There is absolutely no doubt that Valentino Rossi is one of the all-time greats of Moto GP, if not the greatest ever. The nine-time Grand Prix motorcycle racing world champion is best known for his stints on the Yamaha Moto GP bike and for his charismatic personality, which is why motorsport fans will forever hold fond memories of the Valentino Rossi bikes.
Of all the Valentino Rossi motorcycles that are now permanent parts of Moto GP’s history, one stands out above all and that is Valentino Rossi’s Yamaha YZR-M1, especially the iconic version from the 2016 season of the Moto GP world championship. This Valentino Rossi motorcycle, in its blue colour with the green of sponsors Movistar and Monster Energy, and with his eternal number of 46, was a work of art, standing the test of time even if the Italian didn’t actually win the championship with it that year.
Valentino Rossi motorcycles: Which bike did Valentino Rossi use?
Valentino Rossi, who went by the nickname of ‘The Doctor’, was active from 1996 to his retirement in 2021, winning nine championships in that time. Two of them came in lower categories, as Rossi won the 125cc World Championship in 1997 with Aprilia and the 250cc World Championship in 1999, also with Aprilia.
When he made the step up to the 500cc class in 2000, he initially did so with Honda, but became more of a legend on the Yamaha Moto GP bike, riding with the other Japanese team form 2004 to 2010 and then again from 2013 to 2021. Four of Valentino Rossi’s seven 500cc / Moto GP titles came with a Yamaha Moto GP bike, in 2004, 2005, 2008 and 2009.
Looking at his 500cc career as a whole, all the Valentino Rossi bikes and results were as follows:
- 2000: Nastro Azzurro Honda, 2nd in the world championship
- 2001: Nastro Azzurro Honda, 1st in the world championship
- 2002: Repsol Honda Team, 1st in the world championship
- 2003: Repsol Honda Team, 1st in the world championship
- 2004: Yamaha Factory Racing Team, 1st in the world championship
- 2005: Yamaha Factory Racing Team, 1st in the world championship
- 2006: Yamaha Factory Racing Team, 2nd in the world championship
- 2007: Yamaha Factory Racing Team, 3rd in the world championship
- 2008: Yamaha Factory Racing Team, 1st in the world championship
- 2009: Yamaha Factory Racing Team, 1st in the world championship
- 2010: Yamaha Factory Racing Team, 3rd in the world championship
- 2011: Ducati Team: 7th in the world championship
- 2012: Ducati Team: 6th in the world championship
- 2013: Yamaha Factory Racing Team, 4th in the world championship
- 2014: Yamaha Factory Racing Team, 2nd in the world championship
- 2015: Yamaha Factory Racing Team, 2nd in the world championship
- 2016: Yamaha Factory Racing Team, 2nd in the world championship
- 2017: Movistar Yamaha MotoGP, 5th in the world championship
- 2018: Movistar Yamaha MotoGP, 3rd in the world championship
- 2019: Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP, 7th in the world championship
- 2020: Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP, 15th in the world championship
- 2021: Petronas Yamaha SRT, 18th in the world championship
How much would a Valentino Rossi motorcycle cost?
All of the Valentino Rossi bikes from the Italian’s career were engineering marvels, and they cost a lot of money to build. It is estimated that every 1000cc Moto GP bike costs between 1 million dollars and 4 million dollars in build-up, and that’s before including all the research and development time.
These real-life bikes aren’t usually put up for public sale. But, in 2018, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing put two units of the team’s RC16 Moto GP bike up for an unprecedented public auction. The bike, along with a signed helmet, suit, gloves and boots, plus VIP tickets, went for 250,000 dollars, giving us an interesting estimation.
Considering how successful his Moto GP career was, we can therefore estimate that any of the real-life Valentino Rossi motorcycles would fetch significantly more than 250,000 dollars at auction.
How many bikes are in the Valentino Rossi collection?
Over his 21-year elite level career, Valentino Rossi actually only raced for three different teams, even if they went through various name changes or were a satellite team. He was always taking to the track on a Honda, Yamaha or Ducati.
While there were evolved bikes every year, there are only actually three different Moto GP teams in the Valentino Rossi motorcycle collection.
As mentioned above, the 2016 Valentino Rossi Yamaha YZR-M1 is one of the most iconic and it can be collected as a 1:4 scale model from DeAgostini. Made of metal and ABS plastic, this Yamaha Moto GP bike model reproduces the original components exactly, including the race number of 46 and the Movistar and Monster Energy logos.
This Yamaha YZR-M1 model also comes with interesting reading material about all the Yamaha Valentino Rossi bikes and how the legendary career of ‘The Doctor’ unfolded. That way, you can gain and even greater appreciation of how skilled and successful Valentino Rossi was in Moto GP and how brilliant the engineering was for all of the Valentino Rossi bikes with which he won races.
