FAQ: what bikes does Valentino Rossi ride?

We’ll probably never know exactly what bike Valentino Rossi would choose as his personal daily ride without the constraints of a multi-million dollar contract. However, since the nine-time world champion has spent 14 of his 20 seasons in the premier class racing for Yamaha, it’s not surprising that most – but not all – of his current stable of machinery is from the tuning fork brand.

What is perhaps surprising is the capacity of some of the machinery currently housed in his VR46 HQ in Tavullia in Italy, especially since his day job is wrestling a 240hp 1000cc MotoGP prototype around some of the fastest racetracks in the world. But this is how Rossi rolls.

The only non-Yamaha-branded machine that we know about, Rossi has a fleet of Italian-made 80cc two-stroke mini grand prix racers with which he and his VR46 Riders Academy students train. Powered by a liquid-cooled 80cc two-stroke engine capable of 27hp, the mini grand prix machines run top-shelf Öhlins suspension and tip the scales at just 72kg before fuel and gearbox oil is added. Rossi and his academy riders use these to hone their skills on a tight go-kart track.

Used in much the same vein as the mini GP racers, Rossi and his posse do battle and boot camp on a swag of 85cc two-stroke motocross bikes shod with road tyres to create mini-motard machinery. Suspended on fully adjustable upside-down forks up front and matched to a fully adjustable rear monoshock, the off-road machines can be set-up for some fast and furious go-track circuit use. Weighing just 72kg, the lightweight dirtbikes let the academy riders sharpen specific skills using the peaky power delivery of the two-stroke engine.

Spotted outside the garages of then Movistar teammates Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo during the 2015 Australian MotoGP was Yamaha’s three-wheeled leaning scooter, the Tricity. Okay, so it’s highly unlikely that the team bought it all the way over from Europe, and we’re not entirely certain Valentino Rossi actually rode it, but you can’t help but admire the choice, certainly given the Phillip Island event’s notoriety for wet weather. Not only does the 155cc Tricity boast three wheels, which are both larger in diameter and with a wider rear tyre than your average scooter, but the stability gained from the dual front wheel setup is unrivalled, and we all know those GP riders like to muck about on a paddock scoot.

Probably Valentino Rossi’s most well-known and photographed motorcycle after his Monster Yamaha YZR-M1 GP prototype is the YZ450F he uses to train and race at his Motor Ranch dirt track facility in Tavullia. It’s powered by a 449cc fuel-injected four-stroke single fitted with an Akrapovic exhaust system, and comes standard with fully adjustable KYB suspension. The bike comes out of the box weighing over 110kg, but you’d bet your last 46 dollars that the machine Rossi won his traditional season-ending 100km dirt track race with at the end of 2018 was far lighter and far quicker that the bike you’d buy from your local dealer.

Given Rossi’s Tavullia-based Motor Ranch is a 17km ride to the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli, and that access to his MotoGP machine is governed by strict testing restrictions, you’d expect the bloke to have a bike or two capable of lapping the 16-turn, 4.22km circuit at a decent clip. He uses both of Yamaha’s sportsbikes, the 599cc YZF-R6 supersport offering as well as the firm’s flagship superbike in the YZF-R1M. While still a far cry from the specification of his GP machinery, the R1M is as close as a Rossi rider can get to mimicking the characteristics of his race bike. Weighing 200kg, it’s powered by a 1000cc inline-four cylinder cross plane engine good for 200hp, boasts top-shelf componentry, the latest win production available electronics and, with an all-new YZF-R1 tipped for the 2020 model year, there’s a good chance the great man himself is offering his feedback on the future model.

Valentino Rossi’s 2019 MotoGP machine is as high-tech as it gets for any two-wheeled machine to roll out of the Iwata-based factory in Japan. Using an inline four-cylinder 1000cc engine, it’s good for well over 325km/h thanks to its 240hp output. Housed in a relatively conventional aluminium twin-spar chassis, there’s enormous adjustability on offer in terms of steering and swingarm geometry. It employs a six-speed cassette type seamless shift gearbox, suspension is by way of the very best on offer from Swedish brand Öhlins, the brakes are top-shelf Brembo affairs and the 17-inch wheels are made from forged magnesium. Incredibly, the thing weighs just 157kg and would be even lighter if the regulations allowed it.

His MotoGP contract would forbid him from admitting it, but given the Italian racing star’s formative grand prix years on 125cc and 250cc Aprilia machinery, it would be highly unusual if he didn’t have at least one of his championship-winning Aprilias from 1997 (125cc) or 1999 (250cc). It’d be a similar scenario with Honda; he may have left the HRC squad on unsavoury terms but he was very much the golden boy of the brand during his four-year tenure in much the same way Marc Marquez is today, winning three premier class titles on both two- and four-stroke machinery. The jury is out on whether he’d have any Ducati-branded bikes tucked away in the bowels of VR46 HQ however, being an Italian brand would be a drawcard for the Italian rider, though his 2011 and 2012 seasons were the least successful of his otherwise glittering career.