2009 Yamaha Yz85 on 2040-motos

Moto blog

Yamaha XTW250 RYOKU Concept at the 2011 Tokyo Motor Show

Of the concept models Yamaha announced it would introduce at the 2011 Tokyo Motor Show, it was the heavy-duty looking XTW250 RYOKU concept that drew the most attention from our readers. Here we have new photographs of Yamaha’s “SUV motorcycle” from the show floor of the Tokyo Motor Show courtesy of Colum Wood, editor of our sister site Autoguide.com, who was in attendance. Yamaha describes the XTW250 RYOKU concept as an “unrestricted, anytime, anywhere” mobility vehicle offering performance, operability the capacity to carry heavy loads.

Simon and Leo

If you are a track day regular this year, you may well have bumped into former racer and friendly Kiwi, Simon Crafar. I first met him in Malaysia in 1990 when he was riding for a Yamaha dealer team, sweating his way round circuits like Shah Alam and Johor Bahru but with a long term plan to make it onto the World scene. And he didn’t take long as after riding for Honda in the UK in 1992 he moved to WSB in 1994 and enjoyed success with both the Honda and Kawasaki factory teams.

Aren't motorcycles brilliant?

WE'RE not saying MCN's verdicts lack variation but here's a few of the weekly paper's recent headlines on just-ridden bikes: ‘Simply brilliant’ On the Kawasaki Z1000, November 27, 2013 ‘Brilliant’ On the BMW S1000R, December 4, 2013 ‘We thought it might be good. It's not: it's bloody brilliant!’ On the BMW R nineT, January 29, 2014 ‘Simply brilliant’ On the Yamaha MT-07, February 19, 2014