Yamaha history

In 1887 Yamaha Torakusu establish a company which produces organs. Ten years later the company becomes part of the Nippon Gakki Company due to a merger. In the course of time, this company expands more and more and a larger range of musical instruments are produced and also the production of for example a record player started.

During World War II the company also makes aircraft propellers. The machines used for this purpose, remain unemployed after the war. After a while Genichi Kawakami, who lead the company at that time, decided to look into another purpose for the machines. Finally he decides to use the machines to manufacture a vehicle that is on the rise: the motorcycle. He names the subsidiary and the new motorcycle brand which will be produced by the new company, after the founder Torakusu Yamaha.

Original Article: Motorfietsen.org)
(Original photo: yamaha.com)

C&J Yamaha XT500

C & J stands for the names of Jeff Cole and Steve Jentages, two men from California who started with constructing frames in the early 70’s. One of the first frame they built by was made for stuntman Evel Knievel. The first motocross frames were built in 1972 after a distributor of Japanese motorcycles contacted them and brought an engine for which they had to build a competitive frame, the rider was Brad Lackey and he won the 1972 AMA Grand Prix with that particular frame. After this, Lackey left the States to participate in the World Championship in Europe and Brad Lackey became the first American World Champion MX on a C & J product. From that moment onwards their frames became very popular and were sold worldwide.