Nothing fancy here, just a good, honest motorcycle in the classic UJM mold–in-line four, single disc brake, tube frame.
You probably wouldn’t think that new riders looking for a cheap and unintimidating starter bike would have much in common with budget-minded veterans who neither need nor want the expense and complexity of new models. But the requirements of both often seem to converge around middleweights from the mid-1990s. At the center of this particular Venn diagram is Yamaha’s Seca II, a bike whose modest specifications belie its versatility, and whose used price is such a bargain you almost can’t afford to not buy one.
The Seca’s 599cc engine has dual overhead cams, two valves per cylinder, four 28mm Mikuni carbs and a six-speed gearbox. There’s little in that list to make a sportbike rider’s heart beat faster, but that wasn’t what Yamaha was after. With 61 horsepower on tap, the 452-pound Seca is sufficient to introduce novice riders to the heady joys of acceleration while keeping the transportation-focused ones from becoming hood ornaments on the freeway.
Basic scheduled maintenance is usually all it takes to push the understressed Seca past the 50,000-mile mark.
What the Seca lacks in sheer excitement it makes up for in practicality, usually as a backup for your hot-blooded sportbike or your elephantine tourer. The Seca won’t take up much of your weekends with maintenance or repair; the understressed engine routinely sends the odometer past the 50,000-mile mark with little more than regular oil changes and the occasional chain service. Some high-mile engines sound like they have a dollar’s worth of loose change in the crankcase, but synching the carbs and adjusting the valves usually clears it up.
One very large red flag is if the starter spins without turning over the engine. A stripped idler gear might be the cause, and it’s not an easy fix–the crankcases have to be split to get at it. Leaky valve-cover and clutch-cover gaskets are common but easily fixed.
The Seca II was featured on the cover of the March 1992 issue of Rider.
The Seca’s chassis mimics the engine’s no-big-deal philosophy. The tubular-steel frame has a 38mm non-adjustable front fork, a single rear shock with preload adjustment, a 320mm single disc brake and a 245mm rear. Cast wheels are shod with a 110/80-17 front tire and 130/70-18 rear. The seat is 30.3 inches off the deck and, while not actually built for touring, is tolerable for one or two riders on day rides. Mileage is typically in the 45-55 mpg range, depending on how you load the bike and how hard you flog it.
The fairing does a decent job of blunting the wind. But like all plastic parts, and especially those on older bikes, it’s expensive to replace, so look closely for cracks around the mounting points and the windscreen, and be prepared to lower your offer substantially depending on what you find. Also inspect the fuel petcock for leaks. Faulty ones let gas drain into the engine, leading to the aforementioned starter idler gear losing its teeth as it strains against flooded cylinders.
The Seca’s reputation for reliability is sometimes its downfall, as owners neglect necessary chores in favor of more road time. Check used examples for leaks, loose steering-head bearings and crash damage. Shine a light in the tank and look for rust caused by water in the gas. The Seca is notoriously cold-blooded, but if it can’t be ridden cleanly off the choke after 10 minutes something’s up. Book prices range from just under a grand for a 1992 model to $1,300 for a ’98.
Yamaha XJ600 Seca II
Pros: A solid and reliable middleweight that won’t keep you up late at night in the garage. A learner bike worth keeping.
Cons: All the flair of vanilla ice cream. Gets you there with little fuss, and less excitement.
Specs: Displacement: 599cc Final drive: Chain Wet Weight: 452 lbs. Fuel capacity: 4.6 gals. Seat Height: 30.3 in.
After the success of the Niken, the world’s first production Leaning Multi-Wheeled motorcycle introduced last year, Yamaha has launched a sport-touring version called the Niken GT, with a larger windscreen, heated grips, comfort seats, saddlebags, a centerstand and more. With neutral, natural steering feel and an incredible amount of front-end grip, the Niken must be experienced to be believed.
Battery swap technology has received a boost with Yamaha unveiling their EC-05 electric scooter with Gogoro lithium-ion battery packs you can easily swap at a convenient roadside vending machine.
The Yamaha scooter is a partnership with Taiwanese scooter company Gogoro Global.
Taiwan seems to be the epicentre of swappable battery tech with Kymco last year releasing their Ionex electric scooter with similar-sized battery packs.
Kymco Ionex battery swap vending machines
Old battery swap tech
Battery swap technology is not new. In 1938, British company Battery Traction Ltd came up with the idea, but it was sidelined by World War II.
Better Place also suggested the idea for cars in 2008 and went broke in 2013.
Better Place battery switch station in Israel
Several car companies have also dabbled with the idea, but canned it because their batteries are too big.
However, Tesla has patented a robot that can charge an electric car’s battery in 15 minutes and some small electric city cars can swap batteries in under a minute.
Now it seems battery swap technology is back on the drawing board, at least for motorcycles and scooters where the batteries are small and light enough for a rider to carry.
In the case of the Yamaha EC-05 and Kymco Ionex, they fit two lithium-ion batteries about the size of half a briefcase.
There is no technical information on their weight, but the images suggest they are not that heavy as they are carried by a skinny young woman.
They even have a similar handle on top and can be bought from convenient roadside vending machines or charged at home.
Yamaha hopes to start delivering their scooters from August but initially only in Taiwan where there are already more than 1000 battery swap vending machines.
It will only be a matter of time before they are available in other countries. Gogoro already sells its electric scooters in Europe.
However, the new design shows that they are considering adding an electric spark to more models than just an R1-styled sports bike.
There is also talk of electric scooters and we suspect an electric version of the three-wheeler Niken.
Bright spark
These new patent designs are not really concerned with the type of the bike, but where the charging socket will go.
Some drawings show the plug socket in the traditional place where a fuel tank filler would be. They also show a socket in the instruments and nose cone.
Plug socket in nose cone
After all, it could be located anywhere on an electric bike, so long as it is convenient.
Yamaha recently joined with fellow Japanese manufacturers Honda, Kawasaki and Suzuki to standardise electric motorcycle technology such as batteries and charging infrastructure.
That would mean plugs on bikes and sockets on charging points would suit all electric motorcycle models.
That could be what this patent is about, rather than just designs for an electric version of the R1.
It seems everyone is now considering electric motorcycles and scooters.
In the past few weeks we have seen announcements and patent designs from traditional motorcycle companies such as Triumph, KTM, BMW, Buell and Kawasaki.
Last SeptemberI participated in the Three Flags Classic, an endurance ride from Mexico to Canada totaling more than 5,000 miles (read about it here), and had my pick of motorcycles on which to do it. I needed something comfortable, of course, but also wanted some cornering clearance for when things got twisty, plenty of luggage space and an athletic, upright riding position in case we encountered gravel or dirt (which we did). Then Senior Editor Drevenstedt came home with a new Yamaha Tracer 900 GT, which he’d ridden back to SoCal from the launch in Washington, and I had my mount.
Before I left, however, we needed to address some minor touring shortcomings and prepare the bike for its adventure. So off the Tracer went to Yamaha to be outfitted with a Yamaha accessory comfort seat and taller touring windscreen, along with a set of new Dunlop Roadsmart III tires and some DP Brakes sintered pads that would offer better bite and feedback than the stock pads. When it came back a couple of weeks later, we discovered Yamaha had gone above and beyond by also adding a radiator guard, front fender extender, engine case guards, a larger rear rack and a full Yoshimura exhaust system.
Almost 5,000 miles later, I was grateful and impressed with everything…with the exception of the exhaust. Its sporty, aggressive song became tiring and abrasive, even with earplugs, after eight-plus daily hours of high-speed droning. Everything else, though, made a good sport tourer a great one. While I never tested the engine guards (thankfully), Yamaha’s comfort seat and touring screen kept me comfortable, the big rear rack made it a breeze to attach the dry duffel holding my camping gear and after miles of loose gravel in Montana, the radiator guard had proved its worth. The Dunlops especially impressed me, proving to stick faithfully regardless of temperature or road condition, including rain, sleet and slush, and even after my ride they were only just starting to square off and had plenty of tread left.
