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East meets West

Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2014 8:41 pm
by rztom
Thought I'd share this with you guys.... :cool:

A little over a week ago I had the distinct pleasure of meeting with Mr. Yoshiaki Aoyama, president of the RZV500R Owners Club in Japan, at my house! :rolleyes:

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As the story goes, we had been in contact via email over the past couple of months in my attempt to get pics and details of their 30th anniversary event they held at Yamaha headquarters. I had noticed the 30th anniversary T-shirt they had produced and that a couple of their members were wearing, and I asked Yoshi-san if they had any left. Well, turns out they only made a very small number and they had none left. At least that's what he told me... :smt010

Next thing I know he's emailing me that he will be in Los Angeles the week of Nov. 17th with a friend, as both of them are professional photographers and would be covering the L.A. International Auto Show for a Japanese enthusiast magazine. And, he had something special for me and would be happy to make the 3-hour drive to meet me at my house to deliver it in person... a 30th Anniversary T-shirt he saved for me :shock:

Of course I said "come on down!" and then had to scramble to try and put on my best dog-and-pony show, as none of my bikes were completely put together. :smt011

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Anyway, all turned out OK, they were a couple of great guys with loads of enthusiasm about these bikes and were full of questions about our club, its membership and our shared passion for these now-classic V-4 2-strokes. :smt023

And... I got my T-shirt :evil:

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Re: East meets West

Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2014 2:09 pm
by Ronnie
That's fantastic Tom. Well done. You deserve it. :-D

Re: East meets West

Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2014 2:58 pm
by Vin
Nice one Tom :smt023

Re: East meets West

Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2014 10:47 pm
by 2smoke
Wow, that's cool! I wonder if they find the rz500 as exotic as we find the rzv500?

Do they have a website that we can look at?

Re: East meets West

Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2014 1:51 pm
by Smoker
The love of bikes brings people together.

Great story and pics!

Re: East meets West

Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2014 4:40 pm
by jackson.40
Nice one Tom! :cool:

It would be great if Mr Yoshiaki Aoyama joined the group and could tell us some more about the RZV500R Owners Club in Japan.

Steve

Re: East meets West

Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2014 8:19 pm
by rztom
2smoke wrote:Wow, that's cool! I wonder if they find the rz500 as exotic as we find the rzv500?
In a sense, yes they did find the RZ somewhat of a "special." Mostly because of the steel frame. There were many questions about how it handles compared to the RZV frame, and how much is the weight difference in both feel and performance.
2smoke wrote:Do they have a website that we can look at?
I was remiss in not asking that question while I had them here, but I had asked Yoshi about that during our various back-n-forth emails trying to get his pics of their 30th event, and he never gave me an answer. I also tried goggling it and came up empty, so I suspect they do not have a site. :-(

Re: East meets West

Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2014 8:30 pm
by rztom
jackson.40 wrote:It would be great if Mr Yoshiaki Aoyama joined the group and could tell us some more about the RZV500R Owners Club in Japan.
Steve, I suspect his somewhat halting command of English may be a roadblock (his buddy Ken did most of the talking), but I did send him off with a swag-bag full of our club goodies, and our web address was included. :smt002

Re: East meets West

Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2014 2:39 am
by zalienz
Great post, Tom nice to see the spirit is still alive.......