NOVEMBER 1971 SAW BOTH THE BIKE PRESS and the bike-buying public raised to fever pitch by the unveiling of a new superbike. Allegedly more potent than Honda’s CB750 of 1969, it had the potential to eclipse the world’s first, series produced, across the frame four. With liquid cooling and four cylinders, Yamaha’s GL750 also outclassed Suzuki’s recently launched GT750 triple. And, as if that wasn’t enough, the all-new bike from those upstarts at Iwata even had fuel injection. And a white seat. Coming from a firm that was a scant 15 years old, the GL was an amazing achievement and further underlined the fact Yamaha wasn’t prepared to play second fiddle to any of its arrivals irrespective of who they were.
The late 1960s had seen Yamaha striving to progress beyond what many saw as its forte – small capacity, air-cooled, two-stroke twins. Founded in 1955 with a copy of DKW’s RT 125cc stroker twin, the firm had gone on to make a 175cc version before ‘borrowing’ another German design in the guise of the very competent Adler MB250, launching the YD1. Within a couple of years the nascent motorcycle manufacturer had developed and remodelled the Adler design
