My drawing of Wayne Rainey's 1993 Yamaha yzr500, these were pure racing machines and had none of today's modern rider aids like traction control or anti wheelie, they were super light weight and extremely powerful and as the engines were 2 Stoke the power delivery was brutal and instant like a on/off switch, the skill and precision needed to ride them on the limit was immense as if you got things slightly wrong they bite you hard, a tiny amount too much throttle could cause a massive head shake and uncontrollable wheelie or a huge high-side launching the rider into orbit and slamming them down hard onto the tarmac often snapping ankles, legs, wrists and collarbones, they were fearsome machines, In 1993 the current and 3 times world champion Wayne Rainey crashed at Misano in Italy and became paralysed from the chest down, I watched a video of Wayne riding his bike again last year with the help of modified controls and it inspired me to draw this as a tribute to the men who raced these these incredibley brutal but beautiful machines
