My friend Graham Head from England was the first person who started the "trick" of fitting a modern Japanese 4-cylinder 4-stroke engine in to an "old" chassis. He did this excercise already years ago.

Risto Salovaara from Finland is not afraid to try his hand on something very unusual.

Following the incredible succes of the Yamaha Grand Prix team and the World Championship of Phil Read in 1964 in the 250 cc class with the unbeatable RD56, Yamaha tossed around with the idea of making new fresh sportsbikes with a rotary valve induction system, similar to the G.P. bikes.

When Yamaha introduced the "Virago" Series of Motorcycles, Yamaha set a new standard for the generation of Japanese "soft choppers". Yamaha was of course the first Japanese maker to do so, already the XS650 was used for that purpose. We thought it therefore a good idea to commission the building of the absolute: