DAYS OF INNOVATION IN 1981

Mal Pitman was a big player in Yamaha’s efforts to win production-based championships in Australia in the late ’70s and early ’80s. His most famous effort was converting Yamaha’s shaftdrive XS1100 to chain drive. A few conversions were sold to road riders, and Brian Horn built his modern interpretation round a bike he’s owned since 1992, with TRX850 wheels and R6 forks. Friend Geoffrey Mcphee has one of just 500 ‘Martini’ versions of the XS1100 with a fairing designed by John Mockett. Mockett intended his fairing to be a test bed for a high-speed European tourer, but Yamaha put it into limited production.