BIKES YOU’VE NEVER SEEN BEFORE: 1980 FRENCH-BUILT BARIGO YB500

Barigo founder Patrick Barigault was asked by a friend to build a frame for his Bultaco in the early 1970s. People were impressed by the Barigault frame and he got an order from a distributor to build frames for Honda 350/500 engines. These bikes were marketed as the ITM 350. In 1976, Barigault made his first Barigo motorcycles. The French-built Barigo YB500 (above) used a Yamaha XT500 four-stroke engine, but could be ordered to accept a Honda XL500 single also.

The Yamaha XT500 engine fits neatly in the Barigo YB500 kit frame. Stephane Peterhansel and Eddy Orioli shared four consecutive Dakar Rallye victories for Yamaha with Barigo frames from 1995 to 1998.

The rolling chassis kits used Honda XL and Yamaha XT four-stroke engines. The frame could be order polished or painted. If they had a Honda engine they were called HB 500s (HB stood for Honda/Barigo) and the Yamaha-powered bike were called YB500s (YB stood for Yamaha/Barigo). The most popular engine was the Yamaha XT540. Barigo sold approximately 500 Frame kits and a lesser numbe rof complete bikes.

This  Barigo HB500 was built as an off-road bike. It features a Honda engine, hand-polished Cagiva 125 gas tank, Fox Airshox, Fox 44mm forks and gold rims. In 1983 Barigo’s switched to Rotax engines. Barigo stayed in business until the early 1990s making Supermoto and Rally bikes (and was the only French made motorcycle of the time).