I've been amusing myself hustling around on Yamaha’s XT225 Serow for the past month or so. This is a light, low powered four stroke single in trail guise that Yamaha don't bother to sell in the UK, although a few are available from the grey importers. In favourable conditions it’d top out at around 80mph, not that the upright riding position makes speeds above 70mph much fun. Unless you want to get serious by using the pillion pegs and putting your head down on the clocks. A pretty damn silly poise to what's left of my mind, one that I gave up when I sold my CD175 too many years ago to admit here.
As most of my riding has been cross city with odd dose of country lane ambling, the Serow’s set up perfectly for my needs. Tax and insurance, even in these times of compulsive rip-off merchants, are gratifyingly cheap and I usually manage around 80mpg. This is cheap motorcycling but still serious fun, thanks to a good power to weight ratio and nifty handling.
In town it’s a bit of a giant killer that can be ridden flat out in the first few gears. A handful of the front disc brake or some violence on the bars avoids terminal sparring matches with Joe Cager and the thing will squeeze through tiny gaps with exquisite alacrity. I've managed to totally burn off lumbering middleweight fours in deathwish mode, admittedly taking some rather strange routes through town and a rather elastic interpretation of the laws of the land. The minimal mass and narrowness made it so easy to control even under full throttle, that what would be huge risks on, say, a GT550 are just part of the normal day's ride on the XT.
My obvious verve enraged one DR on a VT500, who seemed under some delusion as to being king of the road if not of the whole universe. His bike was no wider than mine, leaving him under the impression that he could follow my waltz through traffic, up pavements and across the odd building site. Rather than delivering parcels he had a strange need to sit on my tail. There are a lot of silly people living under grave misapprehensions as to the true grit of your editor.
As they say, when the going gets the tough, the tough get going. In this case flat out down a narrow alley that was a mix of cobblestones and large pot-holes. Firm grip on the bars, up on the pegs and let the Yam rattle and roll to its heart's content. It was the kind of road that would tear the chassis of your average rat to bits.
The Serow survived with nothing more untoward than some large twitches, the VT ended up throwing its rider right off. I pulled up and went back to lend a hand. The shock of the fall had knocked some sense into my erstwhile assailant. I helped him pick up the pieces of indicators that had shattered and he muttered something about laying off the amphetamine tablets for a while, the only way he could keep up with the pace of despatching. I left him Supergluing his VT back together.
There are lots of small bikes that are very nasty if used at all hard. I wouldn't include early CD175's in that list as I had a hell of a lot of fun on one when I was seventeen. But single cylinder 125 Hondas have to be near the top of the list of vile creatures when used out of their context as short hop commuters. Any number of commuter stroker 100’s become pretty close to rolling nightmares when thrashed - a borrowed RS100 actually seized up at 60mph and had the audacity to try to bounce me out of the seat. It’s time like that when I’m thankful for the Ninja-like reactions in the left hand... and the strong stomach.
The RS is the kind of commuter that really pisses me off (not just because I had to pay for a new piston), especially when Yamaha produce really neat bikes like the Thai manufactured RXZ, a thoroughly sensible motorcycle with a 24hp stroker motor that manages to get the blood flowing even more so than the XT225. Strange that two such thoroughly good motorcycles don't make it to these shores in any numbers.
Even the old British motorcycle industry used to produce small motorcycles with an interesting blend of useful performance and true practicality. The Serow is surely a modern version of the Tiger Cub; the RXZ an echo of the BSA Bantam. Neither of those old Brits impressed either on the build quality or longevity fronts, the worn and rebuilt examples on the road, these days, more than likely to seize up when abused.
No, you can’t really go back in time but why throw away all the good qualities just because the motors had all the engineering finesse of a lawn-mower? These devices could be run for a year on the most minimal costs because that’s the way it had to be back then when there just wasn’t the spare dosh to throw away on excessive quantities of petrol, rubber and chains.
The Yam RXZ grew up in a third world country where money was then in short supply (it ain't, these days, but that’s another story) and its chassis evolved in a way many of the old British factories could’ve admired; the engine in stark contrast fed the populace’s need for some amusement and fast times, at least in the context of Thai traffic. It’s a brilliant combination, anyway, the kind of device the UK market desperately needs (at the right price) rather than the current dross and outrageously overpriced replicas.
The Serow’s a rather different concoction, that’s even more to my taste, my distrust of strokers being firmly entrenched from my days with a rabid (and certainly not rapid) NSU Quickly. Whilst I can accept the trail poise I would be even happier if the gem of four stroke thumper technology was fitted into the RXZ’s chassis, a bit of parts bin mixing and matching that would have done the old AMC factory proud (to get really nostalgic if not nasty) and would cost Yamaha sod all to develop.
Time was when four stroke singles needed frames built to railway engineering standards to withstand the vibes, but the combination of lighter reciprocating parts and engine balancers have made such concerns a thing of the past. Put it this way, if you're thinking turned really weird and you decided the ideal project was a Tiger Cub engine in a Serow chassis, I doubt that the frame would last out the week, such is the frenzy of vibes emitted by the British single.
It almost seems as if the Japanese factories are frightened of bringing out really practical machines that are also fun. Perhaps they think no-one will bother to buy the race replicas, where profits are in thousands rather than hundreds of pounds. Even when Honda came up with the equivalent of a RXZ 225 in the CBX250RS, or even better the home market (and still manufactured) GB250, it was so overpriced in relation to the earlier (and plainly inferior) RS250, that it just faded away in the face of poor sales. With this kind of motorcycle, that defines itself in attracting intelligent motorcyclists, price is always going to be an overriding factor. Its very simplicity allied with a touch of high tech will eventually emerge, even if it isn’t from Nippon, because in the end the market rules.
Bill Fowler