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                                       1974 OW13    Tom Kratzer

 In 1973 Hakan Andersson won the 250 World Championship on the very first single rear shock bike.  The Monoshock.  It was also the first long travel bike.  The bike featured here, is the second generation works Monoshock.  Instead of using what worked in 1973, Yamaha designed this one from the ground up.  It is the most sleek and exotic Yamaha works bike of the 70's.  With their first World Championship now under their belt, Yamaha pulled all the stops with this, the first of the OW series.  Prior to 1974 all works Yamahas were designated YZ's.  The OW11 was the 125.  The OW12 was the 250 and the OW13 was the open bike.  The OW13 was raced in various engine displacements, from 370's to full 400's.  This example is a 370.  Initally the bike was inferior to the 1973 model.  It took nearly the whole season to develop it, but by the end of the season,  it was a true gran-prix winning machine.  This bike is one of three that were imported into Canada.  Two went to Toronto and this one was raced by Tom Kratzer from the West Coast.  It was raced in the 1974 USGP at Carlsbad, the Canadian Grand-prix, and the Puyallup, Livermore and Saddleback Trans-ams.  It was also raced in the Canadian National Championships.  The bike came from Terry Hyde, a former pro from Canada.  It was missing a lot of the original parts.  The bike is now 100% original using many brand new NOS works parts from Hakan Andersson.  Including a brand new (with original paint) gas tank!

 Stay tuned for comments from Tom Kratzer, 1973 AMA 500 National Champion Pierre Karsmakers and 1973 250 World Champion Hakan Andersson.

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