Growing up, John Kerfoot was surrounded by old British machines. “My dad was a mechanic in the British army during the Second World War,” he says. “After we came to the Brampton, Ont., area in 1957, our driveway was always full of leaking old British stuff, including cars and motorcycles.” It’s no surprise then that Kerfoot’s first motorcycle was a 1967 Triumph Tiger 500, and it represented the beginning of a long riding career aboard many other British-made machines. Eventually, however, he came to appreciate Japanese bikes, and in particular, Yamaha’s XS650.
“SALOONATIC IS A NOD TO HIS FASCINATION WITH THE THREE STOOGES SLAPSTICK COMEDIES”
A Venerable Platform
Introduced in 1969 with sales commencing in 1970, Yamaha’s XS650 featured a 4-stroke parallel-twin engine with overhead cam and 5-speed transmission.
