Earlier this year, we told you about the uber-practical Honda Wave Alpha as it launched in Asia. Not to be muscled out of the market, Yamaha has fired back with the EZ115 commuter bike. And it leaves us asking two questions: Do people see this as a viable alternative for a travel bike? And why won’t the Japanese import boatloads of these bikes to North America?
The Yamaha EZ115
This is not a terribly exciting or thrilling motorcycle, if you’re used to the kind of bikes we ride in North America. But it is a very practical machine, especially when you consider the Malaysian market, where it’s launching initially.
With this Yammie, you get a four-stroke fuel-injected, air-cooled 114 cc underbone design, combining a scooter’s ease-of-use with some of the increased capability of a motorcycle. Instead of a twist-and-go throttle, you’ve got a boot-and-scoot four-speed gearbox, with no clutch needed. There’s a set of super-skinny 17-inch wheels, underseat storage, 3.1 liter fuel tank and a kickstarter to backup the e-start.
A practical bike, if you’re just looking for a cheap, fuel-efficient commuter. Pricing is just a bit more than the Honda Wave Alpha, which comes in around the equivalent of $1200 US. The Yamaha costs around $1300 US, for a machine with pretty much the same performance (around 8.5 hp, 7 lb-ft of torque).
Could/would you travel on this?
Considering the low price of this machine, some ADVers might do some napkin math and realize very quickly that they could fly to Asia and buy one of these things cheaper than shipping their own bike and luggage over, as long as they were willing to travel light! And as we’ve pointed out here before: The guys who are riding their big-bore bikes through the Asian jungle are going to soon realize that the locals are going the exact same places they are, but on these little machines instead of a 500 lb twin (and they’re probably wearing flip-flops, not motocross boots).
Not saying it’s a desirable option for most of us, but itisan an option…
Why not for US/Canada?
Why don’t we see practical bikes like this in our market? It’s because the money comes from selling motorcycles as toys here, not as practical commuters. That’s not to say the commuter market doesn’t exist, but even the small-bore machines we see these days (Honda Monkey, Grom, etc.) tend to lean towards goofy fun, not practicality. Even the CT125 and the Super Cub are really presented to consumers as fun machines, first and foremost.
Having said that: As our market becomes a less-important piece of the global motorcycle sales puzzle all the time, it might be possible that we’d see bikes like this come in eventually, as manufacturers offload product.b你会uy one, at an MSRP around $2,000 US? Why or why not?
