Ducati Falcon 80

This is a brochure for the Ducati Super Falcon 80 Sport. The regular Falcon was a fan-cooled 50cc and was definitely advertised in the U.S. in 1963. I am not sure what years the Super Falcon was imported; however this brochure appears to be from 1964. There probably was a regular, less sporty Falcon, too, but I am not sure if it was imported, and if it was, I have never seen one.

This particular little Ducati tiddler was one of the last of its type that the company tried, generally unsuccessfully, to market here in the early Sixties. The little beastie was thrown to the wolves who had names such as Super 90, Rotary Jet 80, and many others. The Honda offered four-stroke technology and sound surrounded by reliability you couldn't kill with a stick. The little Yamaha went like stink off the line with sleek bodywork and big-bike feel. By the time Yamalube was introduced in '64 and Suzuki, Kawasaki, Bridgestone, and Hodaka were hammering the Super Falcon with speed, modern styling, and exotic features, the Little Duck had little choice but to waddle back to Italy and stay there.

The Super Falcon offered traditional big-bike styling with its 18-inch wheels, tube frame, and grown-up suspension system. It is a shame that it had to be saddled with a left-hand, three-speed shifter on the handlebar like an Allstate Cruisaire! I guess the company figured that at least this way it did not have to meet the usual American resistance to a right-side foot shifter. The horsepower is not stated on this brochure, but its Falcon 50cc little brother was claimed to have 4.2 horsepower. The top speed was listed as 50-55, putting it closer to the YG-1 than the S-90 in this respect. The weight is listed as 125, twenty pounds less than a Honda Sport 50! I am sure part of that is due to the magneto ignition and primitive lighting. There was no oil injection on this model. I do not know if the Super Falcon was ever continued into production with oil injection, but I doubt it, at least not in the USA. By 1967 there would be a 100cc Mountaineer trail version that looked very similar to this 80 Sport. The solo saddle, luggage rack, tank, and fenders were practically the same. My best guess is that the four-stroke Bronco 125 would soon be the littlest Duck sold here.

Ducati wasn't the only Italian company building a plethora of two-stroke tiddlers in the Sixties, but the name turned out to be the one that would carry its glory into the present day. The story might have been very different if the Italians had been competing only with Allstate, BSA, and Harley-Davidson for a share of the novice motorcycle market. We are all too familiar with the invasion that signed their death warrant, and as these things go, it is probably just as well. You cannot stop technological progress. Old-world style usually gets trampled in such a situation. In this case, it was run over by a horde of buzzing speed bunnies outfitted in candy colors and chrome accompanied by a stampede of purring Cubs as reliable as refrigerators. Now we can all amaze our grandchildren with stories of the Ducatis we owned as kids that cost only a few hundred American dollars, brand new! Nah... they will never believe us.

See Also: Ducati Diana
Ducati 250 Scrambler

Seeking Quality Scrambler Photos

To celebrate the Tenth Anniversary of Tiddlerosis, the time has finally come for me to publish a book on the subject. It will actually be the Eleventh Anniversary by the time the book could possibly be published, but that is beside the point. I have been mulling over this concept virtually since the founding of the website, and I think the time has finally arrived. However, there is one hugely important variable that has been keeping the project on the back burner all this time: the availability of appropriate, high-quality photos. Many of the brands involved have literally been out of business for decades. At the very least, my (and our) interest is in machines that have been out of production for more than a quarter-century. To add insult to injury, some of us are aware that many of these same companies, although they may still be thriving and producing motorcycles, care very little for the preservation of their own past product histories.

