When Yamaha announced it had stopped developing Japanese-market motorcycles over 250 cc back in August, everyone (myself included) thought it was the beginning of the end for the company’s sexy motorcycle designers. We needn’t have worried; Yamaha’s latest (revealed at last week’s Tokyo Motor Show) is this 220 mpg (188 mpg US), 80 kg, 125 cc cruiser called Y125 … and it. Is. Gorgeous!
The attention to detail Yamaha put into the Y125 is amazing, combining a quiet belt drive system, featherwight aluminum frame, ultra light-weight brakes, and more, to deliver a simple, elegant, and stunning reinterpretation of the YA-1, Yamaha’s first-ever motorcycle. All that lightweight tech should generate a more thrilling ride than the old YA-1 could ever deliver, though, since the Y125 weighs almost 40% less than its ancestor, while getting nearly twice the power out of the 125 “world engine” (currently seeing active duty in Yamaha’s YBR 125, albeit in less pretty/polished form).
Yamaha’s Y125 is just a concept, at this point, but definitely points the way ahead for Yamaha’s next generation of small cruisers, themselves set to do market battle with bikes like Kawasaki’s Eliminator 125 and Sym’s Wolf 125 … and possibly Yamaha’s own line of 125 cc scooters.
Expect a production version of the Y125 to show up at next year’s EICMA show in Italy. Until then, however, you’ll just have to join me in drooling over the photographs, below.
Source: Gas2.0
