Still In The Crate: Zero-Mile 2001 Yamaha YZ250
Being brand new and still in the crate sure seems to be making a difference in the bid price of this 2001 Yamaha YZ250. Having zero miles on a vehicle is pretty unusual, when you buy a brand-new vehicle of any kind it usually has a handful of miles on it. The seller has this crated two-stroke listed here on eBay in Elmhurst, Illinois and the current bid price is a whopping $5,001 and the reserve isn’t even met yet! It’ll be fun to see how much this one sells for, if it sells.
I could have titled this one King of the Crate because the YZ250 is the king of the 250-cc motocross bikes, I don’t know how many serious motocross riders would argue with that. There will be other contenders for the title of king of 250-cc motocross bikes, as there always are with every category of vehicle. Overall, though, with arguably the best all-around engine of the bunch, the KZ250 has the competition beat. Here is what one looks like in the flesh.
This model has been made since 1974 and it has always been a two-stroke. The last two-stroke motorcycle to be sold in the U.S., as far as legal street bikes go is, of course, another Yamaha: the RZ350 Kenny Roberts Edition, sold in the United States from 1983 through 1985. Yamaha went as far as putting catalytic converters in the exhaust – an industry first – but it wasn’t enough for the DOT and EPA. 2011 is the last year that the YZ250 was reportedly sold in the U.S.
This Yamaha YZ250 may have been in a crate for over two decades, but that doesn’t mean that it’s in pristine, flawless condition. The seller has given a good number of photos and it isn’t easy taking photos of a partially-disassembled motorcycle that’s still in a crate. I noticed a few things that are a bummer, such as this photo showing the left side of the rear wheel, which appears to be a scratch or gouge in the rim and tire. The tires are 22 years old now, and we all know that any tires older than a decade should be replaced whether they look like new or not, but the rim looks scary unless it’s something other than a crack or scratch.
That may look like a crack or scratch, but I think it may be a wire for holding the bike into the crate. By 2001, this engine had changed from an air-cooled 250-cc to a water-cooled 249-cc with around 49 horsepower. Never having had any fluids in it, I hope that this one isn’t too much trouble to get on the trail again. Have any of you owned a two-stroke 250-cc motocross bike? Better yet, have you ever gotten a “new” motorcycle still in the crate and gotten it on the road/trail again?
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Comments
“.. have you ever gotten a “new” motorcycle still in the crate and gotten it on the road/trail again?”
Yessiree! In 1985, went to the local Kawasaki dealer to look at an ELR he allegedly had taken in. It was gone but he had TWO uncrated 1981 KZ1000J models in the back, one blue and one red!! We talked awhile but realized it was still more than I could afford.
As I reached for the door, he said ok, they’re not doing me any good and offered either one for his cost plus freight, assembly and taxes. It was still more than I’d budgeted for so he sold it to mr fir cost plus taxes! Came back later in the day, rode it home and in reading the manual came to find that it had the full warranty because it’d never been sold!!
It was a phenomenal bike for its time, and one I still look fondly upon when they rarely and occasionally turn up for sale somewhere.
I just don’t know enough about “brand new” 20 year old vehicles. Some assembly required. The YZ, as mentioned was the hottest stick out there, but in all fairness, MX isn’t so much the superior bike, they are all good, but riding style is what gets the checkered flag. I did some MX with my TS400 and then more seriously, the Bultaco 200 Pursang. I wasn’t the kind to go flying through the air with the greatest of ease, although the Bultaco had the steam to do it, just small scrimmages with friends, certainly nothing competitive. We all had to be at work the next day. Took many a lump, but all in good fun.
That is a small cut in the tire, but MX is so punishing to both rider and machine, I’d run it. I almost guarantee a “dry” water pump all these years will be a problem, rings may be stuck, but it’s still a “new” MX bike, and if you have grapes, they are a lot of fun. I read, a BRAND new YZ 250 goes for around $8 grand, kick and go. This is cool, and will deliver the same fun, but one better get it cheap, or just get a new one. Neat find.
Gee, Howard A, I would have thought you’d be the guy scouring ads for “Disassembled War-surplus Jeep MBs in their original shipping crates”!
Have to believe that 22 years of inaction have pretty much consumed all the consumables, from tires to seals everywhere. So the buyer is unlikely to be able to pull it out of the crate, throw it together, air up the tires and go….
But that’s not likely to happen anyway. I’d put my bet on the buyer being a collector who will set the crate up in his display area and proudly tell everyone he has a “new YZ 250 in the original crate!
Yeah, me, too. A local multibrand cycle dealer had just changed hands, and new owners were clearing out the back corners of the warehouse. This was 1986; and he had a supply of 1981 Yamaha SR500s he wanted out, for $999.