A few weeks ago I had an idea that could possibly make it to production. I decided that what I need to do to satisfy my own lust for these ancient tiddlers, doing my part in the preservation of their historic accomplishments in the process, is to limit my book to my favorite, and one of the most popular, of these classic motorcycles, the Honda Scramblers. If I decide to proceed with this project, it will be a compilation of material on all the Honda Scramblers of 1962-1975. For purposes of satisfying my need to create smooth chronological material, I plan to open the book with the C110 and S65. Of course I know they are not true Scramblers in the CL sense, but the 1960 introduction of the 50cc C110 precedes the 1962 intro of the CL-72 and the 1969 intro of the CL-70. This plan will allow me to outline a smoother transition from early to late and small to large instead of starting in the middle as the actual machine releases did. Many of us as kids began our fascination with upswept exhaust pipes with the C110 and I want to document that nostalgic element of history.

I recently contacted an old college buddy of mine who is now retired, but he worked for American Honda in the motorcycle mechanics division for many years. He relayed the sad story to me of how he personally participated in the destruction of large quantities of printed material on the classic machines that fascinate us both. He also assured me that if there are any digital copies of these materials still around, that Honda would not tell anybody, much less cooperate with an archivist writer interested in re-publishing this material. Although I sent an official, printed request to American Honda several weeks ago, I am not holding my breath for a reply. Back as early as the late '60's and early '70's, I had always heard that Honda, nor any of the others among the Big Four, gave a Snuff-or-Not about preserving the history of machines the companies no longer produced. I would love to have Honda's cooperation on this project, but if I can't, there is an alternative.

This book must contain the required photos or it loses most of its appeal. One of the reasons I want to do it now is that the Kindle Fire has recently been released. This means that for the first time, color photos can be enjoyed in an e-book format by a significant number of readers. The print version will probably have to remain in B&W purely due to cost considerations, but anyone who wants to view the book on a Kindle Fire or any PC with the free Kindle software installed can buy the color version. The release of a B&W Kindle version and a color print version will be considered, at least, anyway, as will other e-book versions. When I released my most recent book that included photos, Ker-Splash 2: The High Performance Powerboat Book, in 2010, only the B&N Nook Color and the Kindle for PC were available. so that book, with 135 B&W photos is available only in B&W for the Kindle. The Honda Scrambler book I would like to compose would be very similar to Ker-Splash 2 in format and design. Limiting the Tiddlerosis book only to the Honda Scramblers will probably bring the size and price of the B&W print version down a bit from that of Ker-Splash 2.

The big question now is, Can I Acquire the photos I need? You can help. If you have one of these machines, or even photos of an example you used to own, and you would like to see your bike in a book, send your best shots to me. You must clearly own the copyright of the photo and give me permission to publish it. I shall, of course, give you full credit for any photo used in the book, and when appropriate, even add comments about you or your particular machine. Now take a deep breath because here comes the hard part. I spent literally hundreds, if not thousands, of hours sorting, selecting, and modifying the 135 photos in Ker-Splash 2. The photos need to be of high quality, high resolution, and bright, colorful, focused, and clear. The photo of the CL-200 shown above is a good example. I cropped and changed the digital file size before posting it here. The glare is a little bright on the Honda emblem on the gas tank, but otherwise this is a nicely appropriate shot. The great majority of what I would like to publish are straight-on side shots displaying the upswept exhaust pipe side of the bike. The less background clutter the better, although you can see the owner of this 1974 beauty carefully posed it with the classic signs. The list of models to be included are the: C110, Sport 65, CL-70, CL-90, CL-100, CL-125 (both single and twin), CL-160, CL-175, CL-200, CL-72, CL-77, CL-350, and CL-450. As much as possible, I want the book to reflect an American Honda perspective. I am not saying that no photos of European, Canadian, or Asian models will be accepted, but I would like to avoid that road as much as possible. The Scramblers were essentially an American phenomenon and I want to reflect that perspective in the book.

If I receive enough response to go ahead with the project, I shall. If not, I am afraid it will sadly die. Although I have plenty of material and ideas for the text of the book, I have difficulty envisioning it without photos of the classic machines I am discussing. The tone of the book will include lots of nostalgia, model identifications and descriptions, and of course, as many appropriate photos as I can acquire. You can contact me directly at ice9 at nctv dot com or by posting a comment on this post. Thank you for your support. Now who's interested in showing off his classic Honda Scrambler?

