62 production models

65 discontinued models

history

Yamaha Motor Co. Ltd is surely one of the most popular motorcycle manufacturing companies in the world, owning an impressive number of bikes distributed all around the world. The motorcycle division of Yamaha was founded in 1955, Genichi Kawakami being the first president of the newly-founded department. During the same year, Yamaha launched its first motorcycle, the YA-1, which was equipped with a 125cc engine.

What's interesting is that Yamaha proved that its bikes are capable of providing very high performance just from its early days as the YA-1 won the 125cc class of the Mount Fuji Ascent race just after it was released. Moreover, in 1955, the company won the first three places of the All Japan Autobike Endurance Road Race in the 125cc class with the same YA-1 model.

In case you still doubt that YA-1 was a major success for Yamaha, find out that the motorcycle continued its winning series in 1956 when it was often placed on the leading positions in the Mount Fuji Ascent Race. Two years later, Yamaha entered the Catalina Grand Prix in the United States, an event which marked the debut of the company in the international racing events. The Yamaha motorcycle was placed on the 6th position.

During the same year, Yamaha's YA-2 won the prestigious “Good Design” award which underlined the fact that Yamaha's YA series provided some of the best motorcycles of that time.

The time passed by and Yamaha grew up a lot so in 1960 the Japanese company introduced its first outboard engine dubbed P-7. Moreover, one year later, Yamaha steps into World GP but also into the well-known Isle of Man TT race where it took the 6th place.

Although Yamaha recorded its first win in 1963 when the Japanese manufacturer won the Belgium GP in the 250cc class, the first major success in racing competitions came in 1964 when Yamaha gained the first manufacturer and rider titles in the same class.

Since Yamaha had an impressive growth, the company planned an impressive expansion in multiple countries of the world, mostly based on new offices and dealerships. For instance, in 1964, the company founded Siam Yamaha Co. in Thailand while 4 years later, it opened the Dutch office.

In 1970, Yamaha rolled out its first 4-stroke engine, dubbed XS1 but it also continued its impressive expansion by opening a new office in Brazil. Moreover, one year later, the company started producing motorcycles in Indonesia after it signed an agreement with Haraban Co. In 1972, the Japanese company moved its headquarters to Iwata City, the location of its current main office.

The racing competitions were pretty important for Yamaha so the Japanese company struggled to get the best results as possible. And Yamaha really managed to become one of the most important teams in most races where it participated, including the Motocross World GP where it won multiple titles. For example, Yamaha won the first manufacturer and rider title in 1977 in the 500cc class but it also continued to dominate the races the next few years.

In 1978, Yamaha opened a new R&D center in Minnesota, an office which could help the company expand its market coverage in the United States. One year later, the first results of the newly-opened center saw the daylight as Yamaha brought out the first ATV model ever released in the US, dubbed YT125.

The time passed by and Yamaha founded and opened an impressive number of offices and R&D centers in multiple locations of the world, no matter if we're talking about Portugal, Mexico, Hungary, Austria or China. Moreover, in 1999, no less than nine Yamaha Motor factories and offices won the ISO14001 certification.

In the recent few years, Yamaha continued its impressive growth but it also recorded important wins in the competitions it participated.

In 2004, Yamaha won the MotoGP rider championship title with the help of Valentino Rossi, the famous multiple MotoGP World Champion who won two titles with Yamaha. Getting back to the company's motorcycle manufacturing process, in 2007, the total number of motorcycles produced in Thailand reached 10 million units.

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