It all started in 2004 with the Yamaha Rhino…. the first “sport” side by side. After Polaris, Arctic Cat, and Can-Am turned the volume to 11, it’s time for Yamaha to get back in the game. Fast forward to mid August 2015 and everyone is on the edge of their seat waiting for Yamaha’s next REAL sport side by side release. Sure they dropped a fat turd earlier this year..I mean a Wolverine 700R.. but everyone is hoping for MORE!
As of today, August 18th 2015, a TON of info has dropped on forums just a few short hours ago. In an effort to round everything up, here is the latest info on what should now be called the Yamaha YXZ:
There it is! The first “real” leaked photo from someone on Facebook claiming that the machine was going out for testing. Lots of speculation has come from the photo, but most noteworthy is the appearance of trailing arms! This goes against the apparent rear shock placement as seen from the Yamaha teaser videos.
A tiny pixelated picture of a door.. one that appears to match the wrapped up door in the picture seen above. “YXZ” can also be seen, thus confirming the name of the machine.
This photo here is a screen shot from the CARB registration for the new Yamaha YXZ. This shows a lot of important info about the machine:
112hp, 5 speed manual (whhhaaattt?), and an “EIM” of 820kg (CARB rated the 2015 XP1000 EIM at 950kg). After some weight equivalencies are made using the XP1000s dry weight, this is an approximate dry weight for the Yamaha of about 1220lbs! That’s more than 100lbs LESS than the Polaris XP900! But they have also given an EIM for the XP turbo at 850kg, so who knows what this really means.
It also shows that the machine comes in 4 different flavors, which can likely be broken down into different colors and features.
AND BOOM GOES THE DYNAMITE! A real shot of the machine! This was first seen online on WildcatForums.net on 8-18-15 and quickly spread across the forums like wildfire. It can be now seen that the machine here appears to match the machine wrapped for shipping. This also shows that the YXZ will come standard with “premium” Maxxis Bighorn 2.0 tires and full doors. The name “YXZ” appears directly on the side of the machine which goes against Yamaha’s typical nomenclature, but this is a small detail. Beadlocks can be seen also, these do not appear on the wrapped up machine as far as I can tell. Maybe beadlocks come on the limited models? The cage appears to have a built in harness bar as well nested right behind the head restraint.
So what does this tell us? Well, Yamaha certainly has a sport sxs coming out! Was the machine aimed directly at the XP1000/Maverick/Wildcat X? We don’t know yet. The Yamaha teaser vids do appear to show an XP1000 being left in the dust, which is fairly confusing.
What’s our best guess? 60″, 13″ travel, 5spd DCT with paddles. Does that make sense for the market? Possibly.
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