CarBrandLogos archive · Yamaha · 1976

YamahaXT500

The big four-stroke single that won the first two Paris-Dakar rallies.

Photo: Reinhard Wolf, Talstraße 13, 63128 Dietzenbach. · CC BY-SA 2.0 de

The story

A defining chapter in Yamaha history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Yamaha XT500, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

In the mid-1970s the large-capacity four-stroke single looked finished — a format associated with pre-war British trail bikes, abandoned in favour of multi-cylinder engines and two-strokes. Yamaha revived it in 1976 with the XT500: a 499cc air-cooled single with a single overhead camshaft and a five-speed gearbox, in a dual-purpose chassis with long-travel suspension and no electric start, so riders had to learn the kickstarting drill and respect the compression.

1976 Yamaha XT500 · Reinhard Wolf, Talstraße 13, 63128 Dietzenbach. · CC BY-SA 2.0 de

Design and engineering

The appeal was torque and simplicity. It would pull from almost nothing, it was light enough to pick up when it fell over, and there was very little on it to go wrong a long way from a workshop. That combination made it the bike that effectively created the trail and adventure category, and the flat-track TT500 variant became a fixture in American racing.

In production

Its defining moment came in the desert. The first Paris-Dakar rally was run in 1979 and was won by Cyril Neveu on an XT500; he won again in 1980 on the same machine. Two victories in the toughest event in motorcycling, on a plain air-cooled single, established both the rally and the idea that a big trail bike could be a serious long-distance tool.

Legacy

Production ran to 1989, and the line continued through the XT550, XT600 and XT660. Yamaha's later Ténéré models — named for the desert the Dakar crossed — are the direct descendants.

At a glance