Talk:Yamaha Virago

December 2005

The Virago, launched in 1981, was not the first mass-produced bike with a single shock rear suspension. That accolade belongs to Yamaha's DT175 MX of 1978. see; http://www.mcnews.com.au/Features/2003/DT175_1978/Yamaha_DT175.htm Veej 19:48, 4 December 2005 (UTC)

Undue weight to starter problems?

Is undue weight being given to the starter issue? Compared to all the other model series out there, is it unusual to have this sort of possible defect? Any evidence this was a notable on the Virago line compared to others?--Dbratland (talk) 03:39, 15 September 2009 (UTC)

I was at the repair shop today getting my bike worked on, and I commented on a Virago in the lot. The first thing out of the serviceman's mouth was, "Virago. That means starter trouble." That suggests to me that it is a known issue that merits mentioning. I was happy to see the section in the Wiki article when I looked it up. Arthegall (talk) 21:44, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

That's nice and all, but Wikipedia is an encyclopedia. It would be better to move this sort of thing to Wikibooks, or let the various forums handle it. They do that well enough, and Wikipedia, by it's very nature, does not and cannot do a good job of tracking complaints from owners of various consumer products. There is no reason to want Wikipedia to be all things to all people, when there are so many other good resources in the world. --Dbratland (talk) 22:24, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

Why the name Virago?

Does anyone know why Yamaha chooses such name? In Brazil, "virago" is an obscure way to refer to "masculine" women (mostly lesbians too). --Cesarakg (talk) 00:44, 9 August 2017 (UTC)

The OED says in English the word only meant woman from about AD 1000, and by the 1300s it began to mean a heroic or warrior woman, and started to take on the bold or impudent negative connotations about the same time. When Yamaha unveiled the first 750 Virago, Cycle World asked "Do you suppose Yamaha looked the word up in a dictionary?" (Steve Kimball, Yamaha for 1981; A Vee for Yamaha, December 1981, p. 22- ). In their 1981 evaluation of the bike, they wrote,

"The dictionary says a virago is a woman of great strength and courage, or a loud, overbearing woman. Either way, it's not the sort of name one expects to find on a motorcycle.

Unless one studies how language works. Apache, for example, is a Navaho word. It means enemy. Hard to imagine why an airplane company would call a new model Enemy. But in that case, by the time airplanes were invented the Navaho's enemy had become a tribal name, then a synonym for courage and daring and besides, Piper had the habit of naming models after Indian tribes, as in Cherokee, Commanche, and so forth. Hence the Piper Apache.

Bonneville was a French explorer who found a big lake and some dried salt. But when Triumph needed a model name everybody knew Bonneville meant speed, which gave us the Triumph Bonneville.

Same thing for the XV750. Yamaha doubts the power of engine capacity to identify motorcycles in today's new buyer market. Names, as in Exciter, Seca, Maxim and Venturer, are thought to have more staying power. And a Vee engine needs a Vee name. Vixen? Viper? Virago is easier to say than it is to find in the dictionary. If history repeats, the translation of Tough Chick will follow the path of the street fighters next door." (Yamaha XV750 Virago. May 1981, p. 28-37)

--Dennis Bratland (talk) 02:45, 9 August 2017 (UTC)