Do You Know About The Yamaha Virago Series?

Precisely speaking, Yamaha launched its first V-twin cruiser motorcycle named “Yamaha Virago” in 1981. It is one of the most popular series of Japanese bikes like the fuel switch motorcycle. The production of the Virago series continued until 2007.

In the 1970s, there was a specific and unique motorcycle design that attracted a majority of American bike enthusiasts. To be honest, most of the Universal Japanese Motorcycle (UJM) had a similar appearance. Therefore, bike owners in the US started to customize their own bikes such as custom motorcycle wheels. Of course, owners can customize their motorcycle according to their preference like motorcycle tyres and motorcycle helmets.

The custom design traits that were found most commonly included high pull-back motorcycle handlebars, brightly chromed exhaust pipes, stepped chopper seats with bars, and other significant parts like handguard led. This freedom to give a bike its own look was requested by bike stylists of the Japanese company. This was the reason why they started to offer costumes and specials.

The XV750 Virago was the debut model of the series. Yamaha wants to make the Virago’s design different from its previous motorcycle. As a matter of fact, it was the first street bike to feature single-stock rear suspension and the engine volume was about 748 cc.

They hang the motorcycle engine from the stamped steel backbone frame to give the motor an open-air look. At that time, the manager of sales at Yamaha wanted the V-8 engine to have good performance but at affordable prices. In order to achieve this, the engineering and designer team made the V-8 twin-engine lean 75 degrees with a displaced rear cylinder. It turned out to be able to produce optimal balance along the wheel axes, which also can help provide better cooling for the rear cylinder.

After the success of its first model, there were consecutively new models released by Yamaha in the following years including the XV125, XV250, XV400, XV500, XV535, XV700, XV750, XV920, XV1000, and XV1100. Along with the XV750, Yamaha also launched the XV920R Virago in 1981. Then, the XV920R Virago model was first launched in Europe under the name of Yamaha XV1000/TR1. This model had an engine volume of 980 cc and it also had a driving chain.

In 1984, Yamaha decided to go back to the basics and redesign the XV750. This time they changed the mono-shock rear suspension into a dual-shock design. And the outboard of the motorcycle engine was attached with air filters. In addition, chrome air cleaner covers were also added, which is very important.

The overall appearance of the bike was strengthened to look more like the latest Copper released at the time. The swirl pattern cast motorcycle wheels replacement with the new five pattern cast motorbike wheels.

Unfortunately, Yamaha had to reduce the size of the XV750 Virago engine volume to 699 ccm on account of the new traffic regulation rules imposed by the United States government. Later on, they might rename the vehicle to the “XV700”. All in all, Yahama decided to continue producing this motorcycle ride until 1988.