people are under the misconception that the OW69 were simply bored and stroked Yamaha OW60 500cc Grand Prix bikes, but that was not the case. A lot of additional engineering went into converting the OW60 into the OW69. New cases and cranks had to be designed to accommodate the longer stroke. It also used an additional radiator to deal with the heat the massively powerful engine generated. The ’84 model used an updated power valve to help the power come on less violently. Lawson said of the ’83 version that the power came on so suddenly that it was difficult to throttle up in the middle of a turn without the back end coming around. The bikes had perhaps one of the first computers used on a racing motorcycle to control the power valves. Weighing just under 300 lbs. and producing in the area of 175 horsepower, pre-traction control, Roberts and Lawson reported they could spin the rear tire all the way down Daytona’s back straight if they wanted to. Roberts and Lawson went 1-2 on the bikes at Daytona in ’83 and Roberts won again on the updated OW69 in ’84. (Joe Workman Collection) 
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