Had an H1 in high school and some friends had H2's. They handled terribly, couldn't stop, couldn't turn, but man in a straight line they were really something else. Today I'm an old guy who thinks the idea of a pot smoking 17 year old with an H1 is a really bad idea. It was. Been there, survived that!
We know a guy who could ride a h2 completely out of his tree on lsd.... He said it was how he kept it going around the twists.... That was in the late 80s... God alone knows is he's still with us 😜
@stubbsmuffin Not so. A stock h2 could rip off a sub 12 second quarter with the right rider. CB 750 was closer to high 13s. In the day I routinely smoked 750 Hondas with my chamber H1 500. They never knew what hit em.
Discovered this channel. My father had a bikeshop multi brand in Brussels in the 60 and 70’s. Not only two strokes of course. Still have some bikes at home. I truly appreciate him so much for how a good mechanic he is and what he taught me. Cheers from Belgium.
My first bike (1978) was a green Suzuki GT 550 2-stroke triple (1974) she was “ram air” cooled, about 50 hp. Had a blast on that bike! Never failed me, not once.
In our Town a man used to have the 550 Suzuki. He was a very good craftsman and he welded a three in one exhaust plant with resonance tube at the end. There wasn´t any silencer in it. I will never forget that sound !! It seemed to be the motobike was faster with this exhauster. However, it never was measured. The police took notice about the bike and after two weeks and that was the end.
My scoutmaster bought an H2 when they were introduced. He let me ride it when I was an unlicensed teenager. I was so grateful for his lapse in judgement. It stood up in a corner when I was returning it. Kids playing stick ball, including his son, were scattering. It did unicycle around the corner without incident.
GL750 engine was detuned TZ750 engine. Kind of logical and easy for the company. Mileage before overhaul would not have been that great even when detuned i guess. What would have been great is RD750LC! :)
My first was a Yamaha RD200. Lot f fun! Now age 71 after lots of sports-tourers and one HD mistake have a 2008 Suzuki B-KING. Wanted to enjoy colossal power in my twilight years! Would love a KTM Super Adventurer but very costly plus the factory having troubles.
@ “Factory having troubles” thats an understatement lol. I did something dumb on a Honda 750 and gave myself the fear so now it’s car fun for me my 89 supercharged Fox Stang and a Mitsubishi Evo keep the adrenaline going at 52 but I wanna get back on a bike someday…soon
Yamaha used an inline 4 two stroke in the TZ750. They won many races with that bike. They also put it into the Vmax snowmobiles that absolutly dominated in the early 90s. The inline 4 was a monster.
Thanks for bringing back the memory of this beauty. Owned a R5 / 350cc Yam at that time , when I discovered a photo in an, I think, American Cycle-magazine ( which were a hard-to-get item in Germany at that time) . I remember I was totally thrilled by the loks of this bike and it was absolutely clear that this would be my next Yamaha. An then ..... silently disappeared, as you stated. Remeber that I even phoned various Yamaha-dealers trying to find out more details but learnt that some of them didn't even know what I was talking about. Well, had me another RD 350 then.
That’s a great tale, albeit a bit disappointing for you. ☹️ The article I quote from was in the Jan 1972 issue of Cycle Guide and was written as if the 750 was about to hit the streets. It’s probably the article you read all those years ago. Journalists were obviously less cautious about sensationalising back then than they are these days. Yeah, right! 🤣
Thanks for the spectacular response to this video, it's clearly struck a chord! However, as we all know, more viewers equates to more comments, and debates can sometimes become passionate. TH-cam comments are no longer the unpleasant slime pit they were when I first ran a channel over 15 years ago, but there's still a temptation to attack the person, not the point, which leads to senseless tit-for-tat. I know it's frustrating when you're arguing with someone who is just plain wrong, but do please leave out any personal insults and stick to the interesting debate we're having. Thank you. That said, some folk are just born trolls, but fortunately I've learnt many interesting ways of dealing with them over the years!
And apparently some channel owners think it’s a clever idea to stick an advert after 1:16 …!🙄 If you don’t want decent, how about don’t wind people up with stuff like that.
Got my new 78' 2 stroke 100 when I was about 12 (in 78!). Still have it. Moved up to an H2 in about '84. Oh. My. God. How I'm still alive... I do not know.
Loved the early days on 2 strokes... started on a fizzie onto kh250 gt500 rg500....got to ride several others...then had a couple of big 6 beasts....brilliant times..
If you think an XS1100 was competitively raced, you have obviously never ridden one. A very crude shaft drive, spindly frame, skinny forks and poor brakes (being generous there). Had my very first experience of getting the rear wheel airborne on one after clogging it down the box too fast setting up for a corner. The frame and transmission was unforgiving of heavy handed use. The engine was a beast, but what was holding it together was questionable, even when it was released.
@fredsmith4106 you should check out the results of the 1978 Castrol Six Hour....(The Premier production race at the time) Run at Amaroo Park, a very tight circuit that favoured agile bikes that were easy on tyres (a wheel change took over a minute back then). The Jim Budd/Roger Heyes Yamaha XS1100, won the race with 354 laps
@@fredsmith4106 At end of life South Africa Yamaha had surplus stock. Changed swing arm and converted to chain drive. Bike was retailed in large enough numbers - so "production". It went production racing and completely blew away all the opposition - with a rider that was rather large, made the bike look small (big weight and wind resistance disadvantage). So with a simple (as it turned out) modification was a very capable racer. Brilliant engine.
In 1975, at age 20. I had a Kawasaki 900. It was the baddest bike on the planet. The Kawasaki 750 triple was almost as powerful, but much lighter. My friend had a Yamaha 350. It had 6 forward speeds and would do over 120 mph. I know this because he told me so. He only backed off when he was being choked by his chin strap. : ). A lady turned left in front of me at an intersection. and I missed her rear bumper by a coat of paint. The bike wiggled and the front end oscillated. I thought I was done. Fortunately, it stabilized. I parked the bike and never rode again. Years later, as a medical student in Wisconsin, I was informed that the hospital gears up the renal transplant team the first warm weekend in spring. Many people owe there lives to motorcycle riders donations.
For the two months I owned my Yamaha RD 350 LC (cops hated it and me on it) I loved it and it is one of the very large amount of vehicles that have gone through my hands that I really wish I had back. Easily in the top five
The Square 4 was popular in the 50s and made my Ariel. It was not a fast 1000cc but you could turn the throttle in 4th gear almost from idle and it would accelerate.
I was disappointed when the GL750 didn't become a production bike, it was good looking and would likely be fun. Fuel injection at that time would have been problematic as computer control was in its infancy. It's fair to believe that it did result in the TZ700 road racer even if it was a TZ350 × 2. I was a mechanic at a Yamaha dealership in 1972 and the TX750 was a great disappointment as it had constant issues one the best days and blew up spectacularly often. I put the 13 hour job case kit on many 73s, essentially making them 74s. Thankfully the last year.
Passed my test mid-70s. I was an impoverished apprentice and my bike had to be a reliable everyday year-round driver so I went 4-stroke. I ran a Honda 400/4 which was both practical and immense fun. Happy days. 😀
You really couldn't and can't beat a Honda for a high quality product, whatever it may be. I once rode a borrowed 350 Honda (actually a 325cc) from northern Maryland to Ft Lauderdale Florida in January of 1974. Followed Rt 17 all the way down but mostly on I-95 on the way back, drafting big trucks at 80 MPH to keep out of the wind. (Not very good winter riding gear back then on my budget.) That sucker took it without a hitch. Honda makes good stuff.
@@andrewhanson5942 Cam chains. Nah, you just weren't a hooligan and wussed out from buying an RD400. Nothing unreliable about them, and a lot more fun.
@@Jo-Whale 400/4 cam chains were never a problem if the tension was adjusted regularly. One of our group was a professional mechanic and either did our servicing or showed us how. I know all about Honda cam chains having broken one on my CD175. I was on holiday at the time and spent several days rebuilding the engine. Both exhaust valves were bent - enough to stop the engine running but not enough to spot easily. I'd counter the cam chain comment with 70s two-strokes propensity to seize. Both engine types had their weaknesses.
The straight four 2 stroke wasn’t forgotten as it ended up in the Yamaha V-Max 4 snowmobile. Seen one in a car show years ago that someone modified into an inline 6 😳 claimed it had 300hp , very impressive.
I campaigned a TZ750 in the AMA national circuit in the early 1980s until the AMA banned two strokes. It was insane. This would have been an amazing street bike.
I Like Your Videos. I Was Surprised You Didn't Mention The TZ-750 Tearing Everyone A New One A Few Years Later Until They Outlawed It. Thank You. (Like #343 - Comment #70)
That’s very kind of you to say so! 😊 I was going to talk about the TZ but ran out of time and puff tbh. It would have made a fitting end to the video, and now I’m kicking myself I didn’t go that extra mile because everyone’s mentioning it!
I love 2 stroke street bikes. I had an RD350, Rd400, Suzuki 380, Suzuki Titan 500 and a 750 water buffalo. They wear light, cheap and fast. The government screwed that up.
Thank you! I never had the courage to ride one of those back in the day, they had a super scary reputation. Still, some people's fears are other people's fun!
I worked as a mechanic in a Yamaha/BMW shop back in the early 1970s, and agree 100% with the POS judgement of the 750 4 stroke twin bike. Always seeing them come though the doors of the back shop. The XS 650 on the other hand, was stone reliable and repairs on those were rare. Guess which one I bought for my personal transportation?
@3Phils Ha, yes good guess. Really couldn't kill that thing. I think I lost in in the divorce! Anyway, now I'm on a Triumph Bonneville and loving it! Thanks for the post!
@@fw1421 He was unbelievable, The real GOAT, he looked fast sat on the grid, and when the wheels started to turn, watch out. I watched him close up put his helmet on, he went from affable nice guy to shark eyes in a second, totally committed.
I had never seen a picture of that Yamaha 4 before but from that the exhaust ports look to low there is quite a distance from the exhaust port to the top of the cylinder, maybe it had an unusually long stroke.or very acute upward angles the same goes for the inlet and downward slope.
And then there was EXUP, that led to some great bikes from all of the big four. My first bike was a little FS1M, I then had an XS250, I had a GPZ750 in the 90's and no more bikes until 2024 until I got my late brother's GSX1400 K3 with just 2049 on the clock.
In the 70's I was always wishing they had made a 4 cylinder 2stroke liquid cooled (like my GT750) 1000cc sports bike, but why not go over the 750 size 😮?
By all accounts the 2 stroke triples vibrate like they're trying to shred themselves, so perhaps Yamaha were figuring they could clean up with an inline 4 with perfect balance. Even the RD350 twins used to shake and rattle at idle but smoothed out once they got going. Rocking couple or something like that.
It seems to have transmogrified into a Yamaha race bike a few years later. Even if it had made it into production as street bike, I imagine it, and anyone who rode it, wouldn’t have survived long on UK roads. ☹️
@@Banditmanuk Not all the big 2-strokes had bad fuel economy. The Suzuki GT750 was as economical as any of the 4-strokes of similar size. Later models have constant-vacuum carburettors (rarely used on 2-strokes) that probably help with economy.
if I remember correctly, Yamaha decided on turning this into a racer - Tz750 as mentioned below. It had too much power for a road bike. A flat track version was made for Kenny Roberts who ended up shredding the rear tyre on a circuit.
@@tonyb9735 tyre technology during that time couldn't handle it. They took a few years to develop in order to cope, which was why it ended up on the racecourse.
The Yamaha TZ750 was bloody fast and won a lot of races, but was not a street bike, it was impossible to drive the thing in traffic. A dealer in Belgium I knew had one and he tried to do that, or he had a problem or the engine seized. Every time he drove on the street there was something, on circuit no problems. He sold the bike to Australia, never knew who drove it there and I did not see the bike on any races over there.
@3Phils Multitude of problems, did not like some fuels, engine needed to be at specs heat, overheated at low speed because the torque only was usable between a narrow rev band. ect.
back in around 2001 a custom frame builder out of Las Vegas built an aluminum perimeter race bike frame and put one of the street legal TZ750s in it. It had Ohlins and Marchesinis on it with a street title. It was on Ebay at around 125 grand and I never heard of it after that
The TX/XS500 was as bad, if not worse. If you find one in the breakers and the head isn’t cracked between the plug hole and a valve seat, you’ll have found a unicorn. The clutch trunnion was weak, and crank failures not unheard of.
I worked as a mechanic in a Yamaha/BMW shop back in the early 1970s, and agree 100% with the POS judgement of the 750 4 stroke twin bike. Always seeing them come though the doors of the back shop. The XS 650 on the other hand, was stone reliable and repairs on those were rare. Guess which one I bought for my personal transportation?
Perfectly true, but this video was about a Japanese manufacturer and Japanese motorcycles. I’ve made an entire other video about the Norton rotary here: th-cam.com/video/1ndfgghauv4/w-d-xo.htmlsi=B7NqPP1ysNAR4j5l
Australia 1986 ,i had just got my full motorcycle licence and i was ready to trade in my Kawasaki KR250 in on a larger capacity bike ,i really had my heart set on a GPZ900 Ninja ,walked into a dealership that sold all types of motorbikes and the salesman steered me towards a 500cc RG Suzuki ,i really wanted a Ninja but he convinced me to test ride it and he assured me it was a much better bike than the Kawasaki he even offered $550 for my KR250 ,i rode the 500 for ten to 15 minutes took it back to the dealership sourced another salesman and rode out a day later on a red/black GPZ900 ,bikes like that 500c two stroke belong on a racetrack not on public roads
I had a 72 Z1. Buddy an 850 Commando. He could beat me across an intersection. Thats all, unless we got into the twisties. Z1 rubberband swing arm couldn't handle it. I loved that Norton. I wish I was still able to ride. I would be at Colorado Norton Works, money in hand.
the answer might be quite easy to explain F750cc racing was a class of racing based on production road bikes was about to be turned into a world championship Triumph, BSA, Norton, Ducati, Suzuki, Kawasaki and Honda all had road bikes that all had racing versions but not Yamaha the GL750 turns up for 2 showings (Japan and Paris) never to be seen again the very next year the TZ 750 appears as if by magic so Yamaha appeared to have promised a road going 750 2 stroke to get into F750 racing, Simples 😏
The rules of Formula 750 did not specify that the bike had to be based on a road bike, but they tried to achieve this result by specifying that it had to be based on a bike of which at least 1000 had been sold. Yamaha made the TZ750 specifically for Formula 750 and did sell over 1000 of them. This adhered to the letter of the rules but not to the spirit of them.
Good thinking! Although would they not have had to produce at least 100 road bikes to get homologated? Sorry if that’s a daft question, what I know about racing would make a very short book indeed. Also they maybe realised a four cylinder engine would be quite wide and would have created a lot of wind resistance. 🏍️👍
@ Ah i see, i noticed back in the day that all the bikes were road based (GT750/TR750 KH750/KR750) but no Yamaha 750 then GL750 = TZ750 it even had a OW number though i can't remember it Thanks for the correction
Months ago I was tantalized by rumors that Yamaha was reviving the RD350 2-stroke in the form of a water-cooled, fuel injected version that met the Euro-5 emissions standard. That turned out to be a HUGE disappointment as Yamaha had patented the name RD 350 to put it on just another dull 4-stroke twin bike. I literally have money saved to be the first in line to buy a two-stroke if it came out . With advancements in oil technology and catalytic converters, one would think reviving a 2-stroke to that extent would be possible. I will have to be content in my old age of 77 to ride the four four-stroke Honda bikes that I have.
If you’ve got 35 grand plus saved up you could always get one of these Langen 2-strokes, they’re only building 100 of these 250cc V twins which put out 75bhp: www.motorcyclenews.com/bike-reviews/langen/two-stroke/2022/
Was there any connection to the TZ750 engine that came out in 1974? Some engine comparisons would have been good? May be it was meant to be a production/test bed version of that engine? I'd never heard of it until today in 2025. Soundly like it would have been amazing, and would have gone on to dominate production if not circuit racing at that time. I'd like to know the internal history of what went on.
I read the other day that while a falcon can dive faster than a blackbird can fly, in level flight a pigeon is faster than either. Perhaps KTM could shift some of their excess stock by renaming them Pigeons. Or not. As a side note, there's a simple reason 4 cylinder 2 strokes aren't very good. The 4 separate crankcases and the oil seals and bearings between result in a very wide engine with a very long crankshaft, with cranks at 90 degrees, so torsional vibrations become an issue as well as width. The crank needs to be either flexible or with very large strong journals, and with 1970s technology there was no ECU to avoid the resonant frequencies. Easier and cheaper to just use balance weights on a triple to reduce the rocking couple.
The rocking couple of a 3 cylinder inline engine is rotating in the opposite direction to the engine itself. The weights would have to be on a separate shaft going in the opposite direction at the same speed. The 1960s and 70s two-stroke triples did not use this technique. Suzuki did a good job of losing the vibration in the mountings, Kawasaki not such a good job.
@@cedriclynch You are correct except insofar as balancing the cranks individually partially reduces the rocking couple. It cannot balance the rocking due to the pistons but it can balance out the rocking due to the big end. The Water Buffalo had a heavy engine block which reduced vibration amplitude, the Kawa 750 was about 30kg less overall.
Since the tz750 already existed, why not for the street ? It's not because Kenny Robert was afraid of it on dirt track that it shouldn't have been made widows for the street. Of course 'clean-air act' of the era came to put an end to all this fun. Maybe with the newly in place american oligarch who wants to throw everything away, EPA included, 2 stroke would come back straight pipe.
@@thegrinch7989 I live there and was a regular reader of canadian motorcycle magazines at the time and there was never any homologation for cdn. On the other hand we had Rz350s until 1990 and before that the Daytona Special here did not have an exhaust blocking valve to pass the american epa.
The XS11 was the first Japanese four that would pull away from my brother's and my modified Norton Commandos. The GS1000 and Kawasaki 900/1000 would not pull away. The Nortons would pull an number of car lengths ahead, then the liter fours would reel the Nortons back in and motor away.
You’d think an 1100cc four would do better than that! But I’ve owned both a Commando and a Z900 and I remember thinking the Z900 was almost as good as the Commando. Almost. So thanks for confirming my suspicions there. 😊🏍️👍
@3Phils Funnily enough, ブサ 'Busa means ugly in Japanese,, so that kind of fits too. Although it is the name given for a Peregrine falcon, aka the "foreign" or "pilgrim falcon", hayabusa (隼) doesn't actually translate as Peregrine falcon. It's comes from the sound of something moving very fast, a bit like zoom. A Chinese or Japanese person looking at it would understand "strong and fast" or 'fast bird', as they wouldn't be 'foreign' to them. Fair enough given the falcon can do 200mph in a dive. I don't know if the Blackbird eater story is true, or just made up afterwards. Translating pictographs, i.e. kanji, into English is really hard because they are, literally, images rather than words (as in, "a picture tells 1,00 word"). In fact, even Japanese people have a hard time with them. It's more like reading a tarot card.
I am a bit surprised you don’t mention the XS750 threecilinder; you jumped straight to the XS1100 buffalo 🙂. Wiki tells me it was named GX750 in Japan, and you do mention that type. Didn’t the XS750 bring Yamaha back in the race?
You’re quite right, of course. 🙂 I did rather jump over the rest of Yamaha’s excellent 1970s 2-strokes, but at that point I’d moved on to talking about their efforts to produce a 4-stroke superbike. Honest, m’lud!
@thegrinch7989 For the record, there are at least a couple of companies that claim to have built a ‘1-stroke’ engine - and it’s nothing to do with todgers!
@3Phils I have seen the 1 stroke, the design is genius. No valves, the rotating piston has intake and exhaust in it. it weighs 30kg. and produces 120 hp. I also have no idea what a todgers is.
‘Todger’ is British vernacular for what @thegrinch7989 said. Yes, I’m tempted to make a video about 1-strokes, now you’ve mentioned it. But I’d probably get myself in an engineering pickle, as always!
Yamaha knew that year that no one had a show stopper. So they build this as show pony only, one of one. Rumor has it had no internals of any sort with only one shaft in gearbox to mount the chain drive. As previously stated never to be seen again
Hey, that last bike is very near to where I live. Footage from “Vintage-Motorcycles” channel from the Netherlands. Now this guy owns a few bikes. Private and for sale….. A days worth of looking, òòhh-ing and ààahh-ing. 🤩 Warning to motorcycle enthusiasts. Don’t take your savings there, you’re bound to spend it all. 🤩🤗
Yes, he often comes up when I’m searching for footage of 1970s bikes. I think, if I lived in the Netherlands, I’d be round his place all the time! 🤣 🇳🇱👍
@ His business is approximately 20 Km from where I live. Must visit, but he’s very very busy, mostly on the move and time equals money. I’ll probably at least cost him a cup of coffee and a few minutes as I’m not in the market right now. 😄 If I don’t clumsily elephant my way around the crowded place. Then it might get very expensive. 😂
We’ve had this discussion many, many times here and what you call them all rather depends on whether you’re a car buff, a bike buff or an engineer who contributes to Wikipedia. But thanks for bringing it up again.
It would've made a good bike, no carbs to go out of balance and would have been all but maintenance free with electronic ignition. Points and condensers were a pain on all the 1970's two strokes, Kawasaki aside.
I AGREE WHAT WERE THEY THINKING 2 INTO 1 EXHAUST , CUT THEM OFF AND FABRICATE EXHAUST INTO 4 INTO 1 AND MAKE SURE HEADER PIPE S ARE SAME LENGTH , FAR BETTER.
Yamaha's 1972 TX750 (and TX500) first models were total disasters ! I owned a 1974 TX750A with the improved sump,, oil cooler, etc., etc. (In all 18 engineering change orders ) that made the machine comfortable and reliable (if not at all exciting ); it took until the last model to iron out all the problems, but too late (Much like the five different model H1 Kawasakis I've owned ) P.S. why does the Yamaha GL750 change to a GL800 with different muffler @ 5:40 ? ?
The TX gained a really bad rep, really quickly, and did the Big Y no favours at all. Well spotted re the ‘800’ and I was wondering that too. I believe the bike may also have been displayed at the Paris show in early 1972 but I couldn’t find confirmation of that so I didn’t mention it. If they did go to Paris, perhaps they upped it by over-boring the Letraset on the side covers! It makes me wonder even more if it was all just a ‘fake news’ exercise.
No offence intended. 🙂 I actually think they look great, but the early models had disastrous engine problems (see multiple comments on here), which is why they gained such a bad reputation. I expect yours is a later model, or has been fixed in the intervening 50 years! 🏍️👍
Had an H1 in high school and some friends had H2's. They handled terribly, couldn't stop, couldn't turn, but man in a straight line they were really something else. Today I'm an old guy who thinks the idea of a pot smoking 17 year old with an H1 is a really bad idea. It was. Been there, survived that!
Glad you survived! 👍🏍️💨
Was 24, but yah……
We know a guy who could ride a h2 completely out of his tree on lsd.... He said it was how he kept it going around the twists.... That was in the late 80s... God alone knows is he's still with us 😜
@neilreid9005 the h2 had the same quarter mile as a 1969 CB750. I'm pretty sure you thought it was fast just because it was so janky
@stubbsmuffin Not so. A stock h2 could rip off a sub 12 second quarter with the right rider. CB 750 was closer to high 13s. In the day I routinely smoked 750 Hondas with my chamber H1 500. They never knew what hit em.
Discovered this channel.
My father had a bikeshop multi brand in Brussels in the 60 and 70’s.
Not only two strokes of course.
Still have some bikes at home.
I truly appreciate him so much for how a good mechanic he is and what he taught me.
Cheers from Belgium.
Thanks for the comment and pleased you found us! 🙂🏍️🇧🇪🇬🇧
My first bike (1978) was a green Suzuki GT 550 2-stroke triple (1974) she was “ram air” cooled, about 50 hp. Had a blast on that bike! Never failed me, not once.
@@nickcoldest7128 seen one on the road once in south Texas and it was MINT
@@Japanese_moped_guy👍😎wow! That’s a long time ago!
Odd, used to have heat problem on the middle jug,,at least that ended most Suzuki GT380. Loved my Yamaha RD and LS2 1975 ish
In our Town a man used to have the 550 Suzuki. He was a very good craftsman and he welded a three in one exhaust plant with resonance tube at the end. There wasn´t any silencer in it. I will never forget that sound !! It seemed to be the motobike was faster with this exhauster. However, it never was measured. The police took notice about the bike and after two weeks and that was the end.
My scoutmaster bought an H2 when they were introduced. He let me ride it when I was an unlicensed teenager. I was so grateful for his lapse in judgement. It stood up in a corner when I was returning it. Kids playing stick ball, including his son, were scattering. It did unicycle around the corner without incident.
Ha! Great story! DYB-DYB-DYB!
Was that the first test of your own "pucker factor"?
They were thinking it was a good idea, considering they have won multiple championships with the TZ-750 inline four 2 stroke...
Untouchable for few years then 500 was the limit.
GL750 engine was detuned TZ750 engine. Kind of logical and easy for the company. Mileage before overhaul would not have been that great even when detuned i guess. What would have been great is RD750LC! :)
@@myrskylintu1 But PERFORMANCE between overhauls might have been pretty serious... and worthwhile
This was 1972 I don't think the TZ700 came out till 1974. Maybe the road bike inspired the racer
@@myrskylintu1 This was 1972 I don't think the TZ700 came out till 1974. Maybe the road bike inspired the racer
My first bike was Yamaha RD400 two stroke. It was cheap, required no maintenance and was the most fun I've ever had on two wheels.
I had a Yamaha RD 350 LC but I didn’t even know they made a 400 but I’m definitely hitting market Place later🤘😎🤘
RDs were the most fun you could have on one wheel.
@@rockhard237 I loved that bike. God damn wish I still had it
My first was a Yamaha RD200. Lot f fun! Now age 71 after lots of sports-tourers and one HD mistake have a 2008 Suzuki B-KING. Wanted to enjoy colossal power in my twilight years! Would love a KTM Super Adventurer but very costly plus the factory having troubles.
@ “Factory having troubles” thats an understatement lol. I did something dumb on a Honda 750 and gave myself the fear so now it’s car fun for me my 89 supercharged Fox Stang and a Mitsubishi Evo keep the adrenaline going at 52 but I wanna get back on a bike someday…soon
The RD350 twin was a brilliant bike just add another two cylinders and double the capacity - sounds like a great formula to me.
TZ-700!
TD350 and the Banshee, leaving the life.
@@clwomble My '89 Banshee, bought new, still rips.
RZ500?
The RD350 punched considerably above its weight.
Great video! Never heard of the Yamaha 4 cyl 2-stroke. I had a Suzuki GT740 Water Buffalo back in the day. It was a love/hate relationship to be sure!
I was waiting for it to be sold. I drooled over it.
Yamaha used an inline 4 two stroke in the TZ750. They won many races with that bike. They also put it into the Vmax snowmobiles that absolutly dominated in the early 90s. The inline 4 was a monster.
Thanks for bringing back the memory of this beauty. Owned a R5 / 350cc Yam at that time , when I discovered a photo in an, I think, American Cycle-magazine ( which were a hard-to-get item in Germany at that time) . I remember I was totally thrilled by the loks of this bike and it was absolutely clear that this would be my next Yamaha. An then ..... silently disappeared, as you stated. Remeber that I even phoned various Yamaha-dealers trying to find out more details but learnt that some of them didn't even know what I was talking about. Well, had me another RD 350 then.
That’s a great tale, albeit a bit disappointing for you. ☹️ The article I quote from was in the Jan 1972 issue of Cycle Guide and was written as if the 750 was about to hit the streets. It’s probably the article you read all those years ago. Journalists were obviously less cautious about sensationalising back then than they are these days. Yeah, right! 🤣
Thanks for the spectacular response to this video, it's clearly struck a chord! However, as we all know, more viewers equates to more comments, and debates can sometimes become passionate. TH-cam comments are no longer the unpleasant slime pit they were when I first ran a channel over 15 years ago, but there's still a temptation to attack the person, not the point, which leads to senseless tit-for-tat. I know it's frustrating when you're arguing with someone who is just plain wrong, but do please leave out any personal insults and stick to the interesting debate we're having. Thank you. That said, some folk are just born trolls, but fortunately I've learnt many interesting ways of dealing with them over the years!
And apparently some channel owners think it’s a clever idea to stick an advert after 1:16 …!🙄
If you don’t want decent, how about don’t wind people up with stuff like that.
@@G58 You poor thing....
Wish this had made it onto the roads..!!!!!!
Got my new 78' 2 stroke 100 when I was about 12 (in 78!). Still have it. Moved up to an H2 in about '84. Oh. My. God. How I'm still alive... I do not know.
Excellent Video! Thank You!
The pleasure’s all mine! 😊
I'm terrified of motorcycles but something about the aesthetics of these 70s machines just lights up the pleasure zones of my brain.
Loved the early days on 2 strokes... started on a fizzie onto kh250 gt500 rg500....got to ride several others...then had a couple of big 6 beasts....brilliant times..
I so wish they'd gone ahead with this.
Oh, and the XS1100 was far more than just a straight line bullet. It won lots of circuit races at the time.
XS1100 was an absolute unit of a bike.
If you think an XS1100 was competitively raced, you have obviously never ridden one.
A very crude shaft drive, spindly frame, skinny forks and poor brakes (being generous there). Had my very first experience of getting the rear wheel airborne on one after clogging it down the box too fast setting up for a corner. The frame and transmission was unforgiving of heavy handed use.
The engine was a beast, but what was holding it together was questionable, even when it was released.
@fredsmith4106 you should check out the results of the 1978 Castrol Six Hour....(The Premier production race at the time)
Run at Amaroo Park, a very tight circuit that favoured agile bikes that were easy on tyres (a wheel change took over a minute back then). The Jim Budd/Roger Heyes Yamaha XS1100, won the race with 354 laps
@@fredsmith4106 not just one year or one class. You tube has a video Motorcycle Racing 1981 Coke 800. Worth a look at an 800 km Superbike Race.
@@fredsmith4106 At end of life South Africa Yamaha had surplus stock. Changed swing arm and converted to chain drive. Bike was retailed in large enough numbers - so "production". It went production racing and completely blew away all the opposition - with a rider that was rather large, made the bike look small (big weight and wind resistance disadvantage). So with a simple (as it turned out) modification was a very capable racer. Brilliant engine.
In 1975, at age 20. I had a Kawasaki 900. It was the baddest bike on the planet. The Kawasaki 750 triple was almost as powerful, but much lighter. My friend had a Yamaha 350. It had 6 forward speeds and would do over 120 mph. I know this because he told me so. He only backed off when he was being choked by his chin strap. : ). A lady turned left in front of me at an intersection. and I missed her rear bumper by a coat of paint. The bike wiggled and the front end oscillated. I thought I was done. Fortunately, it stabilized. I parked the bike and never rode again. Years later, as a medical student in Wisconsin, I was informed that the hospital gears up the renal transplant team the first warm weekend in spring. Many people owe there lives to motorcycle riders donations.
The incomparable sound of a four stroke triple,nectar of the gods.
It certainly is! 🏍️👍
For the two months I owned my Yamaha RD 350 LC (cops hated it and me on it) I loved it and it is one of the very large amount of vehicles that have gone through my hands that I really wish I had back. Easily in the top five
Well done Sir Lancelot
The Square 4 was popular in the 50s and made my Ariel. It was not a fast 1000cc but you could turn the throttle in 4th gear almost from idle and it would accelerate.
A buddy of mine had an RD 350 with Basani Pipes in the late 70's. It sounded SO cool. Ridiculously fast. 750 would be INSANE...
Thanks for sharing brother
As ever, it’s a pleasure! 😊
Yes, indeed: you're doing something right! Carry on, but don't get carried away!
Thank you! 😊
My first bike was a 76’ CB400F SS, perfect little bike it was, jumped on a 77) KZ1000 LTD after that plus many dirt bikes. I miss those days.
I owned loads of medium and big bikes back in the day, I would definitely have bought that Yamaha if it existed.
Really good video! Informative and entertaining.
That’s very kind. Thank you!
great style and content! keep em coming.
That’s kind of you to say so, thank you. 😊
They were thinking the same thing as Honda was when they themselves built a V4 two stroke that powered the NSR500. (500cc, 180hp).
I believe Yamaha was thinking of a TZ750 when they built a 750 four. The streetbike they showed was something though.
Just in case you weren't aware, Yamaha won the 500cc world championship in 1975 with an in-line four cylinder two stroke.
I was disappointed when the GL750 didn't become a production bike, it was good looking and would likely be fun. Fuel injection at that time would have been problematic as computer control was in its infancy. It's fair to believe that it did result in the TZ700 road racer even if it was a TZ350 × 2. I was a mechanic at a Yamaha dealership in 1972 and the TX750 was a great disappointment as it had constant issues one the best days and blew up spectacularly often. I put the 13 hour job case kit on many 73s, essentially making them 74s. Thankfully the last year.
Interesting to hear about the TX750 from someone with direct experience. Thank you.
They certainly liked a two stroke just like Suzuki who were also late to the Four strike party. Nice one Phil.
Thank you! 😊 Note to self: Must do more Suzuki videos!
Passed my test mid-70s. I was an impoverished apprentice and my bike had to be a reliable everyday year-round driver so I went 4-stroke. I ran a Honda 400/4 which was both practical and immense fun. Happy days. 😀
Yep, I had two 400/4s in succession, they were that good! 😊🏍️👍
Powerband wasn't as exciting, but 350/4, and 400/4 were both solid performers.
You really couldn't and can't beat a Honda for a high quality product, whatever it may be. I once rode a borrowed 350 Honda (actually a 325cc) from northern Maryland to Ft Lauderdale Florida in January of 1974. Followed Rt 17 all the way down but mostly on I-95 on the way back, drafting big trucks at 80 MPH to keep out of the wind. (Not very good winter riding gear back then on my budget.) That sucker took it without a hitch. Honda makes good stuff.
@@andrewhanson5942 Cam chains. Nah, you just weren't a hooligan and wussed out from buying an RD400. Nothing unreliable about them, and a lot more fun.
@@Jo-Whale 400/4 cam chains were never a problem if the tension was adjusted regularly. One of our group was a professional mechanic and either did our servicing or showed us how. I know all about Honda cam chains having broken one on my CD175. I was on holiday at the time and spent several days rebuilding the engine. Both exhaust valves were bent - enough to stop the engine running but not enough to spot easily.
I'd counter the cam chain comment with 70s two-strokes propensity to seize. Both engine types had their weaknesses.
The straight four 2 stroke wasn’t forgotten as it ended up in the Yamaha V-Max 4 snowmobile. Seen one in a car show years ago that someone modified into an inline 6 😳 claimed it had 300hp , very impressive.
Interesting, I didn’t know that. You live and learn, as they say! 🏍️👍
I campaigned a TZ750 in the AMA national circuit in the early 1980s until the AMA banned two strokes. It was insane. This would have been an amazing street bike.
Thanks for that, it’s always great to hear from someone who’s had actual experience of these or similar bikes.
I Like Your Videos. I Was Surprised You Didn't Mention The TZ-750 Tearing Everyone A New One A Few Years Later Until They Outlawed It. Thank You. (Like #343 - Comment #70)
That’s very kind of you to say so! 😊 I was going to talk about the TZ but ran out of time and puff tbh. It would have made a fitting end to the video, and now I’m kicking myself I didn’t go that extra mile because everyone’s mentioning it!
@3Phils Yamaha had several, we'll kindly call them "misfires", in the 60's-70's, they really were borderline junk.
I love 2 stroke street bikes. I had an RD350, Rd400, Suzuki 380, Suzuki Titan 500 and a 750 water buffalo. They wear light, cheap and fast. The government screwed that up.
Great video. I had the Kawasaki triple. Sudden death on two wheels! I could do wheelies in all gears! Cheers from the Finger Lakes!
Thank you! I never had the courage to ride one of those back in the day, they had a super scary reputation. Still, some people's fears are other people's fun!
I worked as a mechanic in a Yamaha/BMW shop back in the early 1970s, and agree 100% with the POS judgement of the 750 4 stroke twin bike. Always seeing them come though the doors of the back shop.
The XS 650 on the other hand, was stone reliable and repairs on those were rare.
Guess which one I bought for my personal transportation?
Interesting to hear feedback from someone who worked on them. And I’m guessing the XS650?! 🤣🏍️👍
@3Phils Ha, yes good guess. Really couldn't kill that thing. I think I lost in in the divorce!
Anyway, now I'm on a Triumph Bonneville and loving it!
Thanks for the post!
I had a Suzuki water cooled 750 2 stroke and a 250 2 stroke, the 750 was a pins as it kept loosing 1 cylinder because of the points messing up.
I saw Jarno Saarinen riding a 500 straight 4 which was two 250 twins bolted together, it blew off everything, including the MV.
I saw Saarinen at Daytona. He was one of my motorcycle hero’s,I was devastated when he died.
@@fw1421 He was unbelievable, The real GOAT, he looked fast sat on the grid, and when the wheels started to turn, watch out.
I watched him close up put his helmet on, he went from affable nice guy to shark eyes in a second, totally committed.
I had never seen a picture of that Yamaha 4 before but from that the exhaust ports look to low there is quite a distance from the exhaust port to the top of the cylinder, maybe it had an unusually long stroke.or very acute upward angles the same goes for the inlet and downward slope.
I’ve always wishedYamaha would have put this into production.
Then came Yamaha with their V4 RZ500 and Suzuki with the SQ4 RG500 in the ‘80s 😍
And then there was EXUP, that led to some great bikes from all of the big four. My first bike was a little FS1M, I then had an XS250, I had a GPZ750 in the 90's and no more bikes until 2024 until I got my late brother's GSX1400 K3 with just 2049 on the clock.
In the 70's I was always wishing they had made a 4 cylinder 2stroke liquid cooled (like my GT750) 1000cc sports bike, but why not go over the 750 size 😮?
By all accounts the 2 stroke triples vibrate like they're trying to shred themselves, so perhaps Yamaha were figuring they could clean up with an inline 4 with perfect balance. Even the RD350 twins used to shake and rattle at idle but smoothed out once they got going. Rocking couple or something like that.
Try riding one. The power pulses are the same as a 6 cylinder engine.
Another bike I never knew nearly existed. The big two-strokes had terrible fuel consumption, and I'll bet this had a terrible drinking habit
It seems to have transmogrified into a Yamaha race bike a few years later. Even if it had made it into production as street bike, I imagine it, and anyone who rode it, wouldn’t have survived long on UK roads. ☹️
Nobody cared back then. The things weren't use for riding to work, they were used for thrashing the nuts off in every gear.
@@Banditmanuk Not all the big 2-strokes had bad fuel economy. The Suzuki GT750 was as economical as any of the 4-strokes of similar size. Later models have constant-vacuum carburettors (rarely used on 2-strokes) that probably help with economy.
🏆That was cool🐶Do something on the RD 400😎✌️
Thank you! 😊 I’ll add it to my list.
The blueprint for the iconic TZ 750.
Nice Production Sir.
Thank you! 😊🏍️👍
if I remember correctly, Yamaha decided on turning this into a racer - Tz750 as mentioned below.
It had too much power for a road bike. A flat track version was made for Kenny Roberts who ended up shredding the rear tyre on a circuit.
Indeed. I was going to mention the TZ in the video but ran out of time and steam!
The legendary OW31, it totally dominated the series in the hands of Steve Baker.
And Kenny himself said after clipping hay bales at 100+ "They don't pay me enough to ride that thing."
"too much power for a road bike"
I don't understand. That's not a thing.
@@tonyb9735 tyre technology during that time couldn't handle it. They took a few years to develop in order to cope, which was why it ended up on the racecourse.
The Yamaha TZ750 was bloody fast and won a lot of races, but was not a street bike, it was impossible to drive the thing in traffic. A dealer in Belgium I knew had one and he tried to do that, or he had a problem or the engine seized. Every time he drove on the street there was something, on circuit no problems. He sold the bike to Australia, never knew who drove it there and I did not see the bike on any races over there.
A bit of a handful that didn’t like idling at traffic lights then? 🤣
@3Phils Multitude of problems, did not like some fuels, engine needed to be at specs heat, overheated at low speed because the torque only was usable between a narrow rev band. ect.
Sounds a bit like my Trident! 🤣🤣🤣
The TZ750 dominated racing for a few years, as did the TZ350. I don't think they were streetable.
Yamaha‘s iconic models came a little later bit in form of the XT and SR 500
My God... a fuel-injected, water-cooled inline-four.. two-stroke. I just had an accident in my pants
Id want to put the TZ750 engine in a R6 frame and daily it...
back in around 2001 a custom frame builder out of Las Vegas built an aluminum perimeter race bike frame and put one of the street legal TZ750s in it. It had Ohlins and Marchesinis on it with a street title. It was on Ebay at around 125 grand and I never heard of it after that
@@dr.hugog.hackenbush9443 I’ve seen a RD400 motor in an FZR400 chassis … an absolute lightweight shredder
The TX750 is a great looking bike - it is a pity it was such a lemon.
The TX/XS500 was as bad, if not worse.
If you find one in the breakers and the head isn’t cracked between the plug hole and a valve seat, you’ll have found a unicorn.
The clutch trunnion was weak, and crank failures not unheard of.
I worked as a mechanic in a Yamaha/BMW shop back in the early 1970s, and agree 100% with the POS judgement of the 750 4 stroke twin bike. Always seeing them come though the doors of the back shop.
The XS 650 on the other hand, was stone reliable and repairs on those were rare.
Guess which one I bought for my personal transportation?
best definition of power, 'the size of the bang x number of bangs per minute'...
I was always under the impression that Norton produced a bike with a rotary engine and that Suzuki wasn't the only one.....
Perfectly true, but this video was about a Japanese manufacturer and Japanese motorcycles. I’ve made an entire other video about the Norton rotary here: th-cam.com/video/1ndfgghauv4/w-d-xo.htmlsi=B7NqPP1ysNAR4j5l
Australia 1986 ,i had just got my full motorcycle licence and i was ready to trade in my Kawasaki KR250 in on a larger capacity bike ,i really had my heart set on a GPZ900 Ninja ,walked into a dealership that sold all types of motorbikes and the salesman steered me towards a 500cc RG Suzuki ,i really wanted a Ninja but he convinced me to test ride it and he assured me it was a much better bike than the Kawasaki he even offered $550 for my KR250 ,i rode the 500 for ten to 15 minutes took it back to the dealership sourced another salesman and rode out a day later on a red/black GPZ900 ,bikes like that 500c two stroke belong on a racetrack not on public roads
I had a 72 Z1. Buddy an 850 Commando. He could beat me across an intersection. Thats all, unless we got into the twisties. Z1 rubberband swing arm couldn't handle it.
I loved that Norton. I wish I was still able to ride. I would be at Colorado Norton Works, money in hand.
I'm glad it only exists in a dream because if it was for real I'd have to have one.
Goodnight, dream time.
the answer might be quite easy to explain
F750cc racing was a class of racing based on production road bikes was about to be turned into a world championship
Triumph, BSA, Norton, Ducati, Suzuki, Kawasaki and Honda all had road bikes that all had racing versions but not Yamaha
the GL750 turns up for 2 showings (Japan and Paris) never to be seen again
the very next year the TZ 750 appears as if by magic
so Yamaha appeared to have promised a road going 750 2 stroke to get into F750 racing, Simples 😏
The rules of Formula 750 did not specify that the bike had to be based on a road bike, but they tried to achieve this result by specifying that it had to be based on a bike of which at least 1000 had been sold. Yamaha made the TZ750 specifically for Formula 750 and did sell over 1000 of them. This adhered to the letter of the rules but not to the spirit of them.
Good thinking! Although would they not have had to produce at least 100 road bikes to get homologated? Sorry if that’s a daft question, what I know about racing would make a very short book indeed. Also they maybe realised a four cylinder engine would be quite wide and would have created a lot of wind resistance. 🏍️👍
@cedriclynch Aha! Thanks for the clarification. 😊
@ Ah i see, i noticed back in the day that all the bikes were road based (GT750/TR750 KH750/KR750) but no Yamaha 750 then GL750 = TZ750 it even had a OW number though i can't remember it
Thanks for the correction
Months ago I was tantalized by rumors that Yamaha was reviving the RD350 2-stroke in the form of a water-cooled, fuel injected version that met the Euro-5 emissions standard. That turned out to be a HUGE disappointment as Yamaha had patented the name RD 350 to put it on just another dull 4-stroke twin bike. I literally have money saved to be the first in line to buy a two-stroke if it came out . With advancements in oil technology and catalytic converters, one would think reviving a 2-stroke to that extent would be possible. I will have to be content in my old age of 77 to ride the four four-stroke Honda bikes that I have.
If you’ve got 35 grand plus saved up you could always get one of these Langen 2-strokes, they’re only building 100 of these 250cc V twins which put out 75bhp: www.motorcyclenews.com/bike-reviews/langen/two-stroke/2022/
Was there any connection to the TZ750 engine that came out in 1974? Some engine comparisons would have been good? May be it was meant to be a production/test bed version of that engine? I'd never heard of it until today in 2025. Soundly like it would have been amazing, and would have gone on to dominate production if not circuit racing at that time. I'd like to know the internal history of what went on.
Yamaha had a triple (1976) too - one that actually started reliably 3:59
@PaulG.x Kenny Robert yamaha 750 two-stroke.. dirt track was a winner
@@PaulG.x The XS750 would have been better if it was chain driven rather than the shaft drive but it was a good looking bike all the same.
@@howardosborne8647 There is a post classic road racer in New Zealand that runs an XS750 with a chain conversion in a custom frame
I read the other day that while a falcon can dive faster than a blackbird can fly, in level flight a pigeon is faster than either. Perhaps KTM could shift some of their excess stock by renaming them Pigeons. Or not.
As a side note, there's a simple reason 4 cylinder 2 strokes aren't very good. The 4 separate crankcases and the oil seals and bearings between result in a very wide engine with a very long crankshaft, with cranks at 90 degrees, so torsional vibrations become an issue as well as width. The crank needs to be either flexible or with very large strong journals, and with 1970s technology there was no ECU to avoid the resonant frequencies. Easier and cheaper to just use balance weights on a triple to reduce the rocking couple.
I knew you’d have the ultimate technical take! Thanks for that, as always. 😊 I think the KTM Pigeon could fly out of the dealerships! Geddit?!?!! 🏍️👍
The rocking couple of a 3 cylinder inline engine is rotating in the opposite direction to the engine itself. The weights would have to be on a separate shaft going in the opposite direction at the same speed. The 1960s and 70s two-stroke triples did not use this technique. Suzuki did a good job of losing the vibration in the mountings, Kawasaki not such a good job.
@@cedriclynch You are correct except insofar as balancing the cranks individually partially reduces the rocking couple. It cannot balance the rocking due to the pistons but it can balance out the rocking due to the big end.
The Water Buffalo had a heavy engine block which reduced vibration amplitude, the Kawa 750 was about 30kg less overall.
Mitsubishi Silver Pigeon scooter was about half the Japanese market with Fuji Heavy Industries' Rabbit sharing the other half.
I loved the 80s Japanese bikes. I had many. Never did own a Kawasaki though.
@@LtJackboot you missed out
Since the tz750 already existed, why not for the street ? It's not because Kenny Robert was afraid of it on dirt track that it shouldn't have been made widows for the street. Of course 'clean-air act' of the era came to put an end to all this fun. Maybe with the newly in place american oligarch who wants to throw everything away, EPA included, 2 stroke would come back straight pipe.
They did sell a street legal version for homologation, but I think it only sold in Canada
This bike was shown before the TZ750 came out. There was no street legal version.
@@Jo-Whale According to this vid at 4:25 you're right. Oct 1971 . Tz : 1974
@@thegrinch7989 I live there and was a regular reader of canadian motorcycle magazines at the time and there was never any homologation for cdn.
On the other hand we had Rz350s until 1990 and before that the Daytona Special here did not have an exhaust blocking valve to pass the american epa.
The XS11 was the first Japanese four that would pull away from my brother's and my modified Norton Commandos. The GS1000 and Kawasaki 900/1000 would not pull away. The Nortons would pull an number of car lengths ahead, then the liter fours would reel the Nortons back in and motor away.
You’d think an 1100cc four would do better than that! But I’ve owned both a Commando and a Z900 and I remember thinking the Z900 was almost as good as the Commando. Almost. So thanks for confirming my suspicions there. 😊🏍️👍
You forgot the kawasaki and Bridgestone parallel twin disc induction 2 strokes, ride one they are fast and light
The 'Peregrine Falcon' was called the 'rolls much easier off the Tongue' in any language actually.
Hehe!
