Yamaha Motorcycles - History (From 1955)

[Jim]

Bored last night and searching Youtube for something interesting to watch. Found this history of Yamaha motorcycles interesting. Here's a few screen grabs of some of the concept bikes that never were. They're very.... um.... interesting.
Kinda gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "blow it out your arse."

... and here's the video.

 

[GLJ]

Just watched. Worth the time. Wished they had spent more time on the early bikes. Seemed like a R1/R6 commercial.
I will say watching the bikes go through the "corkscrew" made my nuts tighten up a bit. I'm not sure but I think my XS2 flinched a few times.

 

[Steve C]

All my favorite bikes are Yamahas! My first one was in high school...('88-'91), a French Blue, bone stock RD400! Crazy to think it was less than 20 year old!
Oh I loved that bike. I loved the look of XSs too. I was at a cross road...and I was seduced by the sight, sound, lightness and smell of the 2 stroke path, went on to have several more RDs, 350's, 400's and even a little purple and white 200cc CS-5. The best was a Canadian grey market RD350LC. That thing was so sweet. My '89 FZR 600 was the first "modern" bike I ever owned. My FZR 1000 was a monster! One of my current hobbies is Vintage MX (on a Honda sadly) and it's pretty obvious which bike was the dominator back in the day...all the fast guys still ride Yamahas!
I always had a pull toward the XS tho...And now I got one,
It's all apart currently, as I start to put the engine back together I'll post more pics and a build thread. Great video on the history of a great brand!