The good guys over at Asphalt and Rubber have found a Yamaha marketing site that indicates their new beginner bike will debut on May 20.
The teaser webpage, alas, does not divulge any more details than the release date, which is likely only for an Asian release. It’s suspected, though not confirmed, that North America will get a 300 cc version of this bike, just as Kawasaki released an upsized 300 cc version of their new Baby Ninja a couple years ago, while selling the 250 cc version in less developed markets. Honda’s new CBR300 will also be available in Canada at some point this year, so bringing a quarter-litre machine to market would likely be a mistake, unless the price point was incredibly low.
Whatever the story, it’ll be a relief to see the machine unveiled, as there have been rumours and hints floating around regarding this machine for months now.
The 250s become 300s, then soon we’ll see 350s, 400s, 600s, etc… then we’ll be back to complaining that there are no small displacement starter bikes available and the cycle (no pun intended) will start all over again.