the beginning

I want to take you back to the late 70s - early 80s....  This was a great time for motorcycles.  Since World War 2, the American and European motorcycle manufacturers pretty much churned out the same motorcycles with the same engines and the same technology.  I think the only advance during 30 years was the addition of an electric start to some models.   Compare this with the auto industry.  Every year brought huge leaps forward - in both style and technology.  Bikes on the other hand, stayed much the same as they were in 1946.  Then along came the Honda 750-4 and everything changed - forever.

Harley Davidson was purchased by AMF and during this time made the worst motorcycles they ever made.  BSA, Triumph and the English scene was falling apart.  The companies were going broke, refusing to change to meet market demands.  BMW staunchly stuck with their boxer design - but made massive steps forward with every iteration.

In the meantime, Japanese manufacturers were locked in a fight to the death.  Kawasaki had been beaten to the punch by Honda so they went back to the drawing board and eventually surfaced with the much feared Kawa 900 - a beast of a machine that retained the frame for the original, much tamer 750 they were going to release.  The power this engine developed was often enough to cause the bike to self-destruct even in a straight line! Yamaha took another approach.  They carefully studied proven English designs, then injected modern technology, improved build standards and reliability into their versions.

In 1975, Shiro Nakamura (an engineering GOD), developed a 500cc single cylinder engine reminiscent of the classic British singles.  At first he was going to go all techno on its ass - DOHC, oil cooled etc, but then he changed his mind and went back to basics.  He took the classic British single and made it lighter (a yen for every gram), stronger, more reliable, did not leak oil.  It was a winner!

As a competitive motocross bike, it was quickly outclassed by subsequent models but as a straight enduro it was first, with daylight second.  After taking 1st and 2nd at the first Paris Dakar in 1979, it went on to take the top 4 places in the 1980 event.

Yamaha also made a road version which had its own following, but the XT was bound for greater glory.  Bikers soon learned that the engine and frame were far superior to the British equivalent, and with minimal tinkering, these things could become fantastic mid-size road race bikes.  Now, a biker could build a neat cafe racer that was lighter, faster and more reliable than anything else out there.  Very quickly, these dual purpose farm bikes became neat sleek cafe racers.

Enter me...  Its the 1980s, and I have one of these cool motorcycles.  With a lot of encouragement from my brother in law and other biker friends (as well as donations of parts needed), I transformed my XT into a fairly functional, but not too pretty, cafe machine.  I LOVED that thing.  It was just SO cool to ride.  Here is my only image of that bike - its hiding behind my Suzuki GS1000 Wes Cooley Special.