Classic Bike Magazine November 2016 Zurück Ausgabe

YAMAHA SPEED BLOCK ICONS
We’d all read about Kenny Roberts in the American magazines, but the first time we saw him race was during the 1974 Trans-Atlantics. He and Yamaha US team-mate Gene Romero came to Britain armed with their TZ750s two characters as colourful as their yellow and black Yamahas. The speed block livery wasn’t new by then, but it felt special seeing them rip round our own back yards at Brands, Mallory and Oulton as if they raced there every weekend. Kenny became King and the yellow and black speed blocks became an iconic emblem that helped to define ’70s motorcycle sport, in road racing, dirt track and motocross. Yamaha used the speed block imagery to market its road bikes, and specials builders worldwide continue to faithfully recreate the famous racing livery to this day. So the memory of that fantastic era of racing will continue to burn as brightly as those buzzin’ bees did in the ’70s. Hope you have as much fun reading the issue as we did creating it.