Questions, Questions, Questions

The closeup photo shown is the same machine as this one, in case you want to see a wider shot. This is a fully restored 1963 Honda CL-72. As we all know, the CL-72 was extremely similar to its bigger brother, the CL-77. In recent days I have had time to work on some of the details of my Scrambler and Super Sport Charts. The main issue I would like to hammer down to the final truth concerns the production details of the CL-72, although my research has led me to change a number of details on other scramblers and the Hawks, too. I ask that all of my interested readers go over to the charts and carefully notice the changes I have made. Be sure to read the notes below the charts, too. You can comment on this post or the chart posts if you have information to add or you are at least relatively certain there is a correction that I should make.

The Honda ID Guide and other sources are fairly clear about most of the issues. Honda introduced the Hawk to America in early 1961 and the Super Hawk followed two months later. It is very clear that the original CL-72 Scrambler was exactly as described in the ID Guide, but the pictures and text I have in my collection of contemporary print sources show some wild and crazy variations in later model years. I have the brochures for 1962, 1963, 1964, and 1968. I do not have them for the years '65 through '67, and that is the origin of my problem. Since these were ordinary, best-selling machines, there were minimal road tests or ads printed back in the day, particularly for the middle production years. The Hawk continued alongside the Super Hawk, but the CL-77 replaced the CL-72. The questions I have concern the transition between these two models.

(1) Did the CL-72 cease production in 1965 as soon as the CL-77 was released?

(2) Did all of the CL-72 production have aluminum alloy fenders? Should these be clearly distinguishable in B&W photos as being shinier than the silver paint on the gas tank, yet duller than chrome?

(3) Did all of the CL-72 production have 7-inch SLS front brakes, and I assume, painted steel lower fork legs?

(4) Were any CL-72's built with the bolt-on single muffler attached?

(5) Did all CL-72's have slotted chain guards?

(6) Were any CL-72's sold in late '65 or early '66 and titled as 1966 models?

(7) Did all the early CL-77's of 1965 have silver-painted steel fenders, painted steel lower front fork legs, and 7-inch SLS brakes? Did these latter two items extend into the 1966 model year?

(8) Did all of the CL-77 models have the slotted chain guard? According to the Honda ID Guide, the earliest models, at least, did have it.

(9) During exactly what time period were the CL-77 mufflers welded to the upper pipe and slipped onto the lower one?

(10) Were any CL-77's built with the original paint scheme and chrome fenders?

Rex Como Deluxe

This is one of those rare tiddlers for which I happened to have requested a brochure from the U.S. distributor back in one of those few years in which it was imported. Not only have I never seen a Como Deluxe, but I have never seen any Rex model, including its sportier brother, the KL-35. The photo is a scan of the small, B&W, 8.5 x 5.5-inch brochure.

The Rex brand in general, and the top two models in particular, are interesting in their unusual design. These were referred to as Economy Motorcycles in the brochure. They were built in Munich, West Germany, and the importer was located in Salt Lake City, of all places, not exactly an East Coast checkpoint! Of course my brochure may have come from the western distributor and there was actually a P.O.E. for Rex on the Eastern Seaboard, but my brochure calls the SLC office the U.S. and Canadian distributor. Rex offered five 50cc models, and nothing larger, as far as I know. Note, however, that this Rex is not to be confused with several other makers of larger motorcycles under the same brand name, but different companies. A Motorbike Kit for $99.95 was the entry-level machine. It is not clear from the brochure if the bicycle was included in the price. The one pictured looks like a standard, three-speed, English touring type of the day. Next up was the Piccolo Moped for $199 that made the Allstate Moped look like a roguish escapee from The Wild One. In other words, it, too, was little more than a glorified bicycle. The Monaco Moped was a close facsimile to the Allstate Moped. The top of the line was the KL-35 for $349 with its twin carbs and twin exhausts on a single-cylinder 50. That's why it deserved the Tiddlerosis treatment long before the Como!

Let's talk Como, shall we? The KL-35 screamed out 4.4 horsepower with its silly dual accoutrements on a single cylinder two-stroke, but the Como makes do with 3.6. With its 155-pound curb weight, I wouldn't challenge any Honda Sport 50's to a drag race, and you may want to avoid a girl driving a Cub, too. The three-speed hand shift is not exactly sporting, either, but you can lift your nose in the air when you tell them your Como has an Earles front suspension design, just like you-know-who. The white paint job also sports hand pinstriping just like the famous snotbrand, too. The handlebars and frame are pressed steel on the Como, just like on a Honda Cub, and the chain is fully enclosed, but you can see the tank is up front. It is puzzling why this one holds only 1.5 gallons when the one on the KL-35 holds 2.9. That space between the tank and seat seem totally unnecessary. The engines on the KL-35 and Como are fan-cooled. Both models were obviously trying to offer German quality and detail in a smaller machine. $309 for the Como in 1962 pushed its price above even the Honda Sport 50. Is it any wonder that this is a very rare tiddler?

See also: Rex KL-35

Suzuki Savage

The Suzuki Savage was a dual-purpose machine of a different nature from the previously discussed Allstate Cheyenne. Although the Savage was a much later and better designed dirt bike, it was far from the best of its day. Whereas the Cheyenne was far too spindly and weak to be effective in the dirt, the Savage was a deluxe porker of the opposite persuasion.

When Yamaha set the trail riding world on fire with the introduction of its DT-1 in 1968, all the competing brands scrambled to copy it. Suzuki joined the trail revolution with the Savage in 1969. The brochure shown here is the 1970 model in red. The Savage came in two colors, red and green, and only the tank was painted either color. The TS-250 would continue in the Suzi lineup for over a decade, but the Savage name was applied only to the early models. Suzuki sought to chase the high-sales models of Honda and Yamaha with additional features, flashy styling and finishes, and more than acceptable prices. The Savage was no exception to this marketing ploy, showing off polished engine cases, chrome fenders, and turn signals. The enduro model had 23 horsepower, but a kit was a available to up that to 31 hp. Residing in a muddy area in those heady days, I always liked the really high front fender and wished a lot more brands would raise the front fenders on all their enduro models. The 3:25 x 19 front tire gives the bike a chunky look.

A Savage of this vintage has always been relatively rare. I have seen only a few in my lifetime. Yamaha pretty much owned the two-stroke market in enduro-type machines in those days. Of course Honda sold a zillion of its early, heavy, and slow, but very quiet and very reliable, Motosports and XL singles. However, the wide array of enduro models designed and sold by Kawasaki and Suzuki produced only moderate fires out the showroom doors. Many motocrossers from Suzuki became exceedingly popular in wild spurts of dirt-throwing competition, but the Kaws were rarely able to meet the Suzis head to head on the track or the showroom floor. The word on the trail was that the trim and agile Yamaha Enduros generally left the heavier Kaws and Suzis in their dust. Kawasaki was destined to be more successful with its high performance street bikes. Suzuki would put a lot of effort into the development of their TM, and later RM, motocrossers, eleminating trail-hugging weight and improving suspensions. Just looking at a photo of one of these early Savage models takes me back to an era of trail riding innocence. The Savage will always be overlooked in the motorcycle history books, sandwiched between the exquisitely designed Yamaha Enduros that unleashed the explosion and the ponderous, but likable, Honda Motosports.

