This must be a British ad, we never saw this colour in North America.
8 comments:
rats
said...
Interesting also that Yamaha seems to have aimed the ad at a very different (older, flusher) group of potential buyers. Don't know about the American-market reflectors, that's puzzling, but the setting makes a little more sense if it's a British ad. Mr. G., can you say where you found it? -- I mean, what mag?
It was actually from a long gone ebay ad for an ad page cut out of magazine, which one, no idea. I just absentmindedly right clicked and saved. Just did a Google image search and it comes up in Flickr as a 1976 Yamaha RD400 Motorcycle Advertisement, Playboy March 1976. Which would imply US market... Still, never seen that colour scheme!
I owned (briefly) a continental RD400, and the tank was a bit larger at the back than the NA models, and the seat was smaller/narrower. This looks like the NA version, but I've never seen that colour scheme either.
That said, I've got a NA ad showing the red RD, and comparing it to the RD350. Thing with that is, the red RD was a '77, and there had already been a '76, so why compare to the 350? The ad mentions self-cancelling turn signals,and I don't remember if mine had such. Also, the ad I've got shows a turn signal/warning light/ignition switch cluster which I've not seen before or since.
Hypothesis: These were both early ads for the then new RD400, and details on colour and such were still being worked out.
the tree above that sun of a bitch's head should be investigated to determine the species possibly narrowing down the location of the photograph. another clue is at bottom left edge we see a beer or soda can. the water hose diameter seems metric (no, YOU shut up). the green looks pretty good but I imagine a dark red and maroon metal flake paint job with stock decals then clear coats over. they say to use marijuana oil concentrate extract instead of regular premix and it will rev to higher RPMs.
More to that hypothesis, what look like one-piece headers/mufflers, whereas production pictures show a noticeable black (vulcanized rubber?) clamp joining the two parts.(I'll be expecting my Progress is Fine...anorak, Mr G !)
I did not notice that. Yep, the production RD400s had a sort-of corrugated rubber coupler held on with a ringed coil spring [there's a word for that]. The ad I have shows the rubber thingy.
As far as location goes, I've seen similar architecture on the wet coast. I don't suppose there's sufficient resolution to see if the Dino is RHD.
I guess at this point I should scan that ad and send it to Mr. G.
1976 Yamaha RD400 Motorcycle Advertisement, Playboy March 1976
Evidence builds for the 'older, flusher' idea. Playboy wasn't aimed at spotty-faced teenagers, or so they wanted you to think. Although I can't quite picture Dad pulling a wheelie on an RD.
Back to the hypothesis: The ad copy for March '76 would have been submitted sometime in '75, so maybe in the late prototype stage?
8 comments:
Interesting also that Yamaha seems to have aimed the ad at a very different (older, flusher) group of potential buyers. Don't know about the American-market reflectors, that's puzzling, but the setting makes a little more sense if it's a British ad. Mr. G., can you say where you found it? -- I mean, what mag?
Thanks for the intriguing show & tell.
It was actually from a long gone ebay ad for an ad page cut out of magazine, which one, no idea. I just absentmindedly right clicked and saved. Just did a Google image search and it comes up in Flickr as a 1976 Yamaha RD400 Motorcycle Advertisement, Playboy March 1976. Which would imply US market... Still, never seen that colour scheme!
I owned (briefly) a continental RD400, and the tank was a bit larger at the back than the NA models, and the seat was smaller/narrower. This looks like the NA version, but I've never seen that colour scheme either.
That said, I've got a NA ad showing the red RD, and comparing it to the RD350. Thing with that is, the red RD was a '77, and there had already been a '76, so why compare to the 350? The ad mentions self-cancelling turn signals,and I don't remember if mine had such. Also, the ad I've got shows a turn signal/warning light/ignition switch cluster which I've not seen before or since.
Hypothesis: These were both early ads for the then new RD400, and details on colour and such were still being worked out.
rdguy
the tree above that sun of a bitch's head should be investigated to determine the species possibly narrowing down the location of the photograph. another clue is at bottom left edge we see a beer or soda can. the water hose diameter seems metric (no, YOU shut up). the green looks pretty good but I imagine a dark red and maroon metal flake paint job with stock decals then clear coats over. they say to use marijuana oil concentrate extract instead of regular premix and it will rev to higher RPMs.
More to that hypothesis, what look like one-piece headers/mufflers,
whereas production pictures show a noticeable black (vulcanized rubber?)
clamp joining the two parts.(I'll be expecting my Progress is Fine...anorak,
Mr G !)
[Respectful applause from a prudent distance.]
...what look like one-piece headers/mufflers...
I did not notice that. Yep, the production RD400s had a sort-of corrugated rubber coupler held on with a ringed coil spring [there's a word for that]. The ad I have shows the rubber thingy.
As far as location goes, I've seen similar architecture on the wet coast. I don't suppose there's sufficient resolution to see if the Dino is RHD.
I guess at this point I should scan that ad and send it to Mr. G.
rdguy
1976 Yamaha RD400 Motorcycle Advertisement, Playboy March 1976
Evidence builds for the 'older, flusher' idea. Playboy wasn't aimed at spotty-faced teenagers, or so they wanted you to think. Although I can't quite picture Dad pulling a wheelie on an RD.
Back to the hypothesis: The ad copy for March '76 would have been submitted sometime in '75, so maybe in the late prototype stage?
rdguy
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