Yamaha® Powersports Vehicles For Sale in Lynchburg, VA

A History Of Yamaha

Ever since 1955, the Yamaha Motor Company has been a world leader in the field of powersports. Their motorcycles, personal watercraft (PWC) and all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) are built to last, with powerful engines and durable exteriors that can handle pretty much anything. Your local Yamaha dealer is Virgil Naff's. We’re located in Lynchburg, Virginia, so you’ll want to pay us a visit to see our inventory when you’re done reading about the history of this international powersports giant!

In The Beginning

Yamaha has its roots in the field of musical instruments. You can see this legacy in the logo that they still use today: a trio of piano-tuning forks which are all interlocked in a circle. Founder Torakusu Yamaha built up his enterprise in the late 1880s in the Shizuoka Prefecture of Japan and it was extremely successful for decades, producing organs and pianos.

However, following the end of World War II, many struggling Japanese companies needed to diversify their interests to make up for lost time and to reuse wartime manufacturing machines. The president of Yamaha at the time, Genichi Kawakami, chose to expand into building engines, particularly those designed for motorcycles.

In 1955, the company had its motorized vehicle division split off into a separate endeavor: the Yamaha Motor Company. This offshoot became successful very quickly with its popular lineup of motorcycles, which at first had only two-stroke engines. Four-stroke engine motorcycles would come later on in the 1960s.

Further Expansion

In the 1980s, Yamaha, by then an old hand at motorcycle production, entered both the ATV and PWC markets, seeing great success in both. Their WaveRunner® 500 was especially popular with watersports enthusiasts the world over, allowing the Yamaha Motor Company to dominate marine transport just as well as they had land transport.

Yamaha has continued to produce remarkable vehicles of all types into the 21st century. You’ll see their motorcycles and ATVs on racetracks and on the highways of America, while the WaveRunner has undergone a number of improvements to become one of the best-selling PWC on the market.

Not only does the Yamaha Corporation maintain this industrial division, but they have continued to produce musical instruments this whole time. They have also entered the field of consumer electronics, so you’ve probably seen the Yamaha name on many different items. This demonstrates their commitment to producing quality goods that consumers return to again and again

Think it’s high time you invested in a Yamaha vehicle? Come see us at our Lynchburg location today to investigate our full inventory of new and used powersports vehicles, including models by Yamaha. Virgil Naff’s proudly serves the cities of Roanoke and Charlottesville, Virginia.