See also: Suzuki Sport 80
Allstate Cheyenne
Yamaha DT-1
Honda Motosport
Suzuki TS-250 Model History

Allstate Cheyenne

Back about 2005 I needed to clear some stuff out of my garage prior to a move so my wife and I staged a garage sale. Probably the best deal I offered to the browsers was my 1960 Allstate Sport 60. I had purchased this machine back about 1967-68 from a dealer for $60. At the time I bought it, the little bike was running, but it severely needed a complete tuneup, polishing, and a lot of TLC. I removed the headlight because I thought it was ugly and fastened the speedo, wrapped in foam rubber, to the bare fork assembly with a homemade bracket. Although the machine only had about 3000 miles on it, the seat cover had already been replaced with a dark brown one that always looked just a bit funky. The front fender had a dent in it and mounted too close to the tire to suit me, so I removed it and sold it to a friend to mount on another machine. Like the rest of that rolling technological anachronism, I could never understand why the rear fender was high enough to navigate a swamp without clogging, yet the low-mounted front would lock up at the mere sight of mud. The red paint was a little faded, but otherwise my Sport 60 looked clean enough. Oh yeah, one last slab of funk was a Honda 50 (C100/102) exhaust pipe welded onto the mid-rise header pipe. Who knows why the original pipe had already been discarded so callously, but we all know these little Sears Rowbutt bikes got little respect back in those days! Some teenage punk (me) ran the little beastie without oil in the clutch a few decades ago and trashed it. Instead of fixing it, I just parked it in one garage after another until some lucky soul stuffed it into the back of his station wagon for the princely sum of only $10!

I owned a C-100 in the mid-sixties, but I always lusted after a better trail bike. One of the leading contenders was the Allstate Cheyenne. I was fully aware of its Sport 60 heritage, but the black paint and knobby tires looked immeasurably better than the red Sport 60 with its sky-high rear fender over the skinniest rear tire with street tread this side of a Schwinn. I studied the Cheyenne in the Sears catalog and I even have a brochure of it, as pictured here. When Sears began unloading the last of their Cheyennes from the Sears Auto Centers for a measly $199.95, I went bananas for one, but that didn't make me a chimp with a dirt bike. Since I usually carried about 85 cents around in my pocket at the time, even that pitiful sum was beyond my budget. All I could do was to periodically visit the Sears Auto Center and stare longingly at what I would one day discover was a lousy trail bike!

I am not sure exactly which Allstate model years included the Sport 60 or the Cheyenne, but an approximation would be maybe 1959 or '60 through 1964 for the Sport 60 and 1965-67 for the Cheyenne. If anyone has any more accurate information, let me know and I shall update these years. According to the brochures I have, the Sport 60 was offered in black at one time, too, but I have never seen one. The Cheyenne may have been geared lower because its top speed is listed as only 37 mph, whereas the Sport 60 was claimed to scream up to 47! Interestingly, the machines are listed at almost the same weight of 140 and 141, with the Sport as the heavier! To my eyes, the spindly Sport 60 has always looked lighter. The biggest difference between the two models are the tires and wheels. The Sport 60 used the Moped's 2.25 x 23's and the Cheyenne had much more appropriate 2.50 x 19-inch knobbies. Both models were powered by 4.5 mice desperately peddling in the engine room protected by a skid plate. The archaic leather strap that held down the gas tank of both models was a nice touch. Hand-painted gold pin striping on the black fenders of the Cheyenne (and some Sport 60's) added a delicate European flair and unlike many much more modern Japanese tiddlers of the day, at least these bikes had proper front and rear suspension components. Enough of the faint praise, let's hit the dirt!

