Yamaha
Motorcycle History
Yamaha Classic Bikes
Japanese motorized vehicle-producing
company, is part of the Yamaha Corporation.
After expanding Yamaha Corporation into the
world's biggest piano maker, then Yamaha CEO
Genichi Kawakami took Yamaha into the field
of motorized vehicles on July 1, 1955. The company's
intensive research into metal alloys for use
in acoustic pianos had given Yamaha wide knowledge
of the making of lightweight, yet sturdy and
reliable metal constructions. This knowledge
was easily applied to the making of metal frames
and motor parts for motorcycles. Yamaha Motor
is the world's second largest producer of motorcycles.
It also produces many other motorized vehicles
such as all-terrain vehicles, boats, snowmobiles,
outboard motors, and personal watercraft.
The Yamaha corporate logo is comprised of three
tuning forks placed on top of each other in
a triangular pattern.
In 2000, Toyota and Yamaha Corporation made
a capital alliance where Toyota paid Yamaha
Corporation 10.5 billion yen for a 5 per cent
share in Yamaha Motor Company while Yamaha and
Yamaha Motor each bought 500,000 shares of Toyota
stock in return.
Racing heritage
Yamaha has a long racing heritage where it
has had its machines and team win many different
competitions in many different areas, for
example both road and off road racing, also
Yamaha has had great success with riders such
as Bob Hannah, Heikki Mikkola, Kenny Roberts,
Chad Reed, Stefan Merriman, Wayne Rainey,
and the latest, Valentino Rossi. Yamaha is
known to those who are older in age as the
designer of the modern motocross bike, as
they were the first to build a production
mono-shock motocross bike (1975 for 250 and
400, 1976 for 125) and one of the first to
have a water-cooled motocross production bike
(1981, but 1977 in works bikes).
Since 1962 ,Yamaha produced production road
racing grand prix motorcycles that any licensed
road racer could purchase. In 1970, Non-factory
"privateer" teams dominated the 250cc World
Championship with Great Britain's Rodney Gould
winning the title on a Yamaha TD2.
Motorcycle models
Yamaha has made an extensive number of two
and four-stroke scooters, on-road and off-road
motorcycles. The Yamaha XS 650, introduced
in 1970, was such an overwhelming success
that it crippled the British monopoly of vertical
twin motorcycles.
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