AllMoto's Motorcycle Investor mag

Motorcycle Investor mag

Yamaha XT500

The single-cylinder gem that turned life into an adventure

31 July 2026, by Guy 'Guido" Allen

Let's raise a glass to the mighty Yamaha XT500 – launched for the 1976 model year and became just the thing for cruising down the highway or blasting down Puddleslosh Lane at high speed. It was to become an incredibly versatile platform with its sister TT500 and the HL500 competition version.

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Think back to the mid-1970s and the idea of big, strong and reliable four-stroke dirt bikes was coming into its own. Yamaha was among the leaders of that push, with a deceptively simple concept in the XT500, and its more enduro-focussed TT500 sibling.

For the XT, the combination of long-travel suspension and substantial performance meant it could tackle road riding and some trail work. We reckon that combination was what started a few 'adventure touring' careers before that became a term. You could make a bigger fuel tank and the basic platform was reliable enough to cross the globe.

Let's not forget that a Yamaha XT500 won the very first Paris-Dakar raid back in 1979. See the Harry's Garage YouTube channel for a video on that topic and other Dakar bikes in his shed.