Long-rumoured new 200cc sports bike finally on the way, with launch due on 27th August
The first clue that Yamaha was planning an ‘R2’ baby sports bike appeared way back in 2021 when the company applied for a trademark on the YZF-R2 and YZF-R20 names in Japan. Now it’s confirmed with India set to be the first market to see the new machine on 27th August and the YZF-R2 branding has been trademarked all over the world, suggesting it’s going to offered globally once production is up to speed.
Yamaha’s teasers for the 25th August launch don’t specifically mention the R2 name, at least not directly, but they leave little doubt that’s what the upcoming model will be. The brand’s signature ‘R’ logo in the teasers is stretched and given a subtle vertical split, making the righthand side of the ‘R’ look like a ‘2’.
The bike’s launch in India makes sense, too. The 155cc R15 is hugely popular there and manufactured in the company’s Surajpur plant, which has turned out more than a million of them since it was launched in 2008, covering four generations of the model. While there’s no official confirmation, the R2 is expected to follow the same general technical layout as the R15 (and the related R125), with a single-cylinder, liquid-cooled engine using Yamaha’s VVA variable valve system.
Power-wise, the R2 is likely to hit around 25hp, filling the gap between the 15hp R125 and the 42hp R3.
Logically it’s likely that once the R2 is in production, further models will follow. A naked ‘MT-02’ would make a lot of sense, for example, and a retro-flavoured XSR200 could be another easy addition to the lineup.
