The Yamaha XS, the best engine that Norton never made

Auto Motor Klassiek » Special » The Yamaha XS, the best engine that Norton never made
Purchasing classics there

The Yamaha XS, the best engine that BSA Norton never made other jumps

The comment about the XS and BSA was made a while ago. As a little mean joke about the lost British motorcycle industry. Such a Yamaha XS could just as well have been a Brit in its entire appearance. He weighed a bit more, the first series did not excel in terms of handling, but still: An 650 cc twin with the lever taps at 360 degrees. That was quite English in the eyes of many people.

What if the British motorcycle industry had come onto the market with such a reliable twin?

Well. Then that would have been a postponement of execution, because the era of the four-cylinder had arrived anyway. But that the British were very interested in the Yamaha XS? That was apparent from the information we received through XS enthusiast / connoisseur Fried Anepool.

From that information it appeared that Norton was busy experimenting with an XS 650 that was fitted with isolastic engine suspension. The study was unable to save Norton. We thank Fried for the images.

More last attempts

Made fights in the context of the same rear-guard Triumph still the Quadrant. Where the Trident was one and a half twin, the Quadrant was a four-cylinder based on the Trident. But partly because the Quadrant was just another push rod engine, that was not a success either.

The BSATriumph Fury / Bandit never made it either. The beautiful, 350 cc twin with - yes - double overhead camshafts (and a disc brake) should have been a 'Nippon beater'. But it never entered production and was therefore never able to prove whether it could compete with the 350 cc Hondas. The DOHC machines were actually developed by the legendary and difficult Edward Turner, who took up the challenge after his retirement. Turner reported to the enthusiastic US market that his latest project was nearly production-ready.

And with that, the man once again overwhelmed his hand enormously

There were - as is often the case with his designs - some things that demanded attention in his design. For example, he clung to the Old School idea that a crankshaft would suffice for two bearings. The engine against which the Bandit / Fury had to compete, the 350 cc Honda twin, which had a crankshaft mounted four times.

Turner and Hopwood were not friends

And there was Bert Hopwood, the chief designer of BSA Triumph smarten up the fumes. He saw Turner as a megalomaniac crazy and declared the project as a bad design. During tests, the engine blocks broke down in many different but equally convincing ways. And if Hopwood had anything to do with it from a pure fool? Turner assumed that Hopwood would make production of the new twins from pure harassment two years. Hopwood set Doug Hele to work to teach Turner's mental children to walk. And Hele could have succeeded. If he had had more time. But the 'new' Bandit / Fury was put on the market again too early. Yet the engine was certainly not bad at that time.

Nearly over …

While BSATriumph staggered towards ruin, it missed the start of the season for the all-important American market. However, BSATriumph in page big ads for the new twins. But in the spring of 1971 the group was too busy with creditors, banks and strikes. And the new twins were deleted from the program.

 

And a Scrambler was also provided

REGISTER FOR FREE AND WE'LL SEND YOU OUR NEWSLETTER EVERY DAY WITH THE LATEST STORIES ABOUT CLASSIC CARS AND MOTORCYCLES

Select other newsletters if necessary

We won't send you spam! Read our privacy policy for more information.

If you like the article, please share it...

A reaction

  1. They are always nice pieces to read the first Yamaha 650 we said it is a moving vibrator
    Which caused an oil pipe to the head piece to shake and oil to leak, causing him to smoke
    and smelly because the oil burned on both cylinder & head this often left the mechanical damage
    (Limited) I then ordered a new one, sawed it through and placed an oil-resistant high-pressure pipe
    between what never gave any more problems.
    But with Yamaha this was solved quickly
    Furthermore, a problem-free bicycle

Give a reaction

The email address will not be published. Required fields are marked with *

Maximum file size of upload: 8 MB. You can upload: afbeelding. Links to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other services inserted in the comment text will be automatically embedded. Drop files here