Posted this on another thread, but felt like I was hijacking thread so I moved it here.
When I used to work in a Yamaha shop in the late 70's / early 80's I used to assemble many, many brand new XS-650's out of the crate.
I would service them after I assembled them and part of the service was to take each one of them out and give them a good shakedown ride for several miles.
I would always put each one of them on the center stand and start em up for a warm up...then I would go over to my bench and grab my helmet and gloves....every time, without fail I would get a big chuckle about how far the 650 vibrated across the shop floor by the time I got back from my bench...every time.
It was very entertaining, lol.
I absolutely loved riding those 650 Specials too...so slender, fun to ride, sounded like a Triumph to me.
Then, there was the very first YZ465 we got out of the crate. That thing was a BEAST...it came on the pipe and straight up in my face, all I could see in my mind was dollar signs $$ thinking about having to buy a new rear fender, handlebar, etc... Scared the hell out of me, great fun!
The 750 Seca with high tech anti dive front forks that rode like crap, locked up on jittery bumps very badly!
The 550 Seca with mini fairing that rode like it was on rails, so much so, I thought the rear tire was low or something? Amazing bike....I loved it! Don't know why we didn't sell more of them?
The XS1100's Standard or Special...handled terribly but the power, wow!! Better be holding on tight!
Then there were the Midnight Specials....wow, they were beautiful and sold like hot cakes. Beautiful gloss black with gold accents everywhere. Everyone was excited to see me get the first one out of the crate so they could check it out in person.
The time I got a phone call from a coworker to come get him with the shop truck and "bring a ramp with tie downs...were gonna need em" he said.
I got to his location, and leading to where he was leaning on the bike was this super long squiggly black line leading down the freeway on ramp straight to the rear wheel of the 1100 he was test riding.
Turns out as he was getting on it pretty hard to get on Interstate 5, the rear wheel locked up....he pulled in the clutch and it did no good, still skidded outta control!!
We got it back to the shop and dissected it....low on 90 weight and the gears in the shaft drive locked up tight!!
Any lesser talented rider would've bitten it for sure....he rode it out to a stop, very lucky!!
Then there were the crummy rides too...like when I assembled, serviced and test rode a whole fleet of Yamaha QT50's for a gentleman that was setting up a rental moped business.
I had to ride each one of the 50 or so I assembled a mile or two....ugh, I can still hear the monotone drone of those little automatic two strokes, lol.
I even had a nightmare one evening of being chased by a whole bunch of them....true story!!
When I used to work in a Yamaha shop in the late 70's / early 80's I used to assemble many, many brand new XS-650's out of the crate.
I would service them after I assembled them and part of the service was to take each one of them out and give them a good shakedown ride for several miles.
I would always put each one of them on the center stand and start em up for a warm up...then I would go over to my bench and grab my helmet and gloves....every time, without fail I would get a big chuckle about how far the 650 vibrated across the shop floor by the time I got back from my bench...every time.
It was very entertaining, lol.
I absolutely loved riding those 650 Specials too...so slender, fun to ride, sounded like a Triumph to me.
Then, there was the very first YZ465 we got out of the crate. That thing was a BEAST...it came on the pipe and straight up in my face, all I could see in my mind was dollar signs $$ thinking about having to buy a new rear fender, handlebar, etc... Scared the hell out of me, great fun!
The 750 Seca with high tech anti dive front forks that rode like crap, locked up on jittery bumps very badly!
The 550 Seca with mini fairing that rode like it was on rails, so much so, I thought the rear tire was low or something? Amazing bike....I loved it! Don't know why we didn't sell more of them?
The XS1100's Standard or Special...handled terribly but the power, wow!! Better be holding on tight!
Then there were the Midnight Specials....wow, they were beautiful and sold like hot cakes. Beautiful gloss black with gold accents everywhere. Everyone was excited to see me get the first one out of the crate so they could check it out in person.
The time I got a phone call from a coworker to come get him with the shop truck and "bring a ramp with tie downs...were gonna need em" he said.
I got to his location, and leading to where he was leaning on the bike was this super long squiggly black line leading down the freeway on ramp straight to the rear wheel of the 1100 he was test riding.
Turns out as he was getting on it pretty hard to get on Interstate 5, the rear wheel locked up....he pulled in the clutch and it did no good, still skidded outta control!!
We got it back to the shop and dissected it....low on 90 weight and the gears in the shaft drive locked up tight!!
Any lesser talented rider would've bitten it for sure....he rode it out to a stop, very lucky!!
Then there were the crummy rides too...like when I assembled, serviced and test rode a whole fleet of Yamaha QT50's for a gentleman that was setting up a rental moped business.
I had to ride each one of the 50 or so I assembled a mile or two....ugh, I can still hear the monotone drone of those little automatic two strokes, lol.
I even had a nightmare one evening of being chased by a whole bunch of them....true story!!
Last edited: