Yamaha

July 17, 2005 The last time Troy Corser went to the Brno circuit in Czechoslovakia for a superbike round, he left with a superpole victory, fastest race lap and two wins and but for a small electronic problem in the second race history almost repeated itself today. In the end, he was not to repeat his 1996 glory, but he did have the satisfaction of increasing his lead in the championship. Without doubt the surprise of the round was the performance of Noriyuki Haga, who gave Yamaha its first victory with the R1-based superbike and brought to four the number of marques which have won so far this year - Suzuki, Honda, Ducati and now Yamaha. Kawasaki’s best so far is third with Chris Walker almost adding a podium on the weekend with a fourth in Leg One.  Read More

June 26, 2005 Valentino Rossi claimed another win, another record and staked another claim to being the greatest ever when he won the 75th anniversary Gauloises Dutch TT at the famous Assen circuit on Saturday afternoon. In doing so, he became the first Yamaha rider ever to win five consecutive premier-class races and fought off a new challenger to his crown in the form of an ever-improving Marco Melandri. Rossi has always had the ability to find something extra when it counts, but he seems to be regularly performing remarkable feats this year, coming up with several stunners on the weekend to increase his points lead in the 2005 title to 63 points – a buffer of more than two race wins.  Read More

June 12, 2005 Less than two years ago the Yamaha M1 factory prototype racing machine was not considered competitive – indeed, it was considered by most to be a dog. It struggled throughout the 2003 Moto Grand Prix racing year, and in the hands of two of the finest professional motorcycle racers in the world, Spaniard Carlos Checa and Brazilian Alex Barros, it finished an entire season with just one third place as its sole podium from 32 starts. In 2004, Yamaha was fortunate to be able to obtain a rare and frightfully expensive throttle controller for one of its machines (also known as Valentino Rossi), making the machine far more competitive – from 16 starts in 2004, the Rossi-fitted machine won nine times and placed second twice and won the world championship. It’s win, with Rossi aboard this afternoon, is its fifth win from six starts this season and Rossi is now 58 points clear of his nearest rival. A look back at the results makes interesting reading – though the bike is reportedly far better than it was, no-one else is making it go fast enough to be competitive.  Read More

March 6, 2005 World-class racing on machinery closely related to that on the showroom floor is what continues to drive the success of the World Superbike and Supersport Championships. With four races now complete in the World Superbike Championship, it now seems certain that Honda, Ducati, Yamaha and Suzuki all have realistic chances of taking the title, with as many as ten potential race-winning riders on the grid. Realistically though, championship leader TroyBayliss (Ducati 999, 75 pts), James Toseland (Honda CBR1000RR, 74 pts), Troy Corser (Suzuki GSXR1000, 63 pts), MotoGP veteran Alex Barros (Honda CBR1000RR, 55 pts) and Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha YZF R1, 42 pts) will be the key players with both Barros and Haga set for significant machinery improvements in the coming weeks. In the Supersport championship, the title already looks to be a race between the Ten Kate Honda CBR600RR of reigning champ Sebastien Charpentier and the Yamaha Germany YZF-R6 of Kevin Curtain.  Read More

Sunday November 16, 2003 In one of the most significant moves in motorcycle history, Yamaha has announced that it will release a two-wheel drive motorcycle early in 2004.Though it is not the first two-wheel drive motorcycle in history, the new machine will be a landmark model as it seems certain to be the first of many - testing over the last five years has indicated enormous benefits in terms of safety, traction and (probably the one that counts most) outright cornering speed in slippery, sandy or muddy conditions.  Read More

Monday November 3, 2003: Yamaha Motor Company displayed a range of five "Clean and Silent" prototype electrical two-wheelers at the Tokyo Show last week. Most significantly, Yamaha showed a machine which is arguably unlike any two-wheeler seen to date - the Dolsa Wind.  Read More

UPDATED Nov 19, 2004 The Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), is a term you'll hear a lot more about over the coming years. In the past it has mainly been mentioned whenever a technologically advanced country (aka the USA) is involved in warfare. The biggest advantage of a UAV is that it can be put 'in harm's way' - it can be put in a dangerous situation where the odds of losing a pilot (the most valuable part of any aircraft) are simply too great. Now Yamaha has unveiled a range of Unmanned Ground, Marine and Air Vehicles that bring autonomous capability to the world around us.  Read More

Monday December 15, 2003Two bikes seen for the first time as concept bikes at the Paris Motor Show are already rumoured to have been given the green light to go into production. Yamaha introduced its radical MT-01 concept bike to the amazement of all at the 2003 Tokyo Motor Show, shoveling the air-cooled, V-twin 1600 cc Road Star motor into what is essentially a TZ250 racing chassis, producing a motorcycle very reminiscent of the Harley-engined Buell: very compact, light, quick-steering and an engine-on-wheels.  Read More

The new Yamaha CDR-HD1300 really does offer the very best of both worlds, being a CD recorder of the highest quality, and a music server (aka large capacity hard drive).  Read More