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Now you've done it . The forum police will be along soon .
Interesting, says yamaha patented a type of cush drive between motor and gearbox that replaces the mechanical clutch they had on the trials bike. I still wouldn't mind having a left hand lever that doubles as a digital clutch and regen braking lever depending on throttle input.
1.) Alta/Stark make clutchless electric MX bikes.
2) Many MX consumers say, "Looks good, but I really want a manual clutch mechanism, too."
3.) Yamaha designs electric dirt bike platform with sophisticated manual clutch system.
4.) Yamaha designs MX version of said electric platform, with the major change being deletion of the clutch because they say MX doesn't need it.
Interesting info! The way they use a flywheel and springs . Looks like they used the 2 stroke bodywork on the patent drawings.
And it is 100% a motocross bike. I've seen patents from Yamaha for SXS's that still have not come out 3 years later. So who knows. Hopefully they have a production bike available soon. If not soon, maybe it will be a preproduction version they race in the EMXGP class in 2026.
Worth clicking the link to read if You like electric MX bikes.
The Shop
i guess some of the down vote people also ride hd's and put straight thru exhausts on their paint shakers. Electric bikes don't save the planet but they do offer riding area options that ice bikes don't have. Plus the e bikes are far less maintenance.
I don't race MX. Guarantee me 60 to 100 miles and I'm in.
Make it sound like a 2-stroke and it will sell like hotcakes.
Don't get too excited, the proportions of the bike are similar to a YZ85...
not a YZ125...
There's nothing ground breaking in the patent...
Electric YZ85 sized bike is more exciting than 125 sized.
Either way its cool to see it happening. Patent drawings like this will sometimes not be to scale or even sometimes use details that are not part of the patent to throw people off of what the production version is. Honda and Yamaha have filed Patents for SXS stuff that was drawn so that it looked like a different vehicle .
But that bodywork is the 85 bodywork. I took the patent drawing and put a transparent version of it over an 85 Big wheel and it is very close. I had to extend the suspension a little but to get the wheels to line up. But the photo is most likely taken with the wheels on the ground so It would be extended similarly to the patent drawings.
A big wheel sized electric MX bike would be a great cross over with the Surron market. Could be used as a play bike . I'm sure it is just one of multiply bikes they are working on. Perhaps they will have a similar design that is scaled for each model.
The flywheel and spring to help with giving the bike the pop at lower HP that the Varg lacks was the part that stuck out to me.
Below is the big wheel photo and the patent image overlay.
Yz85 sized would be awesome. One bike that could be situationally ridden by men, women, or kids -- absolute beginner to fast schoolboy. Raced or used as a silent pitbike/ranchbike just by changing up the power profiles.
Whatever it is, its cool that Yamaha has something they have put out there to a degree. They could easily have other sized bikes that scale up and down. And use the same patent .
Depending on the price, I could see a lot of Surron riders buy a big wheel YZ electric. Many people will spend twice what they pay for the bike on add ons. If Yamaha is able to have them priced similarly to the 85's they would be close to the Surrons that are beefed up over the base model.
For me, an XR200 is a great sized playbike/pitbike. So this Yamaha would be a bit small. Someday I'll buy a chassis and make my own electric play bike.
A big wheel Yamaha has a higher seat height than an XR200. And an electric version would probably have more low end than an XR200, too.
Give it the three handlebar-position clamps like the big bikes and some 2-position footpeg mounts, and you're good to go.
Electricity is overrated.
Xr200 has full size wheels though.
Kawi KLX140s are available in wheel size from 14/17 all the way to full on the same basic platform. But 19/16 really is a great setup for a do-it-all bike.
And? Sasquatch commented the xr200 is the perfect size playbike and the ya would be small. The wheels are probably a factor in this.
This could be similar because that frame size of bike is so versatile. Like I said, you can buy a klx 140 mini straight from Kawi with full size wheel option.
Pit Row
The last 85 I rode was a CR. Many years ago and it felt so much smaller than an XR200 as far as seat to peg and the layout of the bars. Seat to peg height matters more for me to fit on it. I feel like the suspension would be closer to being sprung stiff enough for what the chassis can handle on an XR. I guess for a pit bike, it might be ok just seems like I would squish it and have a chopper/lowrider.
If they come out with one, I'll go take a look at one . And the next time I have a BW in the shop I'll have to look closer. I have Husky, ktm and Gasgas 85's and 105's here often. They do seem closer to big bikes and bigger than past 80s. Sometimes even being confused for a 125 by other customers.
