Would you like to be the proud and exclusive owner of Valentino Rossi’s knee slider signed by the Doctor himself? Ever dreamed of having an exquisitely autographed helmet of current MotoGP leader Jorge Lorenzo or a used signed leather suit of rising star Cal Crutchlow? Yamaha Racing gives you the chance right now to lay your hands on these rare racing items.

In the period from October 2010 to February 2011, a series of online (eBay) auctions of unique racing collectables will be offered through Yamaha-Racing.com Facebook’s page with the aim to raise funds for the charity organisation ‘Riders for Health’.

This organisation has established an infrastructure for managing and maintaining vehicles, particularly motorcycles, used for health care delivery so that even the most remote communities in rural Africa can be reached on a regular basis.

Sadly, millions of people across Africa remain deprived and isolated from basic healthcare due to distance, terrain, poverty and lack of transportation and ‘Riders for Health’ offers transport, skills and expertise to improve this situation.

Through bidding on the Yamaha Racing items you will be supporting a specific project in Zambia as 100 percent of the winning bid will be automatically transferred to ‘Riders for Health’.

The auctions are handled by Yamaha Motor Europe and all items under the hammer come with a certificate of authenticity. To see what current auctions are offered, go to the Yamaha-racing.com Facebook page and click the ‘eBay Items’ tab. Please note that most items will not be shipped outside Europe.

“We really admire the work of Riders for Health and hope that the funds raised by these auctions will help them in their current projects in Zambia,” explained Leon Oosterhof, marketing manager racing of Yamaha Motor Europe.

“In May this year we have organised a Ride for Life adventure raid in co-operation with Riders and several sponsors, bringing five Yamaha Super Ténérés to Africa for donation and it makes you feel proud and humble at the same time when hearing that these machines help saving lives every single day.

“Yamaha Motor Europe has decided to support Riders on a continuous basis in various ways, in the next six months through these auctions. Of course we also hope that we can make race fans happy with the auctioning of exclusive collectables at the same time.”

For more information on Riders for Health, please click here and to know more about the Ride for Life raid, go to riderforlife.super-tenere.com.