Yamaha did WHAT?
Yamaha just did something really smart and we have to talk about it. Hey, what’s up guys? Ro here. This time of the year there is the biggest motorcycle show in Italy in Milan called IKMA. All manufacturers they go there and introduce their new product that prototypes and all kinds of interesting stuff. Now, Yamaha is taking all that that we know and love from years of experience and they are teaming up with Electric Motion. That’s the company that I actually met with a few years back. Electric Motion is a French company that specializes in electric uh trials bike, enduro bikes. They do all kinds of electric dirt bikes back in France in in Europe and they’re really good in what they do. So, I actually met with them a couple years ago. They have uh some champions on the team, the trials champions, one is Chris from France, one is Jeff Aeron from USA that lives right next to me and uh we see how they ride these bikes and they are actually really really capable bikes. All right, so we don’t know a lot of details, but we know that this Yamaha will have a good powerful engine that will be on par with like 450s today with Starvark. It will have hydraulic clutch. So we actually have a wet clutch. There will be oil that would you would need to change every now and then. Now, Starbucks doesn’t have a clutch and these bugs actually have a clutch and not only they have a clutch, but they have a map where you can switch a map to certain, you know, position and the bike would be in the first gear. So, if you don’t pull the clutch in, the bike will be moving forward. It’s equivalent of having a combustion chamber motorcycle with the first gear in. So, you have to pull that clutch in, right? So, they are able to do all kinds of stuff through the meth. Now, the Yamaha YZ 450 2026 model with that electric engine from Electric Motion put together with hydraulic clutch, brakes, uh, you know, that come on the Yamaha KB suspension and all the stuff that we know. I think uh I think they will sell a lot of units. It’s a prototype. They’re not selling it tomorrow. This is something that they just unveiled on the on the show in Milan, but uh looking at it, it just looks very familiar. There’s a lot of people that love Yamahas. I’m one of them. You know, they have these good chassis. They have amazing suspension. They feel really good in our hands. We know the feel. We know how they how, you know, how they flex, how they feel when you ride them. So, there’s a lot of people that are brand loyal to Yamaha. If I’m actually going to buy an electric dirt bike and I’m comparing between some uh some stark futuristic thing from Europe and Yamaha that I I know looks exactly the same but has a different engine, I think I will pick Yamaha, you know, and there’s a lot of brand loyal people who just like blue color, who like how that bike feels in their hand, they would go and pick Yamaha. And I think it’s it’s really good, you know, on the market. It’s good to have more players because they’re going to chase each other. they gonna just raise the bar together as they are working on their product. I don’t think I’m going to go and buy one but uh you have to admit that they are becoming a normal thing to be seen on the tracks and uh people love them like I was just at the world red championship at Glenn Halen and every class would have some Starks in them. So there was some former pros, all kinds of different, you know, categories of riders were racing uh stark marks and it’s becoming a really normal thing to see them at the track. So now you have two-stroke, you got four strokes and you have your electric bikes. When as I said, I don’t think I’ll be riding electric bikes. Uh and I also don’t like if people say this is the only way for the future. I don’t think that’s the only way. If that’s the narrative that I don’t want to talk to you, but if uh this is one of the options we have, then I’m all in. If that’s the option that we have and we have our two-stroke and our four-stroke and electric, yeah, why not? You know, some people love that power that comes right on. They would love that clutch. You can do all kinds of different things with that bike once you have a clutch. I actually have a lot of footage from the trials riding with the clutch and it sounds kind of interesting. Yeah, I saw you uh you know jumping all those big racks today and you just pull the clutch in and you preload the power. You can hear that little frequency going up. And I’ll have some some footage here. I’ll show you guys. But uh is it the same feeling like when you are on a two-stroke and you just rev the engine and you let the clutch go? Is it the same feel or Yeah, totally the same. Yeah. Yeah. We have less sound for sure, but uh we we listen the engine and we can wait the RPM go to the maximum and when it’s full maximum, we just put the clutch and uh and after the power arrive. Yeah. So, it’s the same feeling. Yeah. Cool. So, you would be able to do the same with a YZ electric bike. you would have that clutch uh you know when it starts you can you can pull the clutch in you can go on the throttle you can release the clutch you can get that jump and uh you know you can clutch it