Yamaha Yard Built Goes Racing at Dirt Quake IV
Unlike many custom builds in the world, one of the most important factors for a Yard Built creation is that whatever changes are made, the finished bike should not lose any of the riding fun that characterize the Sport Heritage range of motorcycles they are built from.
This year’s annual Dirt Quake event in the UK, Dirt Quake IV proved a great opportunity to prove this theory and give one of Yamaha’s latest Yard Built creations a proper work out. Yamaha teamed up with recent collaborators Deus Ex Machina to bring the Yard Built ‘D-Side’ trackside for some dirt track action.
With the sidecar removed the custom XV950 was more than capable of holding its own on the track in the hands of Italian dirt track star Marco Belli. The cool Deus custom tasted the chequered flag before finally coming second overall to crazy ice racer Serge Nuques on his YZF-R1!
Marco Belli was joined on track by Deus Milano’s Alessandro Rossi riding the custom built Deus SR400 flat track machine. Alessandro proved it wasn’t just the XV950 that could take the win, sliding his way to race victory on his SR400 to join the celebrations.
“Dirt Quake is a brilliant and truly unique event so we were really thrilled to be able to be part of it,” commented Yamaha Motor Europe Product Manager shun Miyazawa. “It’s one thing to be able to showcase shiny custom bikes on stands but so much better to get them out in the middle of the action to do what they are designed for, have fun and give a great riding experience! The Deus D-Side has shown its not only a great custom idea for those that want to go down the sidecar route, but also that on its own the custom modifications work on the XV950 to make a cool, really rideable and race winning bike. Of course we wanted to win, but what makes Dirt Quake so special is that it was also just about taking part and having fun with motorcycles. We really enjoyed sponsoring the event and being part of it, and will definitely be back next year!”
Aside to the Yamaha bikes in the middle of the action, there was also a Yard Built display featuring some of the builds of the last 12 months, including the Wrenchmonkees XJR1300 ‘Skullmonkee’, the itroCkS!bikes SR400, the JvB Moto VMAX ‘Infrared’ and the Numbnut Motorcycles XJR1300 ‘Botafogo-N’.
