A SPECIAL BIKE FOR A SPECIAL OCCASION FEBRUARY 4, 2010: It’s a special bike and it’s a special occasion too. The famous 125cc 1967-68 RA31A Yamaha bike made famous for its outstanding successes on the race track during the “Golden Years” of Grand Prix racing in the 1960s is coming to New Zealand this weekend. The rare bike will be on display at the 31st Classic Motorcycle Festival at Pukekohe this weekend. “It is a very rare machine,” said Yamaha New Zealand’s Peter Payne, Auckland. “There are only two of them in the world and the other one is currently on display at Communications Plaza at the Yamaha factory museum in Iwata, Japan. “The one that is coming to New Zealand this weekend has been loaned by the Dutch-based Yamaha Classic Racing Team (YCRT), with everything kindly arranged for us by team boss Mr Ferry Brouwer,” said Mr Payne. “The bike is only one of the two that still gets used, and even then it’s only infrequently. “It’s an absolute thrill, pleasure and huge honour to have this 43-year-old race bike here. Two technical advisors will arrive with the bike from the Netherlands, direct from the Yamaha Classic Racing Team.” The 125cc 1968 RA31A Yamaha race bike will be on show and will also be ridden on the Pukekohe circuit by none other than Hamilton’s four-time former world champion from that era, Hugh Anderson. The 74-year-old Anderson will ride the rare RA31A around Pukekohe as part of the weekend’s festival. New Zealand bike legend Ken McIntosh, a name renowned in the classic bike circles, is directing the whole operation and the Dutch RA31A Team will work from McIntosh’s workshop while in New Zealand. This bike was the ‘blue-print’ of the fearsome Grand Prix 500s that ruled the GP scene until the arrival of the four-stroke era in 2002. The water-cooled two-stroke engine revs to over 17,000 rpm and makes 42 brake horsepower. This equates to 336 bhp/litre at a time when Formula One car engines were happy to top 135 bhp/litre. The nine-speed gearbox helped the rider keep the engine in its rather narrow power band. The Yamaha V4 was so successful that Bill Ivy and Phil Read scored a first and second in the World 125 Championship of 1967 and reversed the result in 1968. Between them they won nearly every GP event in both years. In 1967 Bill Ivy set the first 100 mph lap of the Isle of Man by a 125, only 10 years after that speed had been set by a 500cc Gilera. His lap record on the incredible Yamaha V4 stood for an astounding 21 years. The festival has attracted over 250 riders from five countries, and will be running events for more than 350 bikes. Anderson, who ended his road racing career in 1965, after winning the 125 world championship, has never ever seen a 125 four cylinder Yamaha before. Riding it this weekend is something he is very excited about. It will be the first time ever that a Yamaha factory machine from the golden era of the 1960s will set wheels on New Zealand’s tarmac, something that is not likely to happen for at least another few years. For more information about the Yamaha Classic Racing Team, visit www.yamaha-classic-racingteam.nl