He had several assembled and on the sales floor, but when I got down there, they were sold. But he had more!…still in the crate! He’d let me test ride one of the ones he’d marked SOLD – this because I’d never ridden a big single – it was so arranged, and if I’d sign the deal, with financing (so I couldn’t back out) he’d uncrate it for me.
Not a bad bike, although a bit buzzy at highway speeds. Unfortunately, that was also the bike I had the New-Rider-Road-Rash episode on. When it happened I’d been riding for a little over a year.
The bike was totalled. A shame, since now it’s a cult classic.
No crate but only 35 miles! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDrTsGzJa74
Correction – YZ250s are still available and still very popular.
Brand new Yamaha in a Honda crate? What!
Sure. Pay a hefty premium for a 20+-year-old bike because it’s still in the crate, then take it out, replace every perishable bit, and go ride it. Makes perfect sense.
Totally fine as it is, it’s brand new. All of these crazy comments about “rotten tires” and “perishable bits”, lol!!! NONE of these people would actually buy this anyway. People just comment to hear themselves talk.
Those are cobwebs, by the way, not a “crack”. Oy vey.
Agree with you, Mike.
Oh, and have you priced a brand-new one? This is a deal.
never had a new in the crate bike, but I did own a 2 stroke 250cc MX bike for a fairly brief time. It was a KTM 250 sometime in the early ’80s. I bought it from my boss who broke his leg on it riding the powerlines. He bent the rod that worked the back brake enough in the “get off ” that it didn’t work anymore. The 1st weekend I had it I went over backwards in a 3rd gear wheelie (no back brake) on the paved road in front of the house me and a couple buddies rented. I got enough road rash that I was out of work for two weeks. While I was healing up one of my buddies was riding it around our house, he keep going faster and faster till it finally spit him off. After that it got the nickname (K)illed (T)en (M)en……It was sold shorty after…..It was way overpowered for a play bike and we were way under qualified to keep it upright….
I’ve owned a number of YZ250’s, starting with a ’79. I still have my 2001 YZ250 and it’s a great bike + it’s a Kalifornia Green Sticker bike. $5,500 new. As far as bits that rot/get stiff over time: tires, fuel line, air filter, hoses. Parts are still readily available. As far as new YZ’s, they are track bikes only…at least in Kalifornia.
Nice … but bike is WAY out of date. Two-stroke …
Two strokes tee off the tree huggers. That’s why they’re cool! And you can’t beat the sound.
Big C,
In 1974 while serving in the US Army in Germany, I took a road trip to the German Motorcycle Gran Prix races at the Hockenheim race track. I remember vividly the smaller class 2-stroke racing bikes as they went by the grandstands at high speed, sounding like a thousand angry Hornets!
might be in the crate but this is made only to race,so its an old out of date race bike,not a play bike an out of date but not vintage eligible either. nothing worth less than an old race machine ….take it from an old expert class rider
Somehow vintage & crated bikes and engines have found me over the last 50 years.
In the late 1970s I used to frequent the US Army’s surplus auctions at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland. On one visit I spied a wooden crate Marked in black stencil paint, with the British Triumph Motorcycle company logo and the US Military order info. Peering in thru a crack in the wooden boards I could see that something was still in the box, and it was easy to see the box had never been opened.
So I was the only bidder for the crate, and took it home for only $5. Carefully removing a couple of boards, it was clear there was a O.D. Green motorcycle inside, never assembled. I had it sitting in the garage for about 15 years, and finally sold it to one of my vintage car customers who also had vintage bikes.
He cleaned up the crate but never opened it. Displaying it in his basement bar, he had a wooden bar top made to sit on top of the crate. As far as I know, his son still has it, never opened, and not for sale. Before I sold it I did find out what was inside; A late WW2 model 3HW, a military bike based on the Triumph Tiger 80, a single cylinder of 349cc.
And yeah, I sold if for more than $5, a lot more. Never knew the exact reason it was sent from Triumph to the US Army, but as it was at Aberdeen Proving Grounds, maybe there were plans to test or evaluate it.
Over the years I bought quite a few surplus engines that came out of APG, including 8 [yes 8] WW2 surplus Indian motorcycle engine/gearbox units in the original crates, finally sold them about 2010. I even found two 1945 WW2 Continental air cooled Diesel 4 cylinder boxer motors, marked with US Bureau of Ships data plates. Serial numbers 1 and 5 of only 10 built for testing at APG very late in the war. The other 8 were tested before the test was cancelled. These 2 were never run. I just sold them this past summer to a collector in NJ who is going to make #5 run [keeping #1 as original], and I hope to write a story about them after he finishes. [See photo]
SOLD for $7,100.