Never used
c.1972 Yamaha TA125 Racing Motorcycle
Frame no. AS3-991042

Following the Yamaha works team's withdrawal from Grand Prix racing at the end of the 1968 season, Honda and Suzuki having pulled out at the end of 1967, the Hammamatsu company continued to be well represented in GPs thanks to its over-the-counter racers. However, while Yamaha catered for the 250 and 350cc classes with the TD and TR series respectively, there was no official offering for the 125cc class at that time, although many privateers campaigned race-kitted YAS1 and AS2 roadsters. Following the introduction of the AS3 roadster for 1971, Yamaha at last took the opportunity to offer a proper factory-built, 125cc production racer – the TA125 – although the latter continued to share many components with its road-going cousin. The Yamaha factory officially returned to Grand Prix racing in 1970, supporting Rod Gould and Kent Andersson with works developments of the TD/TR while Andersson was also given a pre-production TA125 to race in 1971. Following a promising 125 GP debut season, Andersson received a new, works-only, water-cooled twin - the OW15 - for 1972 and scored three Grand Prix victories that year on his way to finishing 2nd in the World Championship behind Angel Nieto (Derbi). The following season Kent took his first World title, an achievement he repeated the following year. In 1975 however, the disc valve-engined Morbidelli began to assert itself - proving too fast for the piston-ported Yamaha - and Andersson retired from racing in 1976. When the over-the-counter TA125 was withdrawn in 1975, it marked the end of the line for Yamaha's air-cooled production racers.
The machine offered here represents a rare opportunity to acquire an unused example of this historic Yamaha production racer. There are no documents with this Lot.