One For the Ysr50 Haters

One for the YSR50 haters

LETTER FROM Japan

From the start, people here in Japan have been fascinated with the 50cc mini-racers. After all, the cute little machines do look like GP racebikes for munchkins. But no one expected Yamaha’s street-legal YSR50 to disappear from dealerships as quickly as it did the instant it was introduced in Japan and the U.S. And Honda has now exploded into the market with its own mini-racer, the NSR50. By far, it's the most serious of the fun 50s, a fact that should drive YSR50 owners crazy.

In both styling and performance, the NSR50 begins where the YSR50 left off. Positioned on its optional racing stand and parked next to the factory NSR500 GP bike, the street-legal 50 looks like a mirror-image of the racebike—albeit in a very small mirror.

To the surprise of those who have ridden it, the NSR50 performs like a much bigger machine.

The 49cc engine is highly responsive and provides more excitement than most riders first expect. The liquid-cooled, two-stroke Single belts out nearly seven horsepower at a mild 10,000 rpm in the street-stock version. It utilizes a six-speed transmission to make it go, and dual-piston hydraulic disc brakes to make it stop. The bike comes with both tachometer and speedometer mounted in a small, closed-cell-foam racing panel; the exhaust silencer is a racer-replica aluminum can, preceded by a large expansion chamber that sweeps under the gold-and-silver engine.

In nearly every way, the NSR50 promises to be a better machine than its Yamaha counterpart, simply because it has better suspension and stronger engine performance. And with the YSRs selling for hundreds of dollars above retail price in the U.S., the NSR50’s price of nearly $ 1400—will seem like a real bargain if this miniracer ever escapes from Japan.