Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd.

It has been a while since the last Yamaha Motor Design Spotlight, so to finish off this year, we wind back the clock to 2011 when the Y125 Moegi was unveiled to the world and drew apt comparisons to being a YA-1 for the modern age.     #Yamaha #RevsyourHeart #motorcycle #productdesign #design #industrialdesign #history #manufacturing #engineering #technology #craftsmanship  

=== Days Gone By===    Together with Outboards – 5. An Unconventional Pool Changes Everything    Endurance and durability testing is absolutely key to ensuring engine reliability. Back then we mainly ran our engines on dynamometers for testing, so not only could we not really run them long enough to perform a credible durability check, but the testing conditions were different from what our products were subjected to in the real world. Mounting the outboards on boats and driving them around for hours on end was also simply impractical. The best we could do was mount engines to a floating testbed at a dock at the Arai Factory and run tests there.    However, that location had various restrictions and we could only operate the engines for 3 or 4 hours daily, so I personally visited Managing Director Koike and told him that we badly needed a dedicated facility to perform outboard endurance testing. This was in September 1972.    Coincidently, it was right around then that Yamaha Motor was moving forward with talks to acquire Gamagori Development Co., Ltd., a shipbuilding company located on reclaimed land on Mikawa Bay. Part of the company’s grounds extended to the coastline and we thought we could use it for endurance testing. Some raised concerns that it was too far from Hamamatsu to be practical for testing, but the need for a real solution was urgent so distance wasn’t enough to change our minds. And that’s how we somehow managed to find a dedicated location for endurance testing.    At first, we just floated a pontoon inside a torn-up shipyard dock near the shore, mounted the engines on that and ran them there. We also built a small shack near the pontoon for the testers to work in. These steps were the first ones we took to start up our endurance testing program.    Photo: A full view of the Gamagori test site at the time (on the coast)    <continues>    #Yamaha #RevsyourHeart #marine #outboards #outboardmotors #manufacturing #engineering #history #design   

===What the Japanese Bayberry Trees Have Seen===   31. “Yamaha Motor Company”    It was on July 1st, 1955 that Yamaha Motor Company became independent of Nippon Gakki. I remember that there was actually no huge hurrah or special ceremony held to commemorate the event; the change was simply the filing of the relevant documentation and legal recognition of the company.    We had 30 million yen in capital. President Kawakami was at the helm (in addition to his position as the head of Nippon Gakki), and Nippon Gakki Manufacturing Division General Manager Aisa was made Managing Executive Officer. The board of directors included Nippon Gakki Managing Executive Officer Ogura, Technical Department General Manager Takai and General Manager of Operations Kubono. Director Shunsaku Aisa and Tokyo Branch Manager Kamiya took on positions as auditors. Manufacturing would be handled by Yamaha Motor Company, but sales would go through Nippon Gakki. The total number of Yamaha Motor employees we had was already over 150.    Anyway, returning to the dove of good fortune which visited the engineers, it appeared in the form of the muffler fitted to the latest model of DKW. When the engineers attached this muffler to the YA-1 engine, they were astounded to see a gain of 0.5 horsepower. They had no idea that a muffler alone could so significantly change an engine’s output.    The tip of the muffler on the original YA-1 had a fishtail shape, so the engineers changed it to a simple round pipe. Back on Mt. Fuji, the race team was sweating blood in their non-stop training, looking to come up with any and all stratagems in their quest to defeat Honda. Hardly a day passed when the support team at the factory didn’t receive urgent requests for ever better engines.    Photo: The main gate at the time    <continues>    #Yamaha #RevsyourHeart #motorcycles #racing #manufacturing #engineering #history #design   

Here is final part of Yukio Saito’s story of how the DS6-C, a scrambler version of the DS6, came to be in the Plaza’s collection after being meticulously restored by Shinichi Hanai. #Yamaha #RevsyourHeart #classic #motorcycles #restoration #museum #preservation #design #industrialdesign #history #manufacturing #engineering #technology #craftsmanship

Next month, Yamaha Motor will begin sales in Japan of its all-new JWG-1 electric wheelchair power unit. This model represents the first full revamp of a Yamaha wheelchair electric power unit in ten years, and accordingly, it’s been given a plethora of new features and upgrades.     Electric power units like the JWG-1 are retrofitted to manual wheelchairs to convert them into electric ones and are mainly supplied to wheelchair manufacturers. The JWG-1 features improved visibility of the LCD screen on the controller, an LCD screen for the caregiver’s controller, a new lever type throttle, greater maximum load (from 125 kg to 160 kg, which includes the user, luggage, and frame weight), improved tire axle torque (from 25.3 Nm to 50.1 Nm), and a lighter battery (from 3.4 kg to 2.4 kg).     Furthermore, Yamaha Motor will discontinue sales of complete Yamaha wheelchairs next year and instead focus on becoming a manufacturer specializing in electric power units for wheelchairs. The JWG-1 will also be made available to markets overseas, with launches in Europe and the United States scheduled for April and September, respectively.     #Yamaha #RevsyourHeart #wheelchairs #disability #mobility #electrification #motorization #caregivers #electric #rehabilitation #B2B    

