it’s all andi’s fault. he had a yamaha xt 500 – the one with the silver tank, do you remember? it even featured in a bond movie! – and i really fancied that bike. well, at least until i tried it out once. i recall standing by the roadside kicking the thing for … well for too long anyway. no automatic decompression you see.
and then there was the xt 500’s successor, the xt 550. 4 valves, overhead camshaft, 38 bhp (as much as the ktm exc 250 f !), and a cantilever rear suspension. so much technology …

yamahaxt550

i think i partly bought it because i thought i would be able to ride off-road with it, as well as using it to commute to vienna & budapest. turned out it was ok for the latter if you did not mind being half blown off the bike, but definitely useless for off-road riding. the suspension was not up to it, especially the rear, which was linear since it had no linkage and they had not figured out how to make progressive shocks back then.
i also had the wrong tyres, more for street use than for off-road riding. the number of times i hit the ground because the tires did not grip … only when i had proper cross tires on the xr 600 years later i understood the difference that could make.

the engine was quite nice and smooth, though. it was the first in the highly successful line of yamaha single cylinder four valve engines.

ugly red motorcycling dress, can’t think why i bought it.