Feast your eyes on the Yamaha BW’S, a new rugged version for the Iwata marque’s venerable scooter range that has just received its debut in - for now at least - Taiwan.
Yamaha’s immensely popular scooter range in Europe needs little introduction but you may need a bit of a reminder when it comes to the BW, a more rugged go-anywhere version of its ubiquitous runarounds.
Launched back in the 1980s, the Yamaha BW200 - ‘BW’ standing for ‘Big Wheel’ - was exactly that, a big wheeled, dual purpose dirt bike intended to give the flexibility of a scooter with the go-anywhere ability of an off-roader.
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The name has continued to live on in various forms ever since, though you’ll need to look hard to track one down with a brief Google search revealing a Yamaha BW Naked from 2016 available on the Russian-arm of Yamaha’s model range site where its big tyres and stripped back design are, we assume, more ideal for potentially more challenging terrain. The Yamaha Zuma sold in the US is also a successor the BW line.
Fast-forward to now and we have the Yamaha BW’S which evokes BW’s of yore with dual headlamps and utilitarian finish giving it a convincing appearance as a - what Yamaha dubs - ‘Wild Survivor’.
While the reality might be less Bear Grylls and more camping in the back garden with its 12-inch wheels and 125cc engine, there is certainly a market for something that at least looks a bit tougher judging by the success of the machine the Yamaha BW’S will be targeting, the Honda ADV 150.
Whether the Yamaha BW’S escapes Taiwan remains to be seen but we can imagine there are those out there that wouldn’t mind a faux-adventure scooter that looks capable of scaling more than the odd kerb.
