Yamaha XT500

The Yamaha XT500 is a twin-valve, single-cylinder enduro-adventure motorcycle that Yamaha made from 1975 until 1989. It shares its power plant with the SR500 street bike and the TT500 off-road machine, and every part, including the transmission and chassis, was built in Japan. It was shown at the US dealer convention in September 1975 and in Europe in the summer of 1976, and it was an immediate success. A 21 inch front wheel and an 18 inch rear wheel with enduro tires made it equally suited to roads and tracks. The XT500 won the early African rallies, first Paris to Abidjan to Nice and then the Paris-Dakar Rally, and Bengt Aberg rode a highly modified one to ninth in the 1977 500 cc Motocross World Championship. In France alone 62,000 were sold from 1976 to 1990. It began the long XT range, from the XT125 to the XT660Z Tenere, and helped build the Yamaha brand.