Brought to you by an anonymous internet user in the wee hours of the morning (and likely Yamaha manufacturing/assembly employee) is the first real full side shot of the Yamaha YXZ!
So what do we see here?
-Trailing arms! So potentially gone is the debate that this machine will be “mid-travel” because typically trailing arm SXSs of years past have had 14+ inches of travel! (XP900 14″ travel, XP1000 18″ travel, Wildcat 18″ travel)
-Big ole shocks! Man, those front springs look BEEFY. Judging by fender height, we can assume approximately 14″ of front wheel travel to complement the rear.
-Raptor like styling, consistent with the previously leaked photos. The machine SCREAMS YAMAHA! YAMAHAAAAAAA!
-Unique rear shock placement. Angled rear shocks (consistent with the Yamaha teaser vids) are typically found on a-arm setups, but this is clearly a trailing arm machine. Say what?
-Sway bar link! This confirms that it’s a trailing arm setup. You can see the shiny link endcap just ahead of the rear tire on the trailing arm.
-Pure Yamaha!? This picture appears to have been taken at Yamaha’s assembly plant in Newnan, Georgia. This could mean that there is no partnership on this vehicle with Arctic Cat as has been commonly rumored. If this were a Cat chassis we’d expect the assembly to be done in Thief River Falls, MN like the Yamaha Viper snowmobile.
DIMENSIONS!
If the tires are 27″ tall, the rim specs out to be 14″, and the wheel base is approximately 83″. This is just a tad larger in size than the Polaris XP900 and only an inch shorter than the base model non-XDS Maverick. The ground clearance appears to be the industry standard 13″ and front tire to fender clearance is approximately 16″ further solidifying a guesstimate of 14″ of front suspension travel. Width is still pure speculation, but it’s expected to be 64″.
So that’s it for now……. what’s to come in the future? Stay tuned to SXSBlog.com here or on our SXSBlog.com Facebook page for the latest and greatest information for all things SXS!
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