Yamaha Motorcycles - History (From 1955)

[Music] the Yamaha r1 a motorcycle that makes music you see somebody motions maybe slow down really is like music which kind of makes sense given that Maha's history with musical instruments from music to motorcycles Yamaha has always focused on beauty and design Allah knows we were the last Japanese company to begin making motorcycles but the thirst to emphasize what a motorcycle looked like one of the things you'll hear from Yamaha I'll rephrase Kondo Kondo is an old Japanese philosophy describing how music and beauty impact the human spirit we didn't just sell pianos we sold the enjoyment of music but could Kondo sell motorcycles simple compact powerful that has been our design concept from the very first motorcycle [Music] two very different kinds of music both influenced by the impact of beauty on human emotions excited beauty holy how did yamaha connect the ancient Japanese philosophy of Congo to bikes and why did the largest piano company in the world decide to make music with a motorcycle [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] every year from late March to early May its cherry blossom season in Japan in a tradition dating back to the 8th century the Japanese take a break from school or work to stroll among the blossoms the tradition is called phenomena the Japanese version of literally taking time to stop and smell the roses anomaly is just one expression of condom the Japanese philosophy describing how beauty impacts the human senses Kondo can describe the sound of a Yamaha piano that represents more than a century of unmatched musical craftsmanship [Music] I'm a Matsu Japan it was here in the year 1900 that tora cuckoo yamaha crafted the first piano ever made in this country it's a hot rod mr toura kusu yamaha originally only repaired pianos which in the late 1800s were only imported from Europe then he learned how to build his own piano and started his own music business soon Japan was no longer importing pianos instead the new Yamaha music company began exporting pianos all over the world yes one of the key things that helped create Yamaha pianos was that in this region of Japan there was a lot of lumber that was especially good for producing great pianos [Music] by 1904 a Yamaha piano was on display at the World's Fair in st. Louis Missouri [Applause] [Music] today at the Yamaha Motor Company Museum in suburban Komatsu the company still honors its history as the world's largest piano manufacturer with a baby grand sitting center stage [Music] [Music] a three-pointed tuning fork to the Yamahas logo it is more than just a simple connection between music and machines it's a constant reminder that Kondo the impact of beauty on the senses is at the very core of the company a lot of people are surprised to find out that sales are through the course even though they look like it but people don't make the connection right away until they kind of get involved with motorcycling to find out that the tuning forks are Yamaha even on a motorcycle so the connection is there from the musical instrument thing right down to the two wheelers but coming out of World War two no one in Japan near the piano daily living was focused on survival shelter food and inexpensive transportation so Yamaha asked itself what it could do to stay in business the answer was to build motorcycles pianos click on go to Yamaha developed special metal technologies that were used in the design and manufacturing of pianos after world war ii the company realized it could use these special metal technologies to make motorcycles [Music] in August 1954 Yamaha introduced his first motorcycle the ya1 [Music] it was a 125 CC single-cylinder bike with an engine design copied from a German company [Music] but its shape and colors what'd you think it was a mutant nicknamed the Aqua tombow in English pocket humble means the red dragonfly Kirara Mahalo this is the very first Yamaha at that time motorcycles in Japan were painted black and there was little attention being paid to the language of sculpture and design but Yamaha put an emphasis on design and so we created an aerodynamic shape for the fuel tank and the overall shape was simple and compact make sense that Yamaha has always put a lot of emphasis on styling I mean a piano is a beautiful instrument in a lot of ways it has to be it has to be designed and styled it's an aesthetic almost a piece of working furniture as it were so it makes sense that Yamaha put a lot of emphasis on the look and styling of their bikes even from day one rushing to catch up with other motorcycle companies Yamaha wasted little time taking the ya1 racing [Music] in 1955 just weeks after the first ya1 had rolled off the production line Yamaha entered the red dragonfly' and the two most important races in Japan the Mount Fuji Hill Climb and the asama volcano race back in the day the first motorcycles were functional functional bikes to get around on they were transportation Yamaha get into the racing thing pretty early what's their win at the Mount Fuji Hill Climb that was a big deal [Music] the red dragonfly carried a powerful sting after winning the Mount Fuji Hill Climb the bike won the very first running of the asama volcano races America a long cycle Hudson we had to