in the corners you can clutch it over the obstacles if you take the bike off road you can have all that on your fingertips you can use the clutch the way you are using it now Yamaha is saying that they are going to join FIM motocross champion for electric dirt bikes so this bike that you see now in a picture would be capable of uh GP speed GP power So whatever you have on the on the gates right now on the 450s or starv for that matter uh this electric Yamaha will have similar power. So you know I think it’s not so difficult to pump up power from the electric engine electric motor you can get 60 80 horsepowers like what we see on the star bike for for a few years now right so there will be enough power there will be clutch on on that thing the suspension will be amazing I think the weight will be also not that drastic so the bike will feel pretty good you know I have one friend who had really bad injury and cannot move his leg he cannot do the shifting so the only way he can ride is to ride something that has only the throttle So few years back he actually built his own electric bike. He took like 2019 Yamaha or 2016 something like that uh 250 took the engine out and then he spent like 10 or $15,000 to fitting in electric motor and building a dirt bike that will have only the throttle and it was Yamaha with the electric motor with the throttle. He still has the bike but since uh since then he bought the Star and he was actually also racing the Glenn Helen and he’s crazy about racing now. He’s uh he’s done like 50 races up till uh today in 2025 and all of them are on a Starvark and he told me that he loves that Starvark. It’s very easy to maintain and it runs really good. So after the race, he would just power wash it, spray some WD on it, uh spray something on a chain and it’s ready for the next race. So, you know, it’s it’s really convenient having those electric bikes. You don’t change oils, you don’t do air filters, you know, you don’t do top ends, you don’t you don’t worry about many things that we worry on these bikes. Now, we love them and they are in my opinion much better because you have that sound, you have the feel, you have the vibration. So, that’s what I love. If you love electric, I don’t judge you. You know, there is a lot of options and if you look around, they are not going anywhere. They are becoming the the norm that we see now every day when we go to the track. So, let’s just embrace it. I’m open also to try one. If it comes my way, I’ll probably jump on one and see how it feels. And then maybe they’re going to do something similar about travel bike have that you will have option you push the button and bike will be in the gear. So when the bike is like idling which uh it doesn’t really idle because it’s electric bike but if the bike is on it will be pulling forward. So you have to go on the clutch uh to stop the bike uh which will give you you know good way to to maneuver to balance uh when you want to go on some slow technical stuff. Sometimes you just need to balance in the in the low RPM. You slip it a little bit, the bike will start crawling forward. So I think uh we are coming very close to the feel of the combustion chamber bikes that we’ve known for so many years. Looks like Yamaha is trying to make that gap between the electric and the combustion chamber motorcycles a little bit smaller. And I don’t know about you guys, but I think uh if they come up with this, if they release it on the market, there will be a lot of people who are maybe thinking to go with the Star of Arac. They will rather buy Yamaha that they know for so many years because I don’t think you have a new people jumping in motocross who never rode motocross and now they are just buying uh you know Starks. I think what’s happening is that people who are already good at a motocross, they want to try out the electric bikes and they go for Stark because that’s pretty much the only good option on the market. But if Yamaha comes with a with a YZ that is electric and has clutch and you know all the goodies that we already know then I think uh they are really good competition to the Star Arc and as I said it’s good for market because they just going to compete with each other. They’re going to raise the bar together and uh it’s going to be fun. Maybe I’ll try one too. All right guys well let me know below in the comments what you think about this new development from Yamaha. How do you feel about electric bikes? I know it’s not for everybody, but as I said, they are here and people are liking them. People are riding them. We see them every day. We see them all around the place. So, they are here. They are going nowhere. And there will be more and more electric bikes coming. But at the same time, we still have this beautiful two-strokes and four strokes. And I think they will never go anywhere. All right guys, let me know your opinion. And don’t forget, whatever you do, stay motivated. See you guys later.
Yamaha just introduced its new electric dirt bike YE – 01 with an oldschool hydraulic clutch on championship winning platform 2026 YZ450f in collaboration with Electric Motion! There is a lot to talk about, let me know what you guys think! Cheers!
