In that Aussie ? reveiw the SR pictured had an English Tri-BSA looking muffler on it. When I bought my beat to hell SR 500 it had no muffler . I had a Triumph style muffler that had an adapter welded to it to allow it to fit on a 860 Ducati I bought. So I slipped it on the SR and went for a test ride. It was fairly quiet , but, choked the motor down badly. I went with a Supertrapp and it was loud and made the motor happy again. If it comes and our opinion matters , I vote for the 500 cc size. The U.S. is not Japan.
Sounds like they are only making it in the 400 size now, but you could likely fit a 500 crankshaft...
Wow that SRX-6 is an awesome looking motorcycle!! Wish that kinda stuff were still available as new ... or at least not as rare used ...
I sure hope they decide to sell it here. Its the only new bike I would think about getting. Maybe I should look into getting an old sr500 if it does not get imported... Its only 3000 miles away... http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=851082 Very sharp!
It would be great around town. Cheap to run. Cheap to buy. It would bring Yamaha very small profits. Easy to maintain. You can do everything yourself. This means very low profit margin for Yamaha. This means we probably will not see it in North America. Bummer. Lyle
Fat chance of ever seeing the bike pictured in the first post in the U.S. That would be be too good to be true. The SRX-6 would be a great bike to ride, I just don't care for it's "modern" style. But it is still light years ahead of an FZ6 or a V-Star 650.
Throw a rear disc and funny button on the bitch and it will double as both a TU250 and an Enfield killer. EFI on a kick-start bike makes starting the thing easier than spittin' (Sometimes it took 2 kicks in <45 degrees) so that alone would almost have me hooked, but a rear disc and E-start button would top it off. Make aluminum rims an option? Release it at $5k? Sold. -Jake
I think, on really light bikes, rear drum brakes work fine. I never had any issues with drum brakes on light bikes, and the shoes last forever. If I can lock the back wheel easy at any speed, that is all I need. The front disk I can see, but the less master and slave cylinders I have to worry about the better I like it. Kick starting a fuel injected low compression 400 should be very easy... It would be nice if the motor was balanced, without that, they do not like to run at speed long. But I could deal with that!
I suspect Yamaha has recouped their development costs on the SR by now....dontcha think? This is a no brainer for Yamaha....there is so much cool aftermarket stuff for these bikes. They could offer a shit ton of GYTR accessories as well. Bringing the SR400 to the USA is a great "brand building" move. They need to attract a new generation of riders & capitalize on the youth market. I could even see these as MSF bikes...what a confidence builder for a new rider to (easily) kick start their training bike! Everyone knows "Cafe Racer" but does your typical non-motorcyclist know what the hell a Super Tenere is?
I've rebought a few "cool" bikes of my youth in the 70s and 80s and my 20 sumpthing year old kids kids are far from impressed by any of them. If they want a new market of young riders they need to beat the Ninja 300 or bring in a real WR450r.
As far as the "youth" market goes, they just seem to want faster and faster sportbikes. Most off road riders today have turned to quads. They outsell dirtbikes by more than 10 to 1. The dirt bike market today is pretty much dominated by kids into the "freestyle" MX thing. Most of them won't live long enough to consider future customers. And cruisers are mostly ridden by older people, because of their comfort. The rich older people buy Harley CVO Electra Glides, BMW touring bikes, or Goldwings, the one and only Japanese touring bike left. I seem to remember a Yamaha Venture, 2 Kawasaki Voyagers, and the Suzuki Cavalcade. None of them made it.
I suspect this is very true. I think the uglier I think a bike is, the more they will sell. The younger people want transformers with all sorts of gizmo's on them. I think I could make a huge amout of money for these companies, if I was to rate a bike a 1 on a 0 to 10 style scale, they would be SURE to sell millions of them. A 9 or 10, forget about it. I guess Harley sucks up most of the vintage look people, and leaves none for any Japanese brands. When I was riding my old Triumph around, the Harley guys would all come over and tell stories about their old bikes, the sport bike guys would not give it a 2nd look. But you won't find many Harley riders willing to trade their sled glide in on an sr400....
this would explain a lot of what's up with the new FJR update and might bode well for bringing the SR back into the states at somepoint as it's both low cost and more entry-oriented: http://www.motorcycledaily.com/2013...aks-about-cost-containment-as-paramount-goal/
As someone who commutes 3-4 times a week in heavy traffic, I wouldn't mind having one of these. I have street-legal TT500 with a bonkers motor and still get around 85mpg. Would love to grab one of these and rack up some serious miles. If they can get the cost around $4,500 MSRP, it would be a bang for the buck. But if it's more like the new CB500, which will have an MSRP around $7,000, then not so much.