focus on quality in performance and racing was a good way to demonstrate those qualities so we started racing in 1955 [Music] [Applause] [Music] excited by its racing success people wanted to buy the bike by the end of 1955 Yamaha had 274 employees building 200 motorcycles a month [Music] just one year after entering the motorcycle business Yamaha introduced the white d1 [Music] a completely new motorcycle with an engine twice as big as the red dragonfly' the yd1 had a two cylinder 250 cc engine designed by yamaha engineers along with it the yd1 our first two cylinder bike is very much a Japanese original and not based on other motorcycles imported from other countries the ya1 was partly based on a German motorcycle but the yd1 was completely a Japanese design the yt1 was not only a 250 but it was a twin and I think it really expanded the scope of what post-war Japanese rider could do on a motorcycle to take him longer distances a a bigger more performance-oriented motorcycle it kind of pointed the way to where Japan was going to go in terms of their motorcycle production [Music] the wave you want to become a classic statement of yamaha design philosophy don't I got a call this is the first twin cylinder Yamaha we didn't want to cover the engine or any of the other parts letting people see those parts was our design philosophy a sushi qiyamah is a keeper of the flame for Yamahas design philosophy he's been designing yamaha motorcycles for more than 50 years so totally cool we use color to create a to turn fuel tank we use the color white to make the tank shiny in the light which makes it more beautiful there are times when Yama's really kind of stood out then I intended to take some chances on the filing and the color use and everything and it seems to work really well for all of us it was the original Yamaha Supersport motorcycles [Music] just three years after getting into the motorcycle business Yamaha took the next big step they began selling motorcycles overseas in 1958 the yv1 became the first Yamaha motorcycle ever sold in the United States my father used to ride the early Yamaha air-cooled twin two-stroke 250 I really thought those really cool fibers and also put a bit of a performance angle into the Japanese market where there maybe haven't been one before a performance or any angle which really kind of paved the way for Yamaha and their racing success with two strokes in the late 1960s Yamaha created the first motorcycle ever designed from the ground up as a bike you could ride on the street or in the dirt their timing was perfect the dt1 went on sale in America as baby boomer for coming-of-age times were good people had money and they were looking for adventure it was the right bike at the right time been the dt1 was first sold in 1968 it was really popular in the United States it was an off-road trail bike right at a time when Americans were really getting excited about motorcycling vg1 came about and said look you can write it on the street you can write it on the dirt and the thing about the dt1 is it was such a good basic design the dt1 was another example of Kondo the ancient philosophy of connecting shapes and beauty with human emotions for American riders the dt1 really hit an emotional chord the vt1 was models bikes that really covered a lot of ground and introduced untold thousands and thousands of people into the off-road sport of motorcycling and really bridge the gap from street to do right [Music] in 15 years Yamaha gone from copying a German bike to creating designs of its own the DP won't even created a new segment in the motorcycle market what happened next would make Yamaha the second-largest motorcycle company in the world [Music] in 1970 yamaha took a major risk investing serious time and money in building his first motorcycle with a four-stroke engine in 1970 we built the XS one it was a breakthrough for Yamaha because it had a four-stroke engine before that time all the motorcycles had two-stroke engines in which the oil and gasoline had to be mixed [Music] the XS one was called the XS 650 in the States it's two cylinder engine was modeled after classic British designs except the Yamaha version made a lot more power the Yamaha 650 twin was just an amazing motor is very very durable was fat and inspector after a long time and was the basis for a lot of really good motorcycles and they come on to be aa real classic motorcycles with 652 m [Music] the XS 650 at one of the most advanced engine designs of the day but in the 1970s due to a closed Yamaha would need a new cutting edge design a new bike but once though created with a true sense of condo [Music] [Music] the Tokyo International Exhibition Center built along the Tokyo Bay it's one of the largest venues in the city its nickname is Tokyo's big site [Music] the hall has 250,000 square feet of exhibition space that's five football fields under one roof [Music] each year the Center hosts one of premier motorcycle events in the world the Tokyo International Motorcycle Show [Music] this is where Japanese motorcycle companies always debut their latest models to the public [Music] [Applause] [Music] in 1980 Yamaha introduced the arsy 250 at the Tokyo Motorcycle Show [Music] it's shaped rock the motorcycle world it was Yamahas newest expression of