This photo shows Alan Cathcart on a Yamaha TRX850 sprinting away to a commanding victory in the AHRMA Battle of the Twins F1 race at Daytona International Speedway in March of 1996. The shot made me wonder whatever happened to the TRX850. It came on the scene in the mid-90s and was described by MCN as the “the best-kept secret in motorcycling”. The TRX was in a difficult niche. Reviewers described it as a bike that featured neutral and stable handling with tons of grunt. It had a lot of character for being something unique out of Japan. Yet the bike never really caught on. It was an 850cc with less peak horsepower than 600cc sportbikes, even though on any real-world roads it could very much hold its own with other sportbikes of any displacement. It’s not even clear the TRX reached cult bike status, but based on reviews and what riders like Cathcart did with the TRX on the track, it might be a used machine to seek out.

Alan Cathcart on a Yamaha TRX850 sprinting away to a commanding victory in the AHRMA Battle of the Twins F1 race at Daytona International Speedway in March of 1996. (Henny Abrams photo)