Some have complained of a bit of buzziness generated by the Tracer’s 847cc triple, but I had no issues; perhaps the comfort seat helped, and I made judicious use of the cruise control, which worked very well. My only remaining niggle is that the footpegs are set fairly far back, resulting in a sporty knee bend that could get tiresome. Otherwise, though, our kitted-out Tracer turned out to be a solid sport-touring machine that inspires me to wonder: where shall I go next?
Longhaulpaul (Paul Pelland) ran his 2018 Yamaha Star Venture on a dyno for 24 hours to raise funds for an MS charity and set his third world record.
Paul Pelland,
also known as Longhaulpaul, set his third world record by riding a 2018 Yamaha
Star Venture for 24 straight hours on a dynamometer, while raising $18,500 for the
multiple sclerosis charity MS Views and News, Inc.
Longhaulpaul’s
“Nonstop to Nowhere” event was broadcast live on Facebook in a telethon-style
fundraiser as Pelland rode his Yamaha Star Venture at freeway speeds on a
dynamometer for 24 straight hours with no rest breaks or stops, traveling an
estimated 1,674 miles.
The event
offered a variety of entertainment including Pelland playing guitar, eating
bugs and raffling off $3,600 worth of prizes, all while seated on the Star
Venture. Thousands of viewers from around the world tuned in throughout the
broadcast, with hundreds of donors contributing $18,500 to MS Views and News,
funding educational programs for people living with multiple sclerosis.
Longhaulpaul with his Yamaha Star Venture somewhere on the Blue Ridge Parkway.
After being
diagnosed with MS himself, Paul began a million-mile journey raising awareness
and funds as he toured the United States on two motorcycles Yamaha donated to
the cause—first a Super Ténéré adventure bike, followed by a Star Venture
touring bike. After 6 years, he has ridden 350,000 miles, raised $150,000 for
charity and has shared his inspirational story with over 250 audiences across
the country.
For more about Longhaulpaul, his fundraisers, or this event, visit longhaulpaul.com. Follow his journey on Youtube, Facebook and Instagram @longhaulpaul.
So it seems the future for motorcycle engines might be blown, either with forced induction or exhaust.
Blown filing
The Yamaha patent filing shows drawings of a turbo in an MT-09 which is actually powered by a triple-cylinder engine.
However, patent drawings don’t necessarily mean they will build the engine, the bike or use the MT-09 to house the engine.
If it’s the MT-09 engine with a cylinder lobbed off, it would be about 588cc which would be the same engine capacity as the Suzuki Recursion turbo concept unveiled in 2013 with a single-overhead-cam parallel-twin turbo engine.
Suzuki Recursion
Blown era
The switch to smaller, lighter, more powerful yet more fuel-efficient blown bikes makes a lot of sense given the stricter emissions rules in Europe and California, as well as tough imposts such as a charges for or restrictions on older bikes entering CBDs.
Turbo was the “next big thing” back in the ’80s with models from several of the Japanese manufacturers, including the Honda CB500 Turbo, Yamaha XJ650 Turbo, Suzuki XN85, and Kawasaki GPz750 Turbo.
Honda CX 650TC Turbo
1984 Suzuki XN85 Turbo
1984 Kawasaki GPZ750 Turbo
They had manic light-switch power that made them not only difficult to control, but dangerous. They were also temperamental and unreliable.
However, modern low-boost mini turbos and superchargers which have revolutionised the car industry in recent years would be a lot more controllable and reliable than the temperamental rocketships of the ‘80s.
Turbo problems
Turbos and superchargers require a fair bit of plumbing and coolers.
They are easy to fit in a car where space is not scarce like on a motorcycle.
The Yamaha patent presents two different solutions to the problem.
In one filling, the exhaust headers merge into one to pipe the gas through an intercooler into a low-mounted turbocharger in front of the engine with the catalytic converter underneath.
The other filing (top image on this page) has the turbo upside down and closer to the headers, allowing the cat to be mounted in front of the cylinders.
