Hmm, I'm definitely not a Yamaha icon but I was owner of an Yamaha already in 1970. 50 years ago. The little thing was an AT1, 125cc two-stroke, single cylinder. Enduro was not common in these days but I was competeing in races similar to enduro here in Sweden. I bought a tuning kit containing piston, cylinder, carburettor and exhaust pipe. What I didn't know was that the tuning kit brought more power but the torque in the lower revs disappeared totally. Torque was what was needed in the terrain. That fact gave me a lesson. 21" front wheel was mounted in a Ceriani front fork... In the winters the little one was equipped with studs for rally car tyres. Big fun on icey roads!

In these days I was working in a shop and workshop for the early 70s Yamahas. The bikes arrived in cardboard boxes and my work was to mount everything to make them ready for the streets. After some miles the usual services. The most popular ones were the 125 twins AS 3. We also delivered the twins RD 350 and later the four-stroke twins XS 650.

In 1970 - 1973 I was travelling with road racer Borje Jansson to take care of his Yamaha TD2 and the odd one, a Yamasaki 250. A TD2 engine bought in spare parts in Germany. The engine was mounted in a Kawasaki A1R frame and Börje used that bike in the Lightweight TT 1971.

Now the circle is complete. I'll soon buy a used Yamaha DT 125 from 1983 and that will end my Yamaha story.