Yamaha Motorcycles - Creativity and Spirit of Challenge

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"If you do something, be the best"

Ginichi Kawakami, Yamaha Motor Company First President.

Yamaha Motorcycles, under this motto, employing all its creativity, a very strong spirit of challenge, became what is now:. One of the biggest players in the world motorcycling scene

Yamaha But history does not begin with a motorcycle ...

It was back in 1877 that Torakusu Yamaha started with the company Nippon Gakki who would become Yamaha Corporation:. An important manufacturer of fine musical instruments

As the company grew, they explored several fields of opportunities in the textile industry and others.

During the Second World War, the company set up a factory to produce airplane propellers. This plant played an important role in Yamaha's entry into the motorcycle industry as you'll see.

After the war, Yamaha Corporation is to find new ways to use the tools and experience that has accumulated during his time in the aircraft industry, and it was then when Yamaha Motor Corporation was founded.

It is important to note that although this new company is just another branch of Yamaha Corporation, it was placed under independent control. In this case, under the leadership Ginichi Kawakami,. Which proved to be a great move by

Before producing their first motorcycle, Ginichi Kawakami traveled a lot establishing what would be a very beneficial relationship. He also sent his engineers to Europe and teach them how to build motorcycles, particularly from DKW;. Which they keep with the underground and unofficial long lasting relationship

A proof of this is that today, only two manufacturers in the world of mass-produced five side-valve Yamaha engine Audi (DKW - Auto Union ).

One of the most important legacy of the international relations are all the skills learned Yamaha engineers on two stroke engines know-how. Other manufacturers such as Suzuki would not reach the same level of development in this area until seven years later.

is not to wonder why the first bike from Yamaha Motorcycles 125 YA-1 was a fairly faithful copy of the 1949 DKW RT 12.Samo two important differences are the four speed gearbox instead of the original three-speed gearbox, a gear transmission replacing the primary chain drive .

IMPORTANT model from Yamaha Motor

>>> Yamaha YA-1

Although the Yamaha YA-1 - baptized "Acatombo" (Red dragonfly) by its fans -. Is "nothing special", and was more expensive than the competition, almost immediately became a huge success

It was reliable: before putting on the market, the prototypes were tested along 10,000 miles of rough rides. Even the big boss himself, Ginichi Kawakami, rode a bike without any incident from Hamamatsu to Tokyo.

That was beautiful: with this model Yamaha was the first manufacturer to put special attention to the decoration of a motorcycle. This task was given to GK Design in Tokyo. It is worth mentioning that this firm has designed the "look" of most Yamaha motorcycles to date.

That was quick: YA-1 obtained excellent overall results in the most important local races of that time: Mount Fuji (third place) and Mount Asama (first place ).

In fact, it was this aggressive attitude in the sporting world that helped Yamaha Motorcycles gain fast acceptance even though the late start in the motorcycle scene (in comparison to Honda and Suzuki ).

In other words: Yamaha Motorcycles showed the world that came to be considered good and fierce competition from the beginning. In particular, Honda and Suzuki.

Other important models from that time were:

>>> Yamaha YD-1 (competition for the Suzuki TP of that time)

Some technical specifications:

Yamaha YD-1

15 HP

70 miles per hour.

¥ 185,000

in relation to:

Suzuki TP

18 HP

80 miles per hour.

¥ 195,000

>>> Yamaha YDS-1

dream bike of all young Japanese between 1959-1960.

Some technical specifications:

20 HP

333 pounds.

85 miles per hour.

direct rival Honda CB72

Since then, the history of models and victories goes on and on ...

Today, Yamaha Motorcycles is one of the major players in the world motorcycling scene.

Just to give you an idea of ​​how important Yamaha Motorcycles have become:

- 2004 Moto GP win was a great rider Valentino Rossi on Yamaha motorcycle

.

I could go on writing about Yamaha Motorcycles, victories, challenges and models but I would need an entire book ...

So, to learn more about Yamaha Motorcycles, I invite you to visit this site:

You will find pictorial history of Yamaha motorcycles 1955 - 2001.

Enjoy the ride!