Since I have not actually ridden a Cheyenne, I shall have to extrapolate the experience from my Sport 60. The first thing you noticed was that unless you had the legs of a giraffe (as I do), the 31-inch seat height was a bit much. Of course later motocrossers would be built for giraffes, too, but at least those were competent, exciting machines. These two clowns were worse than tiddlers; they were piddlers. You could adjust the footpeg height and position in a 360-degree arc. I'm not sure exactly who would want to do this, but you could, nonetheless. The crossbrace handlars were a bit too high and way too narrow. The seat on the Cheyenne was a little sportier in style than that of the Sport 60, but they both were way too narrow, with too much leg reach down to the adjustable footpegs. Don't ask me why the Cheyenne received a road-racing style seat design to go with its crossbrace bars and knobby tires, but like many of its other features, this is precisely why a Cheyenne is interesting today. You might call it The Edsel Factor. The skinny tires, tall seat, and narrow bars made you feel like Miss Priss on her girl's bicycle, but worst of all, with a couple of well-toned legs, she could probably outrun you on her Schwinn! The three-speed footshift was on the left like the Japanese machines and the clutch was very light. The shift throw was so long that the engineers probably thought the rider needed to tailor that footpeg position to perfection to avoid injured ankles! Once you got balanced upon the tall, skinny machine, your next job was to try to keep those mice peddling at their maximum levels just to keep up with the Honda 50 accompanying you on your pleasure cruise through the dirt and mean streets of small town America. Since I owned a Honda 50 at the same time, I can tell you which one was always ahead, and it didn't come from Sears & Rowbutt!

See Also: Allstate History
Allstate Compact
Allstate Moped
Allstate Scrambler
Allstate SR 125

1961-63 Yamaha 125 YA-5

Boy, has this post been a long time coming! I have been researching this rare classic for months. Here is the story. I became a Yamaha fan as soon as I learned of the brand. The problem I have is that I cannot be certain when that occurred, but I think it was in early 1962. I remember going down to the local Yamaha shop and drooling over the YDS-2 and Ascot Scrambler. I am not sure if I have even seen a YA-5, ever. As you may know, the tiddler I have held onto since about 1973 is a '71 AT-1CMX, but I am not certain if I have seen a Yamaha 125 earlier than the Santa Barbara introduced in '64. What I have is a number of brochure sheets of the early 125's and the one shown here is the first one I acquired. I have always assumed that this is a 1962 model, but it could be a '61, and maybe even a '63. I know for certain that Yamaha built this model in those three years only, but the brochures I have are quite confusing. None lists a model year, but I have attempted to match the style and design of the brochures with those of other Yamaha models of the period. Let's just assume that the YA-5 pictured is a 1962 brochure.

What makes this model so important is that the very first Yamaha motorcycle was the YA-1 released in 1955. Derived from the DKW 125 as part of World War II reparations, the YA-1 looked quite a bit different from its direct descendant pictured here. The YA-1 had a triangular tube frame similar to the early American Harley tiddlers of the same period, also derived from the DKW. The YA-1 featured simple spring suspension on the front and plunger shocks on the rear. Yamaha also distinguished its model from the DKW and the Harleys with a four-speed transmission. Like the Harleys, the footshift and the kickstarter were on the left. This pattern would continue until the YA-6 Santa Barbara was introduced in 1964. The YA-1 also featured long, skinny fenders, a bulbous headlamp nacelle, a teardrop tank, a solo, tractor-style seat, a painted luggage rack, and a conventional carburetor. In other words, the first Yamaha appeared similar to the H-D Hummer and Allstate 125 of the same period. The YA-1 continued into 1956 in either black or maroon (like several Allstate models).

Yamaha broke out of the copycat styling mode in 1957 with the YA-2 looking like some weird Japanese perception of what an ultra-modern motorcycle should look like. The YA-2 had a pressed steel frame and a swoopy-odd gas tank shape that was curved into a slightly upside down U-shape along its bottom edge. The tires and fenders were now much fatter and the chrome handlebars were as flat as those of pressed steel on some early Hondas. The luggage rack and seat took on a more modern shape, and a fully enclosed chain guard and turn signals were added. The YA-2 continued through 1958 and became the YA-3 for 1959-60. The only change I have been able to ascertain from the few photos available is that the YA-3 received a passenger grab bar behind the solo seat and in front of the luggage rack. Maybe it was there to aid putting the bike on the centerstand? Maybe a pillion attached to the rack was optional? I also have a photo of a YA-3 with a conventional dual seat and a high-mounted front fender! Figure that one out. After extensive research, I have never found any evidence of the existence of a YA-4. If anyone knows otherwise, please make a comment about it.