@3Phils Funnily enough, ブサ 'Busa means ugly in Japanese,, so that kind of fits too. Although it is the name given for a Peregrine falcon, aka the "foreign" or "pilgrim falcon", hayabusa (隼) doesn't actually translate as Peregrine falcon. It's comes from the sound of something moving very fast, a bit like zoom. A Chinese or Japanese person looking at it would understand "strong and fast" or 'fast bird', as they wouldn't be 'foreign' to them.
Fair enough given the falcon can do 200mph in a dive.
I don't know if the Blackbird eater story is true, or just made up afterwards.
Translating pictographs, i.e. kanji, into English is really hard because they are, literally, images rather than words (as in, "a picture tells 1,00 word"). In fact, even Japanese people have a hard time with them. It's more like reading a tarot card.
How about a vid about suzuki ram air series?gt models 🙉
It’s on my list! 🏍️👍
I am a bit surprised you don’t mention the XS750 threecilinder; you jumped straight to the XS1100 buffalo 🙂. Wiki tells me it was named GX750 in Japan, and you do mention that type. Didn’t the XS750 bring Yamaha back in the race?
You’re quite right, of course. 🙂 I did rather jump over the rest of Yamaha’s excellent 1970s 2-strokes, but at that point I’d moved on to talking about their efforts to produce a 4-stroke superbike. Honest, m’lud!
If they made it a 1000cc it would have had all the speed demons buying it.
some guy made a CR1000 out of two CR500s, it was pretty hot. He was supposed to make a CR2000 square four but I never heard any news on it
And all the triples like Suzuki GT380, middle jug got to hot
There is a 1 stroke engine now, that produces big number from a small package. I would like to see that on a bike.
what are you talking about, your penis?
@thegrinch7989 For the record, there are at least a couple of companies that claim to have built a ‘1-stroke’ engine - and it’s nothing to do with todgers!
@3Phils I have seen the 1 stroke, the design is genius. No valves, the rotating piston has intake and exhaust in it. it weighs 30kg. and produces 120 hp. I also have no idea what a todgers is.
‘Todger’ is British vernacular for what @thegrinch7989 said. Yes, I’m tempted to make a video about 1-strokes, now you’ve mentioned it. But I’d probably get myself in an engineering pickle, as always!
Don't care about the mythical environmental issues (see how many volcanoes are belching at the moment) I want one, maybe a 1000 cc version 👍
Ignoring your blatant nonsense about global warming, I'd also go for a 1000cc one.
Yamaha knew that year that no one had a show stopper. So they build this as show pony only, one of one. Rumor has it had no internals of any sort with only one shaft in gearbox to mount the chain drive. As previously stated never to be seen again
Hey, that last bike is very near to where I live.
Footage from “Vintage-Motorcycles” channel from the Netherlands.
Now this guy owns a few bikes. Private and for sale….. A days worth of looking, òòhh-ing and ààahh-ing. 🤩
Warning to motorcycle enthusiasts.
Don’t take your savings there, you’re bound to spend it all. 🤩🤗
Yes, he often comes up when I’m searching for footage of 1970s bikes. I think, if I lived in the Netherlands, I’d be round his place all the time! 🤣 🇳🇱👍
@ His business is approximately 20 Km from where I live.
Must visit, but he’s very very busy, mostly on the move and time equals money.
I’ll probably at least cost him a cup of coffee and a few minutes as I’m not in the market right now. 😄
If I don’t clumsily elephant my way around the crowded place. Then it might get very expensive. 😂
Hehe! Tbh that’s my fear these days, bumping into expensive things. It’s why I steer clear of antiques shops! 🤣
@ 😂👍
These bike engines are considered a parallel design, not straight or inline.
We’ve had this discussion many, many times here and what you call them all rather depends on whether you’re a car buff, a bike buff or an engineer who contributes to Wikipedia. But thanks for bringing it up again.
The reason I brought it up was, my V-Max 4 owners manuel descibes it as parallel.
But the VMAX is a V4, surely? Nice looking bikes, by the way. 🙂
V-max 4 is a snowmobile with a 800cc parallel 4 cylinder 2- stroke. Sorry for not explaining better.
Aha! Confusion all round! I thought you were talking about the Yamaha V-Max bike.
The Suzuki water cooled GT750 threw too much shade over that segment
Alan milliyard….. hold my mug of Tea and plate of sandwiches
I was thinking that too. He could probably knock one up in an afternoon!
@3Phils he did build a 4-cilinder 2-stroke Kawasaki, the S1 550, and even a 5-cilinder, the 883cc KH FIVE
If you've never heard of Allen Millyard, you have now..
A Peerless motorcycle builder. .
Kaw 750 triple, 2 stroke... "The widow maker"!😮
It would've made a good bike, no carbs to go out of balance and would have been all but maintenance free with electronic ignition. Points and condensers were a pain on all the 1970's two strokes, Kawasaki aside.
The Yamaha Carrot? There's gotta be a joke in that.
I was wondering who was going to be the first to spot that! 🤣
Kenny Roberts was riding a 2 stroke/4 can......in the dirt.
I AGREE WHAT WERE THEY THINKING 2 INTO 1 EXHAUST , CUT THEM OFF AND FABRICATE EXHAUST INTO 4 INTO 1 AND MAKE SURE HEADER PIPE S ARE SAME LENGTH , FAR BETTER.
Yamaha's 1972 TX750 (and TX500) first models were total disasters ! I owned a 1974 TX750A with the improved sump,, oil cooler, etc., etc. (In all 18 engineering change orders ) that made the machine comfortable and reliable (if not at all exciting ); it took until the last model to iron out all the problems, but too late (Much like the five different model H1 Kawasakis I've owned )
P.S. why does the Yamaha GL750 change to a GL800 with different muffler @ 5:40 ? ?
The TX gained a really bad rep, really quickly, and did the Big Y no favours at all. Well spotted re the ‘800’ and I was wondering that too. I believe the bike may also have been displayed at the Paris show in early 1972 but I couldn’t find confirmation of that so I didn’t mention it. If they did go to Paris, perhaps they upped it by over-boring the Letraset on the side covers! It makes me wonder even more if it was all just a ‘fake news’ exercise.
The TZ 500s and 750s made everything else look stupid when the came out, that's what they were thinking.
What was Yamaha thinking?….TORQUE!
We all know the Japanese copied everyone. Yamaha should have built that inline 4. Rz800 please!
Suggesting that all the Japanese did was copy everyone displays your ignorance. Honda in particular were extremely innovative.
Did they TRY a four four?
Hey, I like my TX650.
No offence intended. 🙂 I actually think they look great, but the early models had disastrous engine problems (see multiple comments on here), which is why they gained such a bad reputation. I expect yours is a later model, or has been fixed in the intervening 50 years! 🏍️👍
Yamaha 750 GL 2-stroke was never produced, as I record.
Yamaha all ready had a proven 750 4 cylinder 2 stroke race motor TZ750 would have been easy to make a street version.
they did make a street version
The TZ750 came later, and there were no street versions.
GT750 wasn't most famous example. Kawasaki H2 750 was equally as notorious; as planned by Kawasaki Heavy Industries
The H2 wasn't watercooled. You weren't paying attention at the back of the class.