its classic philosophy of condo the impact of beauty on the senses Union pistol details it's very narrow the knee grip is tight it's a very organic design the rider's body can fit into the Machine completely the bike and rider become one [Music] today condo continues to define Yamaha design philosophy Yamaha has has the ability to blend that ergonomic package into a bike that gets around the racetrack really well and also a bike that is very streetable the motorcycle can be taken out and played with in the canyons driven to work you can even ride across country if you need to because it's not a crazy race bag [Music] [Music] all the who asked this is a sketch of a motorcycle that represents the union of a mechanical machine with the organic human body the motorcycle looks like a creature that expresses the celebration of life [Music] hey MA what's wrong on all people all over the world have a common appreciation for beauty when we design we think how can we move people's hearts we believe a motorcycle is a creature not just a simple machine we focus on putting emotions into motorcycles [Music] for many riders the ultimate impact of Kondo the way to really stir human emotion can best be found in the heart of a full-blown sport bike I have gordito suppose in 1985 we built our first sport bike which has evolved into the r1 series today [Music] [Music] the r-1 series was a styling revolution that it influenced a look and shape of almost every modern SportBike something animalistic and edgy almost insect like the eye and I think Yamaha really did kind of start the trend that you see now on everybody's big inline four-cylinder bike the sport bike is that that loves to be r1 generated it's 10 years ago doesn't seem like 10 years ago but the r1 was really a breakthrough sport 5 bike ma its shape is like a bullet a bullet in the wind much of our inspiration is taken from observing nature around us and like living creatures in the animal world lions and tigers this motorcycle has two eyes [Applause] [Applause] the r-1 was introduced in 1998 as Yamahas most powerful sport bike it had a 998 cc motor producing 150 horsepower one year later Yamaha revealed the r6 a 600cc middleweight version of a sport bike [Music] both machines continue the condo connection of man and motorcycle the most important thing about the r1 is the performance leap it represented in 1998 when it first came out it was like nothing else you know we're used to incrementally increases the next year is last year's bike plus three percent maybe five percent you know up to that point nobody had built a leader bike quite like it but nobody else had spent fifty years perfecting the use of metal and a piano sounding board how would that help Yamaha when it came time to build a bike [Music] [Applause] [Music] Oh [Music] this is where the r 1 and r 6 are built Yamaha's huge a whatta factory complex in hama Matsu the water building number one is the final assembly plant for Yamaha sport bikes they say ëwell for use on our newest bikes the biggest challenge with developing electronic engine controls that would help the rider and provide more of a human sense or human feel to the bike [Music] inside the factory that human feel of the engine is checked by a test rider on each new bike huge bike has what's called a fly-by-wire control system instead of traditional cables a tiny computer connects the throttle with the engine that computer can make 1,000 calculations a second as it constantly monitors and adjusts the engines fuel and air mixture it's gotta fly by wire throttle which to me that's what we should be doing we should be leading with technology getting rid of cables and get rid of those things and working toward electronics now I'm not saying I want every one of my bikes to be cutting into technology but when I go to the dealer to buy a new bike that I can take to the racetrack and go click on and enjoy I'd like it to be up at the forefront of technology [Music] 600cc motor in the r6 cranks out 130 horsepower and the bikes fly-by-wire technology makes all that power available almost instantly immediate throttle response big power for 600 you know one of the most powerful 600 you can buy just as hard edged as and anything that's ever been sold for Street use [Music] the new r1 engine puts out 158 horsepower soon still beauty can increase performance for special events carving the are ones bodywork create a vacuum effect cold air is pushed into the engine while hot air is going out of the exhaust the special airflow as as much as 30 floors power in the r-1 reaches top speed both the r1 and the r6 have a Yamaha called a human veal it's one way to describe the relationship between man and machine our relationship based on good communication between bike and rider the r6 communicate and that's why I think so many people go click on it that's why it's a secret and that's why so many people are the r6 it talks to you and tells you where the limits are what you don't roll the optics is light and quick and very easy to turn in a corner the r1 is more powerful and has a very strong torque curve which helped it accelerate very quickly the awasa factory complex has been building Yamaha latest generation of sport bikes since 1998 things here changed quickly with new R 1 and R 6 