On the way to the future: The Yamaha DS6.
250-350 cc engines were once serious, medium engines. And two-stroke engines were completely the future. For Yamaha, that future was very promising.
Yamaha scored its two-stroke success according to a well-known approach: Race on Sunday, sale on Monday with the Yamaha DS6, among others.
The 250-350 cc Yamaha two-strokes for regular customers were therefore very close to the machines where the brand with tuning forks went so often on the circuits.
The Yamaha DS6 was no longer a copied DKW or Adler clone. The Japanese had learned the trick and perfected it. The engine scored on looks, reliability and - not unimportantly in the time that everyone drove full throttle - speed.
On a DS6 you were usually faster than on an 650 cc English twin.
And the time when you could find such Japanese classics stacked on every motorcycle run?
It is really over.
The Yamaha DS6 story is in the September issue of AMK.