Yes folks, it's true, Bike magazine have named our beloved GTS as the Coolest Rare Bike. They kindly gave me permission to reproduce the article on the site, so many thanks for that.

Here's the picture of part of the article. Readable versions of the two pages can be found here and here. Thanks to Mike for the scans.

For those too lazy to click on the links, here's what they say about it :

  Bold, daring, peerless, Yamaha's GTS1000 is the embodiment of unconventionality. Shaking off almost a century of tradition, the tourer junked regular telescopic forks for a huge aluminium swingarm working a monoshock, with hub centre steering and a low, arching Omega frame system.

    The theory is that separating the steering from the suspension forces will give improved handling and the unmistakable GTS uses this fancy front end to great effect by being fantastically stable. An engine borrowed from the FZR1000 Exup supplies beautifully smooth propulsion with glassy roll-on and a rich bottom end, despite the lopped-off 100bhp peak power.It's an extremely accomplished machine.

    The Terminator films were still current when the GTS was launched and the single-sided front end had a firm futuristic look to it, blending into the clean, uncluttered, enclosing bodywork to give a glimpse of the biking in the future. Unfortunately the alien appearance, frankly excessive weight and a steep asking price limited sales - but they don't matter one iota today. This is still ground-breaking and courageous engineering, with form following function and a fresh approach to design. The fact that it wasn't the redefining success Yamaha had hoped for even adds to the appeal today, making it as cool for being a valiant failure as for being exclusive or irregular.

    Ride a GTS and you're also on a bike unlike any other you'll see - with so few sold, the chances of matching T-shirt syndrome are almost nil. Scarce stylish, yet capable and completely useable: that's cool in our book.

  Clearly, they know how poor our merchandise sales are! Lol.

   But seriously, this is a great accolade for our bikes. It raises the profile, hence making them (hopefully) worth more, for those who want to sell. For the rest of us, it just means that one more person at the local bike cafe might just now know what it is we're riding.

   I was disappointed that Bike magazine didn't seem too interested in us, despite their friendliness towards me. It would have been nice if they'd dropped a line in the next issue giving us a mention, but I guess we should be happy with winning Most Cool Rare Bike, fending off the Norton F1, Yamaha YZF-R7, Moto Guzzi Daytona R1000 and Ducati 900SS FE. A prize worth shouting about indeed!