It would be cool if Yamaha made a play bike version of the BW with an XL wheel size. That is a 18/21
I had a customer with a KLX140G , I think they changed the name. But it came with 18/21 wheels. they had 3 versions the year she got hers.
With this YZ, a supermini race bike, and beginner/play bike that has full sized wheels and bigger forks etc. Maybe not as adjustable so that the price can be kept down. A tall seat option could also help with adjusting the fit.
Concepts like these are a big part of why I get so excited about electric dirtbkes. The flexibility that it gives for chassis design and modular possibilities. I think making a Tall sized chassis would not be as big of a process with an electric as an ICE bike.
If Yamaha brings out a YZ85 sized electric bike there will be a market for it, but Yamaha and other OEMs at some stage will need to bring out a full sized bike to compete with the Stark Varg.
I'm sure they are working on one. I've been following SXS stuff for the past 10ish years. And both Yamaha and Honda have been sneaky with their patents. Sometimes filing stuff that they have yet to build 10 or more years later. Or having unrelated stuff to misdirect and make it harder to predict what the final application will be.
Yamaha's Full sized EMX bike could be a scaled up version of this bike. Using the flywheel system .
I can see why they might go with an 85 sized bike. Honda was able to get their 150 into the supermini class, the AMA seems more open to allow mini electrics. Letting an electric Supermini into AMA racing has no chances of messing things up like setting some power limit for full sized bikes that gives electric an advantage could.
I still would rather see a full sized EMX bike from them. And something intended for SX/MX. Time will tell. And I think that Yamaha still may be the first with a production competitor for the Varg unless Honda figures out Solid state batteries real soon..
Yamaha and Honda have always been prolific at filing patents, most of their patent applications in Japan aren't granted, the ones that are granted are then patented in other countries, there is usually a 2 year delay.
I still am blown away that Honda was able to patent the Triangle stand . And for years, other brands would have to make their stands into odd shapes to get around the patent. At the time it sounded funny that Honda owned the rights to the triangle when its holding up a motorcycle. Now that it ran out, everybody has basic triangle stands .
Or running the brake line from the caliper straight to the master cylinder. Like how else are you supposed to do it? so everyone had to come up with a way to route brake lines through some tube or something.
Yup. That was another one. I was surprised they did not somehow own the rights to a circle for the purpose of moving a motocross bike at some point.
The brake line thing did give them a slight performance advantage. Helping their front brakes work better. I guess the triangle stand thing cost their competition some extra money to work around the patent. But crazy what has been able to be patented over the years.
I'm sure that just like cellphones the early electric MX bikes will have proprietary charging connections. And everybody will try and develop what will become the standard setup years down the road. It would be nice if they worked together on a standard from the start. I wonder if Honda or Yamaha will offer a generator with built in charger for their MX bikes? could charge with DC and charge faster but still have an invertor so it would double as AC power for other stuff . And also be a plug in style charger. Or if that would go against the reasons they are making electric MX bikes. And making it so it could charge all electric MX bikes. So You could keep it for years.
A common battery would also be nice . So bare tool style bikes could be a thing too. Keep Your charger and battery from Your old bike and get a fresh chassis for much less$$. Maybe after there are batteries that have enough capacity to provide more than enough range for everybody , then new developments would not be needing to make big jumps in power and a standard size battery might be able to work.
Gotta love patents, and reading through the legaleeze.
Specifically, routing it up the inside of the fork leg, around to the front clamp and then straight up and over.
The gyrations the other manufacturers went through to route the brake line and the clamping systems they used to avoid patent infringement must have made some people at Honda laugh until it hurt every time they saw it... until their patent ran out.
It's the simple things in life that give the most pleasure.
Yamaha and Kawasaki announced they would jointly develop batteries for some sort of standard. This was a few years ago if I recall. Who knows if that is still happening.
I remember there being an announcement about that. And it included a lot of manufacturers. But a lot of that was for scooters and smaller , non high performance machines. It was almost all the current brands that were agreeing to work together. Maybe that was something else?
I could see Yamaha and Honda , maybe Bosch . being OEM suppliers of motors and batteries for other brands. Like Ebikes have a few motor makers. But as I type this, I think that Hitachi and Kawasaki are connected somehow.
It would be cool if in the future you could have an industry standard motor mount like RC cars . Not mount like an RC car. But have all brands use the same basic design so that You could swap motors around and they would all play nicely together. Have a controller that could work with any motor, a motor that would work with any controller, and batteries that would also swap over. I doubt it will happen anytime soon though. EMTB's all have different mounts and are made to be very hard to change out to a different system.
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