STEVE’S STUNNING SECA
Yamaha had the café racer set in mind when it designed the new-for-1981 Yamaha XJ550 Seca.
Steve Seidner, a motorcycle industry trendsetter and classic bike collector who has appeared on these pages before (The Magnificent Mustangs, Motorcycle Classics, January/February 2013), designs, manufactures, imports and sells motorcycles for a living, and he occasionally encounters interesting vintage bikes for sale. One such motorcycle is the brilliant red 1982 Yamaha Seca featured here. With only 1,776 miles on the odometer, as Steve tells it he couldn’t get his wallet out fast enough when this opportunity appeared.
Yamaha introduced the XJ550 Seca in 1981, with technology, performance and aesthetics that went way beyond the bike’s $2,529 sticker price. Before diving into the specifics of Steve’s Seca, it might be useful to understand the U.S. motorcycle market’s evolution in the years leading up to the 1980s. Business schools focus on the beer, aviation and automotive industries, but the great motorcycle marketing wars of the last century are far more interesting.
Way back
In the early 1900s there were more than
