Help me figure out what I saw

I was riding with some friends the other day and stopped for a bite at Hardee's...and became aware of a bike that had showed up after we got there.

I was sitting there looking out the window trying to identify it, but coming up blank (which doesn't happen too much to me). I knew it was a Yamaha, because it had the same wheels as my Maxim, or very close.

But looking at it nearly head-on, I couldn't make sense of the engine layout.

I went out and had a look, and to my surprise, despite styling cues that were very 70's UJM, it sported a 920 Virago-type motor, with an enclosed chain (!)...first one of those I remember seeing...

I went back in and found the owner, and asked him what it was...he told me, but the guy really seemed like one of those dicks who rides a weird bike and thinks that makes him better than you (like some of the old airhead BMW riders), so I didn't feel like talking to him any further, and I forgot what he said it was...but I do remember he said he bought it new in 1975, which seems right for the styling, but was before the Virago engine ever came out, that I am aware of anyway...

He did say it was rare, only produced a couple of years in limited numbers...

Any guesses?

You didn't happen to get pic of it did you Larry?

In 1975, I can only find 3 road bikes Yamaha offered , the RD250, XS650 and TX750 all of which were vertical twins. I show no record of any Yamaha built v-twin street bike prior to the introduction of the Virago in 1981. What the guy had was probably some cobbled multi-model abomination. Yamaha never offered the Virago with chain drive, so the engine/trans may have come out of some Yamaha race bike from back in the day that he fit into an old XS/TS chassis.

You didn't happen to get pic of it did you Larry?

In 1975, I can only find 3 road bikes Yamaha offered , the RD250, XS650 and TX750 all of which were vertical twins. I show no record of any Yamaha built v-twin street bike prior to the introduction of the Virago in 1981. What the guy had was probably some cobbled multi-model abomination. Yamaha never offered the Virago with chain drive, so the engine/trans may have come out of some Yamaha race bike from back in the day that he fit into an old XS/TS chassis.

I found it....either I heard him wrong, or he was misfiring about when he bought it. It was a 1981 XV920R, red w/ cafe fairing just like this pic

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamaha_XV920R

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7d/1981_XV920R.jpg/250px-1981_XV920R.jpg

The enclosed chain drive was very unique...I can't think of any other bike with that....

Sounds kind of like a Yamaha version of an XL1000CR...ahead of it's time, didn't sell well, sought after for collector value now :iceslolan

http://www.bikez.com/pictures/harley-davidson/1978/15076_0_1_2_xlcr%201000%20cafe%20racer_Submitted%2 0by%20anonymous%20user..jpg

A lot of those older cafe style bikes didn't sell well. The styling was a little ahead of their time like you said. I like that one, it's pretty neat, eerily similar to the Harley XL you also show.

A lot of those older cafe style bikes didn't sell well. The styling was a little ahead of their time like you said. I like that one, it's pretty neat, eerily similar to the Harley XL you also show.

Bike magazines back in the early to mid-1970's made many predictions that the next trend in bikes (in North America) was the affordable cafe-racer style (analogous to our sportbikes).

By the mid to late '70's. we were all supposed to be riding them. Some makers, like BMW and Harley (as noted above) floated some models to fit this anticipated demand.

Of course, the demand did not appear for another 10+ years, so these early sportbikes simply did not sell.

"The enclosed chain drive was very unique...I can't think of any other bike with that"

No such thing as "very unique" - how much more unique can one unique thing be than another unique thing?

Enclosed chain drive is not unique at all. Harley has run enclosed chain final drives, likewise I think Kawi's big thumper line. Uncommon but not unheard of earlier.

One of my bikes is an airhead - our bikes aren't weird, but that doesn't mean we are not better than you anyway.

Kee-rist - just not stopping at Hardees makes us better than you.

"The enclosed chain drive was very unique...I can't think of any other bike with that"

No such thing as "very unique" - how much more unique can one unique thing be than another unique thing?

Enclosed chain drive is not unique at all. Harley has run enclosed chain final drives, likewise I think Kawi's big thumper line. Uncommon but not unheard of earlier.

One of my bikes is an airhead - our bikes aren't weird, but that doesn't mean we are not better than you anyway.

Kee-rist - just not stopping at Hardees makes us better than you.

An alternate and accepted definition of unique is "unusual", as in "Very unique" and "Fairly unique", both given as examples in Merriam Webster Dictionary.

And Hardee's is spelled with an apostrophe, as long as we're going to be asshat grammar nazis.:biggrin:

Glad you know a lot about motorcycles. Drop the attitude, and someone might even give a damn....

Anyway...I'm glad you brought up Harley....I didn't remember seeing any enclosed chains before, but have been reading about the FXRT.

http://www.motorcyclespecs.co.za/model/h-d/harley_davidson_fxrt_1340_sport_glide.htm

You're not the first, nor will you be the last to deal with FNA's attitude Larry. I agree that he'd get a lot more responses if he'd drop the "holier than thou" attitude, as it's obvious he has knowledge.