{"id":19495,"date":"2011-03-29T09:58:16","date_gmt":"2011-03-29T08:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.influx.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=19495"},"modified":"2022-06-29T16:02:00","modified_gmt":"2022-06-29T15:02:00","slug":"yamaha-xt500","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/blog\/yamaha-xt500\/","title":{"rendered":"Yamaha XT500 Paris-Dakar"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Before the eighties had fully taken hold of the aesthetic; long before the availability of factory specced adventure tourers; before bloat-tanked T\u00e9n\u00e9r\u00e9s had littered the byways of Europe and beyond; before superbikes with full fairings and colourways like toothpaste brands – there was the one pot thumper.<\/p>\n

And the most resonant expression of this simple design was the Yamaha XT500.<\/p>\n

The launch of the XT500 was a bold punt on the part of Yamaha – who had responded to the American thirst for a simple, rigged and reliable long distance trail bike by producing the four stroke, 500cc single.<\/p>\n

Though at the time these burbling simpletons were generally considered to be past their sell-by date – Yamaha innovated by using lightweight materials such as magnesium for the crank case and aluminium for the fuel tank. There was also a newly designed cradle frame as well as an integral oil tank.<\/p>\n

When you threw these elements into the mix the XT’s slim, rugged frame was more than able to deal with the thumping up-and-down vibration of the single cylinder. A few years after its initial appearance in 1975, the bike eventually caught the imagination of riders in the European market like wildfire.<\/p>\n

The XT won the first two places in the inaugural Paris-Dakar Rally in 1979 and then placed in all the top four spots in the 1980 event. A new generation of fans with a passion for adventure motorcycling was born all over Europe- and the team colours to which they aspired was the sky blue of the Yamaha team.<\/p>\n

Yamaha’s soon-to-be-ubiquitous T\u00e9n\u00e9r\u00e9 brand grew out of the XT500 – and would become synonymous with the word adventure among European motorcycle fans in the years to come.<\/p>\n

There’s a simple rawness to the Paris-Dakar specced version of the XT (above) – and this rawness is reflected in the video below.<\/p>\n

Makes you want to dump the Tom Tom and head out into the wilderness.<\/p>\n