The traditional colors of Christmas have been red and green. From a dirt-biking family's perspective, green is what flies out of the wallet and red is the color of the little bike that sits under the tree, right? Imagine the option of throwing blue into the picture. Yamaha would sure like you to, and it has a plan in action to make that easy. It begins with the basic formula for an entry-level bike: small, simple to ride, nearly indestructible, cool-looking, two wheels and a motor. Then it throws in a whopper: electric starting! So add to the list the easiest possible starting, all at an MSRP ($1149) lower than the Honda's. Hope there is a good stock when Santa places his order.
So how does the smallest of the TT-R family work? Well, pushing the button is about the best thing that can happen for the learning experience, at least in the beginning. It makes starting the bike as painless as it can get. When the TT-R50 is cold, it takes just a bit of choke, operated through a handlebar lever, and, voil, it's ready to ride. The transmission goes easily into gear in its up-up-up three-speed, auto-clutch shifting pattern. First gear is plenty low and won't intimidate even a first-timer. The power is very smooth, though it actually offers a lot of torque for feeling this seamless. The bike resists stalling, and the auto-clutch action is just about perfect for engaging and disengaging. The bike revs out pretty well and can stay in a single gear for a long time. Yamaha may have been relying on the torque, as the gear spacing seemed pretty wide, most noticeable with adults on the bike. But even larger tyros could get away with just riding in second gear the whole time. Beginner riders preferred second gear, as first was too low and required revving out the motor too much. Third gets the Yamie going plenty fast; we guess around 35 mph if you pin it for a while.
The chassis feels tight and definitely doesn't have a cheap feel to it as knock-off bikes do. Don't fool yourself and think you can get a quality bike at the auto-parts store or a stereo shop. If you want something that is going to last, see a real motorcycle dealer. The TT-R feels as if it is sprung a bit stiffer than Honda's CRF50F, and the suspension does a better job of damping bumps-a good thing because the second maneuver children learn, after starting the bike, is how to jump it. The kids report the Yamie handles just great; we believe it as none of them wanted to get off it. For adults, it is super-cramped, but what else would you expect? The brakes worked just fine, and if learning slowly is a key feature, there is a throttle limiter to control just how much gas your kid can give the bike. After a few weeks of adult-level abuse, our stock test bike is holding up fine. Even after jumping it and beating it up on backyard tracks, nothing has come loose or broken; it should last a long time for kids, a real gas-and-go machine.