Yamaha’s TW200 Is the Oldest and Most Versatile New Motorcycle

Motorcyclist

Despite the adage, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” it’s hard to believe that the Tuning Fork brand has been manufacturing its TW200 dual sport, with one careful, but modest set of updates for over three decades. But that’s the beauty of Yamaha’s 2023 TW200 ($4,899). A simple and affordable street-legal, dual sport motorcycle, the “Trail Way” last saw an revision for the 2001 model year, adding a disc brake and electric start...  Find out more in the 2023 Yamaha TW200 Review article: https://www.motorcyclistonline.com/reviews/yamaha-tw200-review-2023/  Photography: Adam Waheed Video: Adam Waheed  Insta360 Video Footage Courtesy: https://store.insta360.com/product/x3  Motorcycle Riding Gear Worn  Helmet: AGV Sportmodular Jacket: REV’IT! Blackwater Gloves: REV’IT! Kinetic Pant: REV’IT! Piston Boots: TCX Dartwood Waterproof  Motorcyclist Shirts: https://teespring.com/stores/motorcyclist Shop Products We Use: https://www.amazon.com/shop/motorcyclistmagazine   See more from us: http://www.motorcyclistonline.com/

Transcript

00:00 Good afternoon folks and welcome to this special edition MC Commute Style Review

00:08 on Yamaha's 2023 TW 200. What you see right there we're coming to you live

00:16 from Daytona Beach Bike Week in Daytona Beach, Florida. What a better place to

00:24 get around than on Yamaha's TW 200. Affordable, easy to ride and you can

00:31 ride it off-road here on the sand which we're doing. How cool is that?

00:37 Alright folks strap on your helmet because we're going for a ride.

00:40 Alright folks here we are with Yamaha's 2023 TW 200. This is a

00:52 street-legal dual sport motorcycle made by the Tuning Fork brand since 1987.

00:59 Isn't that crazy? The TW in the name stands for Trailway. So the Trailway 200

01:07 it's been in Yamaha's lineup since '87. It had one revision for I think it was

01:14 the 1991 model year and that was that disc brake you see there and the electric start.

01:25 Now the reason why these TW 200s are so cool is because well look at it. This thing has a

01:33 very unique style. It almost reminds me of Suzuki's DRZ with that rectangular

01:40 headlight and cowl. These are classic 80s styled motorcycles and what's old always

01:51 becomes new and for some reason these bikes are back in style. The other neat

01:57 thing about this TW 200 is it can be ridden on and off-road. This is a real

02:03 dual sport motorcycle and affordable dual sport motorcycle at $4,800.

02:10 Look at those big over side Bridgestone all-terrain balloon style tires.

02:17 18-inch wheel up front, a 14 in the back. Look how tall that sidewall is.

02:25 This thing's powered by a 196 cc four stroke single overhead cam engine. It's air

02:37 cooled, nothing fancy but it is reliable and it does have enough pep to get you onto the

02:43 beach or anywhere else you want to go. Look at this thing. I love the looks of it.

02:50 It's got enough room where you can bring a passenger. This nice area here you can

02:56 mount something if you had to bring some luggage with you. You can tie that right there.

03:02 Alright folks, well enough talking about this thing. Let's swing a leg over this

03:10 TW 200 and tell you what it's like to ride here in Daytona Beach, Florida.

03:19 Alright folks, here we go. A good old-fashioned signature Yamaha motor

03:24 mechanical key. Turn the ignition. Let's go for a ride. You go first. Yeah. Nope.

03:34 And away we go guys. Alright, engine on this thing. This vehicle is powered by a

03:43 196 cc single overhead cam engine with a two valve cylinder head. So one intake

03:52 valve, one exhaust valve. This engine features a counterbalancer and it's air

03:59 cool. So ambient air cools the the cylinder via fins that are shrouded

04:08 around the cylinder. This vehicle has a five speed manual transmission with a

04:15 cable actuated clutch. It puts back the power to a 18 inch, I'm sorry a 14 inch

04:22 rear wheel via chain final drive on the left-hand side of the vehicle. Look how

04:28 pretty this is. Look at our fellow motorcycle riders taking in the sights

04:34 and sounds of this old Dixie Highway in central eastern Florida near Daytona

04:41 Beach. Now we mistakenly said yesterday that Yamaha updated this model for the

04:51 1991 year. It's actually the 2001 model year. They added electric start which you

04:57 see right there and that front disc brake. Besides that, that's the only

05:02 changes that this motorcycles had since being released for the 1987 model year. I

05:10 can't tell you how many people have pulled over and waved at us and said, "Oh

05:14 that's a nice bike, where do you get those? Those things are awesome!" It's

05:17 pretty crazy that a $4,800 bike that was built in 1987 would still garner that

05:24 much attraction at stoplights. Now this 196 cc engine drinks from a 1.8

05:32 gallon fuel tank. There is no fuel gauge, there is no fuel light, but there is a

05:37 petcock which allows you to move the fuel position from on/off for

05:45 transport and reserve. This motorcycle employs a mechanical carburetor so

05:51 that's why it retains the fuel petcock. Look at this marsh swamp land. This is

05:55 awesome! Now this motorcycle, this thing sips fuel. We