models being introduced every other year the passports allow the development of a sport bike is very difficult because as soon as a new module is ready for production you must begin designing the next model that will replace it there's one costume here each new motorcycle reflects Yamaha philosophy of making motorcycles that look good and are fun derived both white our emphasis in building sport bikes is to make them handle very well in corners and accelerate very quickly because that's the way many people like to ride [Music] but at Yamaha even the engineers are focused on dude someone can we put an emphasis on making sure riders enjoy the beauty of our motorcycles so we think it's important to study beauty and figure out ways to balance the beauty of the bikes with the performance of the bikes beauty and art shouldn't be separated from performance and efficiency and the Yamaha has that pretty clearly you look at the way their bikes flow together and the way they choose the materials even the colors right even the wheel colors and and the way they finish the fork legs they've you can see condo in those bikes I think one of the greater successes the r1 is in terms of styling because they established a look and they haven't really departed from that look ACN r1 you know it's an r1 [Applause] it takes a little more than an hour for a new r1 to complete its trip down the final assembly line inside building number one at the owada factory complex when it's finished is more than a motorcycle it's a mechanical object design a married man machine I'm five foot eight that Yamaha fits me perfectly the r1 the way the bars come back the way the fuel tank is is made and sculpted the way the seat and the foot pegs relate it just fits me just my personal I like it and different people in different sizes and different mentalities fit different bikes but isn't that a big part of the sport is what fits you what makes you feel right it makes me feel like a Grand Prix racer when I ride it [Music] the emotional or feeling side of the are one that's condo but would condo keep Yamaha successful on the racetrack the only way to find out was for Yamaha to go racing at the world championship level [Music] [Music] [Music] as the last Japanese company to get to the motorcycle business Yamaha has always used racing as a way to catch up [Music] lol muhaha Yamaha has used racing to develop its motorcycles since the beginning of the company Racing is a real-world laboratory we develop new technologies and our engineers learn from racing [Music] three American riders have played a huge role in Yamahas racing history [Music] [Applause] in 1978 kenny roberts became the first American to ever win a World Championship this is the bike and the man that cooked so many of us on motorcycle riding and sport bikes Kenny Roberts on a Yamaha YZF 500 [Music] Roberts was not only a remarkable writer he was a self-taught engineer he helped Yamaha develop a new aluminum chassis and suspension system for his race bikes he came up with the idea of using a smaller diameter tire on the front wheel compared to the back it made the bike more stable at high speeds but harder to slow down going into corners Roberts didn't seem to mind the trade-off Roberts was also on the first riders anywhere that used his need to balance a bike in a corn [Music] this guy Roberts and his bike for Yamaha put him on the map here's an American going over and winning the World Championship on Yamaha in 1983 Eddie Lawson a young rider from California joined Kenny Roberts on the Yamaha team to put them on Yamaha over there Keane with Roberts Rob Robert showed him the ropes and then Lawson just took over Eddie Lawson was known as steady Eddie he won three World Championships and set the stage for a third American named Wayne Ranney checking out Lawson's bike is an example of the progression of Yamaha and he developed that bike into something that Wayne Ranney then took on and won championships with [Applause] [Music] [Music] Wayne Ranney not only won championships but did three years in a row from 1990 to 1993 he was unbeatable winning three consecutive world titles Wayne is an amazing girl amazing like fastest guy in the world three years in a row and really someone that I tried to pattern my riding after as much as I could to whatever level I could [Music] Wayne Ranney wrote a Yamaha race bike called the yzr 500 it was wickedly fast with the emphasis on wickedly there was times a lot of times that I could ride the bike and be ahead of the bike and I was in control totally I knew exactly what the bike was going to do before it did it those four cylinder two strokes were just nasty ugly things they want to throw you off at just about any moment [Music] in the early 1990s Grand Prix bikes were notorious for being very unpredictable and how their engines delivered power you could go from 90 horsepower to an instant 150 horsepower in the Madeleine as a matter of a few hundred feet and that's where the thing exploded and that's where they were the most difficult to ride I got on Rainey's 500 and it we lead out of turn two and fourth gear and we lead in fourth gear at well over 100 miles an hour they could get away from you so easy because of that burst of horsepower after one lap I had to take a lap off