2009 Yamaha PW50 Review

Introduction

What makes it that great is the fact that it is designed around the small rider’s needs. So it has a low seat height (19.1 inches), automatic transmission and adjustable throttle control. It needs it indeed as the small 50cc two-stroke engine features reed-valve inducted, and offers enough pant to surprise.

Far from being a toy, but not the closest thing to a real dirt bike, the PW50 doesn’t miss its target with not a single inch and the proof is that it keeps on going as a 2009 model year after that many years of production.

History

1981 Yamaha PW50

First introduced in 1981, the Yamaha PW marked the beginning of a beautiful friendship between young riders and the trails. It was all the result of a wonderful idea that gave children the joy of riding and carried them towards the larger bikes in the class. Have a 49cc two-stroke engine fitted on a small, light and versatile motorcycle that offers all the benefits of trail riding on a smaller scale and you’re qualified to long-live on the market. And that is exactly what happened.

A story of decades, not just a few years, the PW would have first featured Yellow and Black color scheme. This was to be changed in the bike’s relatively recent history and have it pained Blue and White, just how suits a Yamaha best.

Beloved both for its features and easy maintenance, the early PW isn’t that much different of what you can actually buy today, something that tells us that Yamaha thought well ahead of its time when designing it.

Competition

Having been the first manufacturer to offer such an impressive and yet small-sized motorcycle, Yamaha enjoyed all the possible benefits, including no direct competition. Other manufacturers simply preferred to go for a little bit larger bikes, the ones which can be ridded long after the throttle limiter was removed. A modern day example of such a bike is the Honda CRF50F, but yet again, Yamaha has another bike prepared for that, the TT-R50. You can call the Yamaha PW50 unique and make no mistakes there.

Exterior

2009 Yamaha PW50

Even though the bike didn’t feature a radical revision all through its existence, the looks have been changed, but not the shape. They got it all right from the start and a single color chance was enough to revive it in the public’s eyes. It got it from those championship-winning machines so you really couldn’t ask for more. Oh, you actually could as there were also new decals involved, and which have changed concomitant with the evolution of Yamaha racing dirt bikes.

But still, the bike isn’t the nicest thing on two wheels as they still had to keep weight down (not too much plastic) and just look good enough to sell. All the mechanics are black painted so the PW creates a powerful contrast between the white, three-spoked rims, and white “number plates”.

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