What Was Yamaha's First Motorcycle And How Much Is It Worth Today?

Yamaha was established as Nippon Gakki Co., Ltd. in 1897 as a musical instrument manufacturer, and spent its first few decades establishing itself as a leader in that industry. Like many companies during the Second World War, Yamaha pivoted to producing products for the military, but by the early 1950s, those facilities were no longer needed and were sitting unused. Yamaha had previously manufactured aircraft propellers for the war effort, and so to make use of the machining equipment, company president Genichi Kawakami researched different products that the brand could produce with them. Eventually, he settled on motorcycle engines, sending his team on a tour across the U.S. and Europe so that they could learn how to design and produce motorcycles.

Less than a year after its development program began, Yamaha had built its first motorcycle. It was officially unveiled in August 1954 and was marketed as the YA-1. At the heart of the bike sat a 125cc two-stroke single-cylinder engine, an engine type that disappeared from motocross. The unit took influence from the engineers' brief time spent studying motorcycle manufacturers overseas. In particular, the German DKW RT125 was reportedly a major source of inspiration for the design. Yamaha wanted to make sure that its newest product was durable enough to compete with the best on the market, so it subjected its initial prototype to a (approx.) 6,200-mile test run, which it completed without issue, a testament to Yamaha's reliable motorcycles.

As well as its lengthy test run, Yamaha also entered its new motorcycle in races both at home and abroad in a bid to prove its competitiveness. It saw some success, winning its class in its first two races. This combination of endurance testing and racing prowess proved to be enough to convince buyers that the YA-1 was a worthwhile purchase, despite it being pricier than many other motorcycles on the market at the time. It proved to be a commercial success for Yamaha, with the newly formed Yamaha Motor Co. churning out around 200 examples of the bike each month. Thanks to its red paint scheme, it was nicknamed the Red Dragonfly.

Keen to keep the momentum going, Yamaha launched a new model, the 175cc YC1, in 1956, followed up by the 250cc two-cylinder YD1 the following year. The original YA-1 would remain in production for three years, with around 11,000 examples built in total. Very few of those original motorcycles have survived today, and even fewer exist outside of Japan. As a result, only a handful of examples have appeared for sale in the last ten years, and only one example has a publicly available final sale price. That example, an unrestored YA-1 that appeared at a Mecum auction in 2019, sold for $12,650. Other examples have appeared for sale on auction sites like eBay, but they either haven't met their reserve price or have been delisted before the end of the auction.