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King Kenny at Donington in ’81 on the rotary valve square-4 OW54

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King Kenny at Donington in ’81 on the rotary valve square-4 OW54 – a knee-jerk reaction to Suzi’s faster RG and by royal proclamation ‘a total disaster’. In reality tho’, Yam never saw the ill-handling 500 as anything more than a stopgap ‘til their hush-hush V4 was good to go.

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  1. King Kenny (then merely a precocious Prince) making his debut in the ‘74 UK v US Match Races at Brands on his TZ700. The fresh-faced High School dropout would win three out of six races – teaching old guard home team riders like #33 Smartie a lesson or two about complacency…pic.twitter.com/5sXCmZWyiC
  2. Ago making his Yamaha debut at Daytona in ’74 on the all-new TZ700. In a race cut to 170 miles by the oil crisis, the Italian would prove he was just as fast on a two-stroke as an MV by crossing the line first ahead of Kenny and Kawasaki’s Hurley Wilvert (Nope, me neither…).pic.twitter.com/En9m3EmEQ2
  3. Yam’s in-line 4 2-stroke GL750 which first appeared at the Tokyo show in ’71. Closely based on the TZ700 (then under development) the road bike project, which featured cycle parts similar to the TX750, sadly never got beyond prototype stage. A crying shame…pic.twitter.com/GphVTuFHWI
  4. What might’ve been eh? An in-demand Bazza tries a Trident for size while mulling over the offer of a Triumph works ride for ’72. In the end he said ‘no thanks’ (also turning down a Ducati V-twin, Derbi and Suzuki GB) in favour of a factory Yamaha. Made sense. Kinda shame tho’…pic.twitter.com/aohmHLqR83
  5. Graeme McGregor: who started 42 TTs in 11 years but won just two – and both on the same day in ‘84. The talented Aussie started his perfect shift by winning the Junior – following up with the F2 race hours later. Tho’ more podiums would follow, he’d never taste victory again.pic.twitter.com/vK44jZjCjf

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