|
|
In 2005, The SEROW design team made a major design change. The SEROW was first released 20 years ago. This is a summary of the conversation with 2 Yamaha professionals, Mr. Mitsuru Kondo and Mr. Ikuo Ishizuka, who have devoted themselves to the SEROW for years. Throughout their conversation, they emphasized SEROW’s philosophy which has been maintained across the entire 20 years; the SEROW is multi-purpose and focused on pure fun.
Mr. Kondo joined YAMAHA in 1974 and worked on a range of off road motorcycles. When the first generation of the SEROW was released in 1985, he worked as the project chief and was also responsible for test riding. Mr. Ishizuka joined YAMAHA in 1983. As a machine design engineer, he worked on several projects, such as XT600, XTZ750 as well as TT250R. He also worked on the SEROW in 1997, which saw major changes that year. As a project leader, Mr. Ishizuka has worked on XT660R and 05’s SEROW.
Mr. Kondo, who has not worked on the 2005 SEROW, did test ride the 2005 Serow the other day. He comments, “Overall, it was really nice. In particular, the new SEROW has been improved in terms of its multi-purpose capability. It is easy to ride and control on busy streets within the city; where it requires people to stop and go very frequently. Meanwhile, the 2005 SEROW makes it comfortable to ride on highways.” (See Note below.) He added, “Once I started riding on trails through the forest, I immediately noticed that it became very sophisticated, including its suspension and engine output.” He smiled, “I was supposed to offer some critique, but, to be honest, it was very well designed.”
In Japan, the SEROW is promoted as a multi-purpose model. It is not only for racing or for trials riding, but for pure fun. Mr. Kondo said, “Across 20 years, we maintained the same byline for the SEROW - one step further toward the depths of the mountains.” Back in 1985, the SEROW’s specifications did not particularly include any high tech or fancy features, such as an aluminum rear swing arm, DOHC engine, etc… But, its design was fully thought out in order to accomplish ideal multi-purpose capability and flexibility. For instance, the SEROW project team members imagined the situation in which people were riding in a sandy area while one foot is used to steady the rider like a caterpillar crawls along.
On the other hand, they paid attention to the situation in which people use it on the street and within the city. People ride the SEROW both in the city as well as in the mountains. In fact, SEROW is great for riding under busy traffic conditions in Tokyo; the seat height is just right and people can easily put their feet on the ground at frequent traffic signals.
As discussed above, the SEROW is multi-purpose, and allows us to go to areas where other motorcycles can’t, such as riding across a river or riding in snowy fields. In the beginning of the SEROW project in 1985, not many people at YAMAHA understood the insight that the SEROW project members had developed. In order to share their insight, the SEROW team, including Mr. Kondo, hosted an event, inviting YAMAHA’s executives and staff. The team brought the SEROW prototype, the XT250T, and TY at that time for this event. The venue was up in the mountains; where there were rivers, hills, trails, and sandy areas. While riding several different motorcycles in such terrain, most participants struggled controlling the motorcycles, but they all enjoyed the experience. At the end of the day, they liked the SEROW the most. “Ah-ha!” Participants now understood and shared the feeling of fun and versatility of the SEROW concept built by the SEROW project team, “One step closer to the depths of the mountains.” This is how the SEROW project got started in 1985. That was called the “SEROW party.” Since then, lots of SEROW fans have held similar events, “the SEROW party,” at several places in Japan, and continue to do so.
Regarding the new SEROW, Mr. Ishizuka talked about why they introduced the new and more powerful 250cc engine. In the early development stages, some people were against this larger motor. They feared the 250cc engine could make it heavier and could lose part of the SEROW’s nature; SEROW fans might be disappointed. While testing several pre-production versions, they eventually decided to use the 250cc engine.
“The new 250cc engine makes the new SEROW more powerful. You will feel more engine torque. The engine responds faster. Meanwhile, You might actually think it feels lighter on the trail. In order to achieve that, we put lots of effort in design details, adjusting its dimension by even just 5mm, such as lowering a part’s center of gravity, tire & suspension changes, and even the headlight height”.
Finally, Mr. Ishizuka summarized the new Serow Project, mentioning the people that worked on the new SEROW at Yamaha Motor Corp. “All of what I mentioned and more was accomplished by the Yamaha design engineers, who are true perfectionists. As the SEROW has grown up throughout the last 20 years, there have been many new SEROW enthusiasts at Yamaha as well.”
yamaha serow
rob.stone@sbcglobal.net
