It seems that Yamaha wants to steal Honda’s thunder; the word on the street has them planning a $500 motorcycle.
We already told you about Honda’s $830 motorcycle last month. The bike, known as the Dream Yuga, was a bare-bones 110cc machine designed to sell in volume in India.
According to ABC News, Yamaha already sells a couple cheap motorcycle in India, the Crux and the YBR, priced around $635 and $760, respectively. But they figure they can sell bikes even cheaper than that, grabbing themselves a healthy portion of the country’s booming sales numbers while they’re at it. They sold over 500,000 bikes in India last year, and they’re aiming for over 600,000 this year.
Yamaha didn’t say when they expected the new bike to be on the roads, but they’re already working on plans, and we can’t see a $500 motorcycle being stuck in development hell for long. Plus, since it’s part of Yamaha’s plan to boost sales to two million bikes a year by 2016, they’ll have to get it on the market soon, to see their sales figures start to climb.
The first letter of the universal 17 didget vin on all vehicles represents the country of origin.
If you look at the Yamaha TTR series the first 4 bikes are made in three countries. Two of them are made in China. Not all Chinese bikes belong in land fills. Give them time, at least they have hydrolic disc brakes.
Of course bikes are priced to what the market will bear.
In Canada it would have to be priced closer to $2,500-3,000, otherwise it would seriously undercut Bikes like the V-Star 250 or CBR125, or even the 50cc scooters.
But on the other hand, if Yamaha offered a $2,000 motorcycle in Canada with a reliable service and parts network, the Chinese crap on the market now wouldn’t end up polluting our landfills anymore. And hopefully, thousands of new motorcyclists would be introduced to the roads.
But will learners buy a $2000 motorcycle if insurance costs are 25-50% of the machine cost?