I was shaking so badly my hands were so pumped up my eyes were a little bit bigger than that I was completely freaked out by it I remember telling Wayne how could you possibly ride that anywhere near anybody else how could you race anybody with that thing it was so fast a lot of the times I felt like you were riding a motorcycle that it has that didn't want to be ridden in a straight line that's for sure [Music] Oh [Music] this is Wayne Ranney favorite racetrack til a goona Seca Motor Speedway in Monterey California we're one of the top ten road courses in the world and because of its technicalities and because of its elevation changes [Music] first developed is a horse ranch in 1867 the land became Fort Ord in 1917 the US Army used it as an artillery range in 1957 local businessman bought the land and carved the racetrack through the hills but the track wouldn't stay in private hands for long it is owned now by Monterey County Park it is a park at all prices will park every day a park that would become Wayne Ranney backyard [Music] brainy bought a house and moved to Monterey just to be close to the track that's just one example of his passion for motorcycles Wayne has certainly had a tremendous impact on this facility [Music] in the mid-90s grand-prix bytes were so fast laguna seca was no longer considered a safe racetrack Wayne Ranney convinced Yamaha to fund a total renovation of the track raining in the past brought international motorcycle racing back to Laguna Seca all those that have been lucky enough to attend the Grand Prix at Laguna Seca should thank Wayne Ranney he's one who really forced it together he he he just basically browbeat y'all behind the sponsor in the deal and putting up the money to make a living to take a Grand Prix venue we needed to do about three million dollars worth of safety improvements with the riders and Yamaha was right there [Music] after months of renovations Grand Prix racing returned to Laguna Seca in 2006 [Music] it is the only international race run in a County Park stay in a loud Park and people bring their blankets and their coolers and they sit on the side of the hill and I watch racing and it really is a family affair Yamaha and rainy share a long successful history of Laguna Seca Rainey won three Grand Prix races here and after he retired turn nine was named rainy curve in his honor [Music] but right before reigning curve are turned eight and eight a known the world over as the corkscrew very challenging fragment blind corners those fast borders off-camber there's light left you could fit in Italy and listen to the Grand Prix being broadcast in Italian and they use the word corkscrew or it's that type of a of a venue and a feature [Music] the corkscrew is one of the most difficult corners on any racetrack in the world it is a blind left-hand turn followed by an immediate sharp right as the road towards 300 feet down a hill you could actually get both wheels off the ground and change direction going down the course room the corkscrew is one of those things every lap through it I don't care how fast or how slow it's always going to open your eyes and really make you take a big deep breath when they go off of it way different mindset you go on through there that is anywhere else on the track [Music] you [Music] which is such a fierce competitor he just wanted to win really really badly and so this wants and that's why the two of those got into the mob they get some pretty heated battles over the years and I guess the problem I had was I was always trying to chase the guy rainy through it so maybe the front wheel was in the air but didn't really where I wanted it to be it was the only way I could try and keep him in sight was if I we lead all the way through it Wayne Ranney and Kevin Schwantz are two of the heroes for younger generations of American motorcycle racers I looked up to guys like Wayne and Kevin Schwantz who have these incredible heated battles plus they're Americans you cheer for them they're your heroes [Music] today when professional writers tackle the goona second they always have a plan of attack to the corkscrew but amazingly when they built Laguna Seca the corkscrew wasn't planned at all it just happened one day at lunch all the blueprints were actually thrown up at the end of the day so after the bulldozers and everything is gone that therein carves their way through then they decided how the track was going to look the corkscrew happens that way we go to the top of the hill the construction boss that I'm going to lunch get down this hill any way you can the pavers are right behind you hence the most famous turn in the world supports true [Music] [Music] you're going along at 180 miles an hour and you have to brake with in less than 1.2 seconds to go down to about 60 miles an hour to take a blind left turn it hits where you see the sky it's like jumping off a six story building leave your stomach somewhere back home turn six we collected next time around the whole time you're white-knuckling you're scared and you go God will come in the rating curve when even the pros admit their scare the corkscrew you know it's a tricky corner but that's the point they built me challenging you're supposed to be racing out there not just driving around [Music] nearly six