There have been reports for a long time now that Yamaha was planning to bring the much-loved RX100 back to life. However, there was always the concern of how Yamaha would be able to do justice to the name. The worrying question was how Yamaha intended to capture the spicy nature of the original two-stroke RX100 with a four-stroke motor.
We put that question forward to Yamaha India chairman Eishin Chihana and his response will put most enthusiasts at ease. Chihana stated how he was well aware of the history of the RX100 in international markets, but that he was surprised by how iconic the bike was in India, for riders of all ages.
He went on to reiterate that the Yamaha RX100 was a very special model for India and what made it so was its styling, light weight, power and sound. To recreate those criteria in a four-stroke model, it would have to be a “minimum of 200cc, but even there you can’t produce a great sound”.
“We have no intention to ruin the RX100, so until we are sure that we can produce a high performance, lightweight bike with the correct performance, we will not launch it. With the current line-up, 155cc is not enough.”
Essentially, you shouldn’t expect to see the Yamaha RX name make a comeback in India in the near future, but Yamaha is working on it and when the bike does come, it will have a performance-oriented engine that is larger than 200cc.
Azaman Chothia
Vishal Venugopal
