While New Zealand’s most popular bike overall in terms of sales may be a 200cc farm bike, Yamaha is looking to get in on the same action by introducing the TW200 to the New Zealand market this year, with the cooky little AG bike having just arrived in dealers.
Going straight up against the incredibly popular Suzuki DR200S, the 2019 Yamaha TW200 has plenty going for it to differentiate itself from its entrenched competitor in the small road-legal AG bike market. With a large rear tyre wrapped around a 14-inch rear wheel, the TW200 is geared low to tractor its way over the toughest terrain. It's a monster of a little bike, and both Kiwi farmers and pint-sized adventure fans should find its gobs of traction both useful and entertaining.
In production since 1987 making it one of the oldest new bikes on sale in New Zealand, but don’t think this is a throwaway sub-200cc bike to ditch on the nearest back block. The TW200 has some history and a no-nonsense build sheet to back it up.
On debut, Yamaha needed to set some buzz off about the little TW200. With its huge rear wheel making for an excellent tractor tyre - providing traction to keep the little Yamaha out of the muddiest bog, the bike was chosen by Shinji Kazama to famously ride to the North Pole (Kazama being one of the only people in the world to ride a motorcycle to both poles).
Available in the rather interesting colour of “beige black” and priced from $6500, the TW200 features rather unique fat tyres with a 130/80-18 front and a huge 180/80-14 out back.
Ground clearance is generous, and on top of the massive bump soaking tyres, the TW200 boasts up to 160mm of suspension travel.
Want to see what the TW200 is capable of? The guys over at FortNine.ca have a brilliant video review of the TW200. You can view this below.