Yamaha Motor is honoured to have been awarded in the VIII Keicho Innovation and Technology Awards 2024 for our presentation of the world’s first hydrogen powered marine engine prototype, H2, and our efforts in the swappable batteries’ consortium in Japan. This recognition, accepted last week on behalf of the company by Olivier PREVOST, Yamaha Motor Europe N.V.’s President & CEO, accompanied by the Country Manager of Yamaha Motor Europe N.V. Sucursal en España, Víctor González, is a confirmation of the hard work, and commitment of everyone involved in the development of these projects. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to the Board of Directors of the Japan Business Circle Spain (CEJE Círculo Empresarial Japón España), constituted as the Jury for the award, including its President JORGE LASHERAS, for their recognition, as well as to all our dedicated teams who made this possible. Yamaha Motor is committed to explore multiple technology solutions to achieve carbon neutrality in its products, and we hope that by working with industry associations, regulators, and other organisations we can create an infrastructure and manufacturing standard for a carbon neutral future.

=== Days Gone By===    Together with Outboards – 4. Passing Down “Looks and a Little Extra”    Our next task was to develop new models and expand our lineup, and there were two things we did in product development. One was to give our engines a slightly larger capacity than those offered by the competition. Motorcycle and car engines are categorized according to displacement, like “250cc” or “2-liter,” but outboards are categorized by horsepower (8 hp, 25 hp, etc.). With that in mind, we decided to give our new engines slightly larger displacement than the competition, even though they would technically be in the same horsepower class. This slight increase in capacity didn’t affect the size, weight or cost of the engines very much, but it did give each engine some extra leeway in terms of performance, and that yields benefits in a number of areas.    The Yamaha 25 hp outboard engine we later developed had 20cc more displacement than our competitors’ offerings. That model earned an excellent reputation in developing markets and became a long-term bestseller. This was an important design policy we set towards building Yamaha’s outboard lineup and something that continues to this very day.    Further, in an effort to quickly change the poor market image our product line had until then, we asked Iwasaki-san at GK Design to completely refresh the paint schemes and graphics of our outboards. We also changed the way we named our models, doing away with our previous method of using the engine’s capacity (P-125 for a 125cc engine) and using horsepower instead like American outboard manufacturers did (15A = 15 hp). This greatly improved the appearance and consistency of our lineup.    The earlier two-tone white and grey paint scheme was changed to an eye-catching marine blue with a red stripe and a prominent Yamaha logo. This color scheme of marine blue for the main body and those graphics were used for many years and remained key symbols of Yamaha outboards.    Photo: A before (left) and after (right) exterior design comparison    <ends>    #Yamaha #RevsyourHeart #marine #outboards #outboardmotors #manufacturing #engineering #history #design   

===What the Japanese Bayberry Trees Have Seen===   30. Preparing for the Fuji Ascent Race    It was towards the end of May that the idea of entering the Fuji Ascent Race came up. Sponsored by Motor Magazine Ltd., the race’s chairman was the magazine’s president, Masafumi Kimura. I remember Shouichi Shiozawa, the head of the magazine’s Shizuoka office, working very hard to organize the event.    The 24.2 km course ran on public roads (a mountain trail, really) from the Sengen Shrine in the city of Fujinomiya to the 2nd station on the front side of Mt. Fuji. The 1955 race would be the third time the event was to be held. The previous two events were both won by Honda. If we would be participating, our main goal was high and pretty straightforward: beat Honda.    The first task was to begin building engines for racing, but we still had very little knowledge about how to increase an engine’s horsepower. Nevertheless, our engineering team rose to the challenge by trying all manner of tuning measures to build some racing engines and send them off to the team that was practicing at Fuji. By June 25th, 20 engines had been sent, followed later by 14 more.    It was around then that we received a report from Fuji that Honda had upped the performance of their 125cc machines by going from 3-speed transmissions to 4-speed ones. This was a source of much concern to the team’s support group. The Yamaha team consisted of ten riders. Pre-race testing and practice continued at a furious pace, but because the course was a one-way hill climb and not a looped circuit, the team could not measure their times.    President Kawakami suggested that we use radios. The team immediately set about devising a strategy to precisely—and secretly—record and relay times at the starting line, the 1st station and at the finish line. Of course, they also recorded the times of the competition, giving us a very clear picture of our own performance. Talk about a great idea!    Led by Technical Department Manager Nemoto, the engineers in the team support group back at the factory continued their attempts to boost the horsepower of the race engines, but it was proving to be far more difficult than we had imagined. It was at this juncture that a dove of good fortune came to the rescue.    Photo: The map for the Fuji Ascent Race    <ends>    #Yamaha #RevsyourHeart #motorcycles #racing #manufacturing #engineering #history #design 

This month’s newsletter is about the newly released Tokyo Override anime. Yamaha Motor collaborated with Netflix to produce the world it is set in and provided the 3D data not just for the Yamaha motorcycles that appear but also recording the sounds of bikes for authenticity.    Read on to learn more!     #Yamaha #RevsyourHeart #Netflix #ONA #TokyoOverride #anime #Japan #Tokyo #motorcycles #future #AI