MOTO X VOLUME 2 NUMBER 5

YAMAHA
•
With the arrival of the new Yamaha XS
Eleven, the SS750 and the SR500 - all
due in South Africa early this year -
Yamaha will have completed an important
phase in their switch to a
completely new superbike range.
"For years Yamaha has been an acknowledged
leader in two-stroke motor
cycle technology," said Yamaha's
Bruce Johnstone. "But the company
foresaw the immense changes that
would be necessary to meet the varying
demands of the international
motor cycle market.
"To meet the challenge head on we
had to create what boiled down to a
complete new range of super bikes -
something virtually unprecedented in
the history of the Japanese motor
cycle industry.
"And, unlike many large industrial
giants, Yamaha was firmly committed
to the precept that our new bikes
would be designed and engineered to
suit the users' exact requirements
rather than dictating what we thought
he wanted. This involved an immense
amount of research before even the
initial development work could be
started.
"This necessitated a change to fourstroke
technology for many of our new
road bikes. Many people believe that
this is a new field for Yamaha but what
is not generally known is our company's
long history of advanced fourstroke
know-how which includes the
manufacture of special sports engines
built for Toyota over the past decade."
The phased introduction of the totally
new range of four-stroke Yamaha road
bikes in South Africa was planned to
complement the expanded and improved
Yamaha range in a field in
which the company has long been preeminent
... the two-stroke commuter/
off road bikes and the 50cc schoolboy
market.
The programme kicked into high gear
in 1976 with the lntroductlon of
Yamaha's XS500 and XS750, followed
in rapid succession, in 1977, by improved
versions "of the already well
YAMAHA
•LINEX
MOTORS
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Cnr. Central Rd.
Linden Ext.
46-7075
46-4767
YOUR YAMAHA DEALER
INTHENORTH
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Yamaha deal, and get a free T-
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accepted newcomers, the new XS ,
Yamaha's answer in the mid-range
market and now, in 1978, the mighty
XS Eleven, afready acclaimed by the
international motor cycle press as the
new 'King of Superbikes', the SS750,
South Africa's first production Easy
Rider and a return to the popular fourstroke
single-cylinder 'Road Thumper'
in the new SR500.
"We are aiming at the most integrated
and advanced road bike range in the
world," said Mr. Johnstone. "We believe
that in Yamaha's new range, if
you can't find a motor cycle you want,
you just don't want a motor cycle!"
Buy the4 that's streets ahead
and win tha & that's vaars ahaad.
• _ '7I.St, •• rthanlUI'.
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Moto X SA Vol. 2 NO.5 Page 20