This brings us to the vaunted YA-5. The main reason so much of this information is questionable and difficult to find is that this time period is precisely when the company was establishing a national beachhead in the U.S. I understand that Yamaha entered its first American race on Catalina Island in 1959 before setting up its first dealer network in California. This is about the time the first Honda dealers were set up in California and Yamaha was at least a few months, maybe longer, behind this time schedule. I am sure of my first memory of a Yamaha dealership in Columbus MS, where I saw the YDS-2 and Ascot, dating that year as 1962. What I am not certain about is where, or when, I got the Yamaha brochure pictured here. I think I ordered it from the Yamaha U.S. distributor in California, but I probably did not have an address to do that before I bought my first copy of Cycle World in August 1962. What we know is that you could buy a Yamaha from a dealership in obscure little Columbus MS by 1962. My YG-1 was one of the first Rotary Jet 80's to arrive at that same dealership about a year later. What we don't know is exactly when the first Yamaha dealerships were set up in California, and then in big cities outside the state. I found at least one source that stated a few YA-3's were imported here, but I am not sure I have ever seen a YA-5, much less a YA-3! To be safe, left's say the YA-5 was one of the first Yamahas brought to the U.S., along with the lowly 50cc MF-1, and possibly a few 250cc YD-2 road models and the beginnings of the 250 Sports, the YDS-1. I can speak from experience when I say that small Mississippi dealer sold YD-3's and MF-1's, but I do not think the YDS-1, YD-2, or YA-3 ever reached national U.S. distribution.

The YA-5 captures that magical time in tiddler history when the Japanese invasion was exciting and new. Electric starters were all the rage, and the new YA-5 had one, although as I have said many times before, my cat can kickstart most any two-stroke tiddler. Notice the tiny turn signals the YA-5 had. Remember that the popular early Hondas with which we are all familiar did not have them. That is because the early tiddlers from 1960-63 had small turn signal lamps that the U.S. authorities said were too small and too close together. During the boom years of 64-67, none of those Hondas had them. The company just deleted them from their export versions, but one of the big changes of the 1968 period brought the turn signals back to Hondas, though this time they were larger, brighter, and mounted on stalks that spread them further apart. The '64 Santa Barbara would not have turn signals, but these earlier YA-5's still had the small ones. One distinguishing feature of all the YA-5's is the unusual seat shape, with the front section being much deeper than the passenger section. Note that the YA-5 pictured has low bars, but later ones had high bars similar to those of the Santa Barbara. I have one brochure showing high bars with low bars as an option. I believe some of the early YDS-2's and Super Hawks were offered with both, too. Was this a choice with all YA-5's? I don't know. Unlike its predecessors, the YA-5 had a rotary valve, but the kickstarter was still distinctively mounted on the left. The pictured model shows off its red seat on a black bike, but most of the photos I have seen show a more conventional red bike with a black seat and western bars. The tank shape is now stylish and conventional, and the trademark Yamaha tall, as opposed to long, headlamp nacelle with the speedo in the raised portion has been established. Notice the tiny taillamp, the distinctive, early-60's tiny windscreen, and the lack of emblems on the tank panels. This last detail is one of the elements that have been driving me crazy for months. All the other YA-5 photos I have show either a round tuning fork emblem or a YAMAHA badge on the tank. I do not know why this one appears to feature a blank chrome panel.

Model year 1964 would introduce the much more common, at least in the U.S., Santa Barbara model with high bars, the new Yamalube oil injection system, and finally, a kickstarter on the right side of the machine for any of my cats needing a little exercise. Of course the YA-6 still had an electric starter, too. It has always been about the marketing, y'all. I may never have seen a YA-5, but I have always known in my gut that it was a key model in Yamaha history.

See also: YG-1 Rotary Jet 80
My First Motorcycle
Yamaha YDS-2
Yamaha DT-1
Photos of the YA-1
Several photos of a YA-5 currently for sale