At Daytona at the yamaha "set-up"  I saw a SR400 modle 2015.   I kinda got execited to see a single cylinder street bike , and have thought for some time that the 650 is allmost to big to be a one banger.  
So
I checked it out when I got home

This bike is doing it's 35 year anaverserty in 2015 so they are bring it back to us .   Come to find out its been available in Japan for all this time.

http://www.totalmotorcycle.com/motorcycles/2015/2015-Yamaha-SR400.htm

The dealer said it has "Brush" type alt.  which is a big turn-off in my book ((have had three brushtype w/burned out rotors) all yamaha's)

but still interesting.   Anybody have one of these SR400's or the SR500''s  back in the 80's ?


Check-out the kick-starter !  

I absolutely love the classic UJM styling and design, but at $5,990 MSRP I don't think these will fly out of the showrooms, if it were priced in the $4,500/$4,900 range I think they would sell quite well. For $5,990 I'd just find myself a Kawasaki W650  

nice to see a 400-500cc bike but the price is too high.. 2010 I got my showroom new s40 for $4k

Staggered into a local Yamaha dealership the other day to enquire whether the bike will be released in NZ, two or three sales people were standing around. I was the only prospective bill payer in the place, no one paid me any attention. After five minutes I left, another good reason to stick with my S40.

Article in Cycle World says KICKSTART only. Not sure I can do that with my recently healed broken leg..

Well Pgambr

The first one was a yamaha TwinJet 100 with a "Generator" with a wound rotor and the little brass bars that DC generators have.  When the rotor burned out I straped a car battery to it and would charge it once a week.

The second one was an AC. Alt. on a RD250 twin. It had the flat surface with two solid conecters for the brushes to ride on.   (small circle and a larger one -- brushes ridding 90 deg. to the crankshaft.).  All it took was one time of demanding too much juice from it to burn it out ... So ... I replaced it with a permant magnet from a honda.   Well the Honda magnet wasn't as strong as the electro-magnet so it wouldn't put out as much wattage.   Ridding without the headlight on worked great it was putting out about 50 watts with the permant magnet.

The third one was a SX650.  It had the same set-up as the RD250 and when it burned I said some ugly stuff , sold it (as-is), and said that's it no more brush type alt.  

I've had permant magnet alt. ever sense with-out any more problems.
And with most bikes being "Electric Start Only" you have to replace the battery when it starts getting weak --- so you can't run on a bad battery anymore , that might help them last longer.  But still "With the permant magnet system --- there's nothing to burn or replace (EVER).  The stator is bulit to take more than the permant magnet can put out --where the electro-magent can get stronger when the "Demand" is on , even to the point of frying itself.

Bike Bandit list the rotor for the SX650 at $380.00 (but not available)

Hope I didn't ramble on too much ???  

Dane Allen wrote on 03/24/14 at 12:12:23:


Agreed - priced too high. I got my new 2011 S40 for $3,999 on 8-21-12.

My favorite so far ?  Present company(S40) excluded.  I grew up on Yamahas(YZ,IT,XT -  The 77 XT500 I had was modified(piston, cam, carb, exhaust). It also was a relative of the SR500(standard version) - XT500(endure version), both had the same mechanicals(basically).

The XT500 is still my favorite - unless you count my first bike : 74 Hodaka Super Combat 125


I tried to spell endure ending the word with an "o" / spellcheck wouldn't allow it.