Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126250
The TlliOO is a master slider, Just pitch it in and tum on the throttle, , The suspension handled the heavy TT500 in all sorts of situations including this one, No problem, The Yamaha 1T500: A perfect fun bike that holds its own in a specialized world , ' Everybody's heard the legends of BSA Goldstar, Matchless G50 , Norton, AjS , Velocette 500cc four-stroke singles being used for everything in bygone days . The stories say that people used 14 to ride their thumpers to work during' the week , t hen ride the same bike out to a race on Sunday, unbolt the lights. ran'. and then rid" horne. The sam" bike was used as a streeter, a T'T ma chine, a scrambler, a hillclirnber. a desert racer. a road racer. The Yamaha rr500 - the most ad vanced mass -product ion 500rr singk- cylinder four stroke ever seen invites comparisons 10 " the old day ," when thumpers ruled . Even t he Yamaha advertisements sav that the T1'500 revives the spirit of old thumpers. In the old days, the thumpers did everything " well" because there wasn 't murh choice in machinery. Now, there an' special ized motorcycles for ,'wry Iype of racing . and no machine ran be reason ab l y ex pcr rerl In Comp{'ll' with specialized race hikes on their home turf. The rr500 has shown up in all sorts of compcririon, Rir k Hocki ng used o ne to win th e l lou sto n Astrodome 'TT in 1976. Gary SCOll is us in~ a TT500 for indoor 1'Ts this yea r. a long with cou n t le ss o ther pr ivat cc rs , Ro n McQuary has won rhe Ope n Expert class at Mo torcyc le Ra cewa ys in Oklahoma with a ·\- r 500. Dwayne Carte-r consisrenr ly p laces in the 101' fin' overall in AMA Distri ct 37 desert racing . Ihc most cornperirivc week-byweek off-road ra cing in .thc Llniu-d States. TT500s are flooding lora I enduros and sportsman Class C races alike in Southern California. A 0cl£ Neuis staffer used a TT500 10 take second in 500 GP at a CMC road race at Willow Springs on February 13, making up for lime lost on the straight sections with su pe rior cornering in the right sections. While the 11'500 keeps showing up in different lypt'S of comperirion , in most r ases especially on th e amateur level - it is because the 11'500 - with an incredibly wide power band , Ions of lorque, and modern suspension that works - is a fun motorcycle . AMA Grand National Champion Jay Springsteen a Harley-Davidson factory rarer - owns a '1 1'500 as play bike. Fun . lr's a word easily forgoru-n in t he t r ick ed-t o-t e a rs uhra-serious specialized racing that has developed in many parts of the Uni ted States, When .yo ur r- rid i ng a n a rrow powerban \ racebike t hat co mes on the pipe like a moon -bound rocket an d h urls you straight a head no mailer whic h way you wa nt In KO, it's easy to for/:et you're supposed to be out there for a good tim,', W h,'n your qu ickhand ling ser iou s enduro mount hand les so quickly that ,'very rock sends you off in a new direction, finding joy ca n be overshadowed hy fi/:htinp; terror . When you 've p;0l a pipey 12f>