Yamaha ADV Bike History

[mollydog]

Next time your BMW buddies tell you how BMW "invented" Adventure riding or dual sport touring, you might refer them to what Yamaha were doing in the very early 90's. The series below is called Yamaha - The Spirit of Adventure, quite a big deal at the time ... I had never heard of it before!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ha70KDAEUk

This series of Yamaha produced vids are from around 1990 to about 1993, featuring mostly the 750 Super Tenere'. The first tour through Baja did feature XT600's. Another Vid features the original Tenere' 660.
Includes several long videos, including the one time Africa rally ... covered entire length of Africa in 1993.

BMW was still making Air Head Boxer GS at this point. The F650's & oil heads wouldn't arrive for years. These were the golden years for Yamaha. A shame American riders never knew much about it.

UK and Euro riders probably have seen these films (sorry) ... but they were never shown in the USA. And remember, Yamaha never brought the original Tenere'/ Super Tenere' to the USA and discontinued the XT600 in 1995. Also, events like the Dakar were never televised in the USA.

Quite good videos I thought. Enjoy!

[steveloomis]

Really good video, I liked it...

[turboguzzi]

mmm.. not so sure about this, americans have doing the baja and tecate on tt500s back in 76'...

http://davestestsandarticles.weebly....00_upgrade.pdf

[mollydog]

Not sure what your "not sure of"?

That's a great story in Motorcyclist on the Eakins XT500! What a great bike that was! I remember those days ... I was there. Surfing in Baja since 1967 at 16 years old. Riding bikes a few years later. The Baja events started in around 1970 or so, IIRC.

The films I linked to above were private Yamaha rides used as promos for Yamaha. Nothing more. Seemed to be mostly ALL Pro Euro guys ... not many Americans involved.

Made sense as only the XT600 was ever imported to the USA around that time. We never got the 660 Tenere' or 750 Super Ten ... although two friends did import 759's from France!

I think the narrator makes a reference to Baja's racing history, but only a passing comment. They were doing their own thing on that ride. It wasn't a race, just a fun ride to promote Yamaha's.

I would bet they had an American guiding them ... the French guys would not know where to go!