It is not only more compact but would also heat the cat faster and decrease emissions.
It took a while to overcome my instincts and APF (acute pucker factor) before I could pitch the 2019 Yamaha Niken GT into wet corners at dry-road speeds, but once there it does indeed stay stuck. (Photography by Joe Agustin)
Following our first ride on the 2018 Niken at the press introduction in Europe, Yamaha pre-sold every one of the relatively few examples it brought to the States, and test units of the world’s first production Leaning Multi-Wheeled motorcycle were tough to come by. Although I was able to write a fairly comprehensive review of the two-front-wheeled bike based on the 140-mile intro ride, questions still remained. Namely, how does the Niken work on the wet, dirty, snotty, bumpy roads it was designed to tame, rather than just licked-clean, dry and perfectly surfaced twisties in the Austrian alpine sunshine? Fortunately we were able to get back on the LMW’s saddle recently at the launch of the 2019 Niken GT on some wonderfully varied roads in Central California. And not only did it rain all freakin’ day, I was able to abscond with a test bike to put on our scale and into the curious hands of the entire Rider staff.
Wide handlebar provides ample leverage, and with the smooth action of the leaning mechanism and suspension makes the Niken steering effortless.
My riding impressions, the tech details and features of the Niken in my First Ride Review still hold true, but know this: Regardless of your feelings about its angry-robot looks, the 580-600-pound wet weight (depending on model) of the 3-cylinder, 847cc bike or insecurities about being seen on such a weird and groundbreaking motorcycle, I have never ridden faster around a corner in the rain on a machine that leans in my entire life. In the pouring rain on the tightest, slickest, bumpiest part of snaky Tepusquet Canyon Road, I repeatedly tried to break the Niken GT’s front end loose, and failed. There is so much grip front and rear that–while it takes some time to put your trust in the disconnected feeling common to alternative front ends–once you do the Niken will simply keep leaning farther and farther without a hint of looseness or instability, right up to the 43 degrees of lean when its footpeg feelers touch tarmac. With two tires up front, should one tire slip in some dirt or leaves the other takes over, during braking as well as cornering, and road irregularities like tar snakes and rain grooves simply disappear. The sense of effortless stability from the steering and suspension is unequaled by any normal motorcycle as well.
A hybrid frame with a cast steel headstock, tubular-steel main frame and cast aluminum swingarm pivot support and swingarm result in a much stronger arrangement than the all-aluminum frame of the Tracer 900 from which the Niken gets its engine.
Sure, a good sportbike can exceed 43 degrees of lean without trying hard, even the 45 degrees of which the Niken is capable before its parallel quadrilateral support arms bottom out. The Niken and Niken GT aren’t intended to push cornering extremes, but to add a level of confidence to everyday riding and safety to riding in poor road conditions. Since it’s a full-size motorcycle, not a scooter, doesn’t have a tilt lock and must be held up at stops and parked on its sidestand (or GT’s centerstand), the Nikens are intended for experienced riders, perhaps those looking for a little less worry or stress when riding in the rain or at a brisk pace. Most of all they’re a lot of fun to ride thanks to that riding-on-rails stability combined with sportbike-like agility–every time I ride one I’m reminded of the Speeder bikes in “Star Wars” zipping through the trees in the Endor forest. And yes, you can easily share or split lanes–the handlebar is the widest part of the bike, and it’s no wider than a typical adventure bike bar. I’d still like more bite from the front brakes–although there’s an opposed 4-piston caliper on each wheel, the discs are smallish at 266mm–and while the heated grips worked well on the low and medium settings, on our test bike they didn’t heat evenly on high.
Fifteen-inch front wheels provide agility with stability, and the stock Bridgestone Adventure A41 tires grip remarkably well.
