IF YOU FOLLOW THE MODERN BIKE SCENE, YOU WON’T have escaped the veritable deluge of large capacity, parallel twins that are now the new must-have. Of course, most CBG readers know this is old news, as many of us are already suitably besotted by the set-up. Similarly, it won’t have escaped many people’s attention that the Japanese historically made a decent enough job of the genre either; even if their takes on the concept have been slightly less than orthodox on occasion. So, perhaps it won’t come a huge surprise that the subject matter herewith is yet another variation on the existing theme – the only thing is, it’s rather special!
At the time
If you’ve monitored Yamaha over the years, you’ll be aware that the firm is something of a maverick within the bike world. It does things in a singularly unique way: some results blow up in its face, while others totally rearrange the motorcycle world. This is the firm that in 1975 reinvented the big four-stroke single, the XT500, and then won the first-ever Paris-Dakar rally with it – which did rather help sales somewhat!
Having then taken the concept out to its logical conclusion via the XT660, Yamaha created a big, ballsy parallel twin with five-valve