thousand miles to the west is another racetrack with a strong connection to Yamaha the difference is that this racetrack is private no one from the public ever gets in this is Yamahas private test track in suka Roy about ten miles from a monster of Japan test tracks are even more difficult than race tracks they're intentionally designed with real-world bumps and oddly shaped corners because the goal is to push new bikes to the absolute limit suka Roy what an amazing world this is this and other test tracks that manufacturers use they get a chance to take their production or pre-production motorcycles into an environment that they think they'll be used on so for instance the r1 should be tested on a race track [Music] [Music] the R 1 and R 6 were both tested at Buca right in fact since 1959 every bite Yamaha has ever made has been written here some buy factory jet riders others by Yamahas world-class racers at the Yamaha test track you had a straightaway that was just about a mile long that they would test over street bikes and the race lights I remember going down the straightaway there and they had sensors down the straightaway and they could measure trap speed acceleration speeds and it went 206 miles an hour that was back in 1990 and we thought we had a real weapon that year and in that year we did we went on to win my first world championship [Music] [Applause] what they learned to Wayne Ranney and is prototype race blacks of fukui in the early 90s played a major role in the design of the new r 1 and r 6 for bikes for street riders elenova we have a strong relationship with our racing department we share the same designers when we develop a new model we get all kinds of information including the latest racing technology [Music] the r6 frame comes straight from what Yamaha engineers have learned from racing it's strong light and remarkably compact put that all together and you have a motorcycle that really likes to carve through the corners that's great on the street but a Fuuka Roy good handling is an absolute requirement our six is a different bike I mean of any of the six hundreds race bike for the road you get on that bike the harder you ride it on the track the better it works what really strikes me every time I ride an r6 is how unbelievably quick you can go into and through corners it just the chassis is so hooked up it got so much front tire communication and that's what a rider wants at any level we would like to know what the tires are doing [Music] what's worth gruel or polycythemia cornering is the most important part of having fun on a sport bike our focus is on how fast we can go through corners and how fast we can accelerate coming out of them [Music] there is a direct link between the very first yamaha and the newest r1 + r6 [Music] that link is Yamaha dedication to condo and a design philosophy that has never changed simple rifle Oh book buff simple light compact powerful that has been our design concept from the very first motorcycle and it continues today [Music] [Applause] [Music] even when a designer's idea of beauty threatens to compromise performance Yamaha doesn't flinch okay oh my next week a night I'll give you an example imagine mr. designer creates a beautiful exhaust system but the shape reduces power when that happens we challenge our engineers to find other ways to recover the power often this requires additional effort but we want to keep the beauty [Music] they've established themselves as a style which is pretty much unlike anybody else - do you know if particularly for a Japanese manufacturer to have that kind of longevity for a design that communicates the same basic excitement from the beginning [Music] our lungs for the r-1 and the office are not the only special one Yamaha has always made motorcycles that focus on the human element we think that the R 1 and R 6 are extensions of that philosophy we have no intention of changing our way of thinking [Music] from music to motorcycles Yamaha has held true to a unique way of thinking for more than century [Music] a way of thinking in which a very old Japanese philosophy focusing on beauty and human emotions continues to impact the very latest instruments and motorcycles that bear the tuning fork logo what really defines reining in my mind and the lousiest mind is his absolute passion for racing the motorcycle his intensity and intensity just the way he rides the way he sits up on the bricks I can remember when I was racing I would try to sit up on the brake like Franny I mean that's really the way I thought about it Kevin coming out of the bubbler up on the brakes and turn the bike and goose with that intensity and that efficiency and fastest guy in the world four years in a row and really someone that I tried to pattern my riding after as much as I could

Channel: A D I

Views: 425,404

Rating: 4.6714287 out of 5

Keywords: yamaha, motors, co, company, ltd, history, story, documentary, full, channel, national, geographic, discovery, natgeo, nat, geo, hd, tv, season, sports, bike, super, superbike, 2 stroke, racing, factory, production, manufacturing, how, its, made, behind, the, scenes, motogp, wsbk, bsb, endurance, tt, isle, of, man

Id: ZrvPyA-m68g

Length: 49min 14sec (2954 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 07 2017