Winning Designs for 55 Years: Yoshimura

Yoshimura has a history of success on-track and off it

Yoshimura has been designing winning exhausts and performance components for over 55 years and leading its own teams to championship victories in the AMA Superbikes, Supercross and Motocross series.

In fact the Yoshimura name was there at the very beginning of the AMA Superbike racing back in 1976, when company founder Hideo ‘Pops’ Yoshimura entered bikes he had tuned and prepared himself.

Birth of a Legend

A skilled aircraft mechanic, Pops began modifying and tuning bikes for US troops stationed in Japan following the war. Word quickly spread that Pops could get much more power from an engine than anyone else and in 1954 he founded his eponymous company. By 1971 the Yoshimura reputation was such that Pops opened Yoshimura Research & Development in California.

Good results in the first two years of the newly formed AMA Superbike Championship led to a partnership with Suzuki that netted wins in the Daytona 200 and the prestigious Suzuka 8-Hour races. It was the beginning of a legendary partnership that continues to this day.

Yoshimura Grows On-Track and Off-Track

The early 1980’s saw the rise in popularity of the Japanese ‘crotch-rocket’ street bikes on the back of the Superbikes image. Pops recognized the public’s desire for performance parts and accessories to satisfy the new breed of street bike rider and his company began manufacturing a range of top quality aftermarket products such as exhausts, engine management systems and hard parts. Off-track Yoshimura became one of the world’s largest sports bike aftermarket manufacturers of performance parts.

Suzuki and Yoshimura are a racing partnership
that goes back to 1978

Meanwhile on-track Yoshimura’s talents for extracting extra power from an engine saw the company being appointed as the factory team for Suzuki. Suzuki Factory Racing notched up many wins and championships and this racing successes added to the appeal of the aftermarket brand. Yoshimura has hundreds of wins to its name and since 1999 its teams and riders have won an incredible 30 AMA, WORCS and GNCC titles.

The Yoshimura Legacy

Succumbing to cancer in 1995, Pops’ legacy lives on in his company which continues to set the standards for aftermarket performance exhausts and accessories. In a fitting tribute Pops was inducted into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame at the turn of the millennium.

If you want more performance from your street bike, dirt bike, or ATV/UTV, turn to the oldest and most respected name in aftermarket performance parts, Yoshimura.

By John Bone

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