The Niken is part of Yamaha’s sport-touring lineup, and well it should be, given its relaxed upright seating. Unlike the Tracer 900 it’s based upon, footpegs are underneath the rider rather than behind, and are low enough to allow plenty of legroom. There’s a natural reach to the high, wide handlebar, which doesn’t put any weight on your wrists, and comfortable weight distribution between your butt and feet. The Niken GT takes the touring equation several steps further by adding a wider, taller windscreen, heated grips, comfort rider and passenger seats, a passenger grab rail that is top-case ready, an additional 12-watt power outlet, a pair of quick-release 25-liter saddlebags and a centerstand. Although not quite big enough to hold a full-face helmet, the semi-soft, zippered clamshell saddlebags have a slick, lightweight design to help keep the GT’s load capacity above 400 pounds. Separate waterproof liners and small combination locks for the zippers keep you gear dry and secure, and both the bags and mounting racks lock to the bike but release easily so you can take just the bags with you or remove the entire setup, leaving just a small mounting stub on either side.
With bodywork removed and lifted with a floor jack, you can see the full range of motion of the parallel quadrilateral arms that allow the Niken to lean.
All told the GT package only adds 20 pounds, and all of its components work exceptionally well. The comfort seats are plush and cozy for long rides (though they do raise the rider’s seat height about an inch, which puts me on my tiptoes at stops), the windscreen provides good upper body coverage and the centerstand eases final drive-chain service (and lets you lift the front to show off the movement of the parallel fork support arms). For more wind protection a 2.4-inch-taller windscreen is available for the Niken GT, and Yamaha offers heated comfort seats as well.
With just 16.1 inches between tire centers, the Niken’s handlebar is the widest part of the bike, so sharing lanes is a snap.
As Yamaha’s and the world’s first production LMW motorcycle, given the small number of Nikens and Niken GTs the company is offering globally (and their premium pricing), I have to believe that it’s testing the waters in the real world not just to see how well its known performance parameters are accepted, but also its unknown ones–what sort of effect might the Niken have on a rider’s attitude about going back to a regular bike with “just” one wheel in front, for example? Given its testing of more extreme LMW variations and even self-balancing autonomous motorcycles, you have to believe that the Niken is just the first salvo in a separate line of LMWs if it shows promise. Imagine its front end on an FJR1300, for example, with tilt lock as an option. Sport touring would never be the same.
Niken GT adds a taller, wider windscreen, heated grips, comfort seats, 25-liter saddlebags, passenger grab rail that’s top-case ready and a centerstand.
Performance Fuel Capacity: 4.8 gals., last 1.06 gal. warning light on MPG: 91 AKI min. (low/avg/high) 36.0/41.4/45.8 Estimated Range: 199 miles Indicated RPM at 60 MPH: 4,000
Liquid-cooled, transverse 847cc in-line triple gets a number of minor changes for use in the Niken.LCD meter is clear, easy-to-read and provides heated grip, ride mode and traction control settings and trip computer data at a glance.Taller, wider windscreen on the GT provides ample upper body protection; a 2.4-inch taller one is available, too.Plusher GT seats add comfort for long rides (and rider’s is about one-inch taller).Lightweight, quick-release semi-soft saddlebags hold about 25 liters, or 11 pounds, and come with waterproof liner bags.Additional 12-watt (1 amp) power outlet on the Niken GT, and remote rear preload adjuster.If those two wheels don’t their attention, the twin LED headlights will.A break in the rain at beautiful Avila Bay, California, after lunch at the Olde Port Inn on the pier. With the addition of the GT equipment, the Niken is ready for some long and memorable rides.
1969 Yamaha DS6-C Street Scrambler. Owner: Ed Heckman, Paso Robles, California.
For more than 10 years 250 two-stroke twins were the mainstay of the Yamaha range here in the United States, from the DS1 of 1959 (though not sold in the U.S. until 1961) to the DS7 of 1972. We have no idea what the DS stands for, but doubt that it has anything to do with the DS prefix used in Yamaha’s music department. Two-strokes were the popular engines for sporty bikes in the 1960s, being reasonably powerful and inexpensive to make. Running against this 250 DS6 were Suzuki’s Hustler and Kawasaki’s Samurai, all in the $600 range. Any college student having a few bucks in his pocket could probably arrange time payments with the local dealer…backed by Dad’s signature.
When Yamaha advertised this quarter-liter as having 30 horsepower, interest was great. And it passed the eye test as well, with high pipes, one on each side. This was styled as a dual-purpose machine–hence the C in the alpha numerology. The chassis design was much more favorable to the street rather than the trail, so the high pipes were more a styling point rather than functional.
The history of the DS6 engine was long and had the distinct advantage of being associated with Yamaha’s racing 250, the TD1, which had great success over the previous decade. Riders could thank Yamaha’s racing shop for improvements, as the company was intent on keeping its 250 riders on the podium. And what is good on the track can be tuned down to find its place on the street. Any time the engineers improved the racer, they would try to figure out a way to adapt whatever it was to the street bike. Ads for the DS6 promoted the TD’s Daytona wins in 1967 and 1968.
The DS6 246cc engine was of piston-port design, with the 56mm bore and 50mm stroke that had been around for 10 years. This was a genuine five-porter, the ports being cast into the aluminum cylinders with cast iron liners. The new for ’69 cylinders had three transfer ports, along with intake and exhaust, allowing for a larger fuel charge to find its way into the combustion chambers faster. Compression ratio was a reliable 7.3:1, and the cylinders now had copper head gaskets to replace the earlier aluminum ones–which had a tendency to fail when pushed very hard. Naturally these new gaskets came from the racing TDs. Inside the engine were race-worthy bearings, though they would never be subjected to the 10,000-plus rpm attained by TDs. Those 30 advertised horses were said to be generated at 7,500 rpm, and were certainly taken off the crankshaft rather than the rear wheel. Road tests merely quoted the “claimed bhp.”
Two 26mm Mikuni VMC two-stroke carbs combined with Yamaha’s Autolube system fed the fuel/oil mixture into the crankcase. Yamaha was noted for having developed the Autolube system, using a separate container for oil rather than messily mixing it with gas in the tank. It was being used on Yamaha’s race bikes in the late ’50s, and then adapted to street machines in the early ’60s. The greatest advantage to Autolube was that it could closely regulate the amount of oil to be mixed with the gas, so instead of having a steady 20:l mixture, which could get quite smoky at times, the oil was metered by both engine speed and the opening of the throttle valves. This could diminish oil input when idling through town, and give it an almighty whack when the rider decided that a full-on accelerator rush down a country road was in order. The oil capacity was three pints, which was good for half a dozen fill-ups of the 3-gallon gas tank.
Crankshaft power ran back the left side via helical gears to a seven plate clutch, blessed with six torsion springs that helped to absorb even the most abrupt of gear changes. And rubber cushions in the hub helped reduce vibration. Smoothness was what the rider felt when going through the five gears. All this sat securely in a tubular steel double-cradle frame, which looked remarkably like that on a race bike.
A rather steep 34mm telescopic fork ran down to the 18-inch front wheel, where a 7-inch double-leading-shoe front brake did an excellent job of slowing things down. The rear swingarm had a pair of shocks with adjustments available for spring preload. And the wheel, another 18-incher, also had a 7-inch brake, but with a single leading shoe. The 50.8-inch wheelbase was a quick handler on the street, but would keep the sensible trail rider at a more modest pace.
The look was quite different from the preceding low-pipe DS5, which had a rather bulbous 4-gallon tank, and speedometer and tach built into one unit. The smaller 3-gallon teardrop tank was much more attractive in appearance, and the speedo and tach were now separate…very English. Long, flat saddle and chromed metal fenders added to the good looks, going along with the upswept pipes–which did have protective heat-shielding, but long pants were advisable. Yamaha had dropped a tooth from the DS5 countershaft sprocket, which reduced the top speed a small amount, down to 90 or so mph–depending on the weight sitting on the saddle. And a skid plate was bolted on, more for looks than the thought that this shiny fellow would ever scrape its underbelly.
The DS6-C weight was down 20 pounds on DS5, weighing 304 pounds dry. Much of that had to do with the absence of an electric starter. Firing up this baby was done the old-fashioned way…admittedly a very simple task.
The DS series was a great sales success, lasting until the RD250s took over in 1973.
