There is a lot of confusion and same magnitude of interest in Yamaha’s quarter litre motorcycles. Days ago we had the Yamaha R25 concept that was unveiled along with a lot of info and now we have a slightly different but very interesting news bit coming from the house of Jap giants!
It is being speculated that Yamaha is planning a 300cc bike to take on the rival Honda CBR300R and Kawasaki Ninja 300. The guesstimation mills are at full throttle and a few of them suggest that it may just be a 300cc motor coming from Yamaha and 250 may just not exist!
The conjectures stem from the news of Yamaha Motor Corporation requesting with European Union and United States the exclusive trademarks on the name “YZF-R3″ and “R3″ for its motorcycles according to Visordown.com. These multiple trademark applications were filed on January 6th of this year and are under consideration with the authorities.
So then, is the YZF-R3 the new 300 cc sportsbike from Yamaha?
There are reasons to believe it could be so.
Hitherto, Yamaha has the YZF nomenclature reserved for its sportsbikes, like YZF-R1 (1000 cc) and YZF-R6 (600 cc). Then there is a 150 cc sports called the YZF-R15 and then there was YZF-R25 concept, showcased in the last Tokyo Motor Show, which was widely believed to be the 250cc sports heading to India and other markets. The competition has shunned the smaller 250cc pot for the slightly larger 300 cc cylinder, understandably for better performance, and it would seem that Yamaha might have decided to take the same route.
* The R25 Concept. Click pic for details
Yamaha, of course, has been tight lipped about the new developments, but the news of a small capacity sports bike from their stable has been doing rounds for quite some time now. Even the Yamaha poster boy Valentino Rossi has been seen on videos riding a rather aggressive-looking sports bike and announcing to the world that “this bike really packs a punch!”
Up till now, I was under the impression that the bike Rossi rode in the video was the all new twin-cylinder 250cc from Yamaha that I ever so dearly wanted. But the new developments now suggest that the bike may be little bigger than what we have been expecting. Why not launch both of them with a big banggg! But whatever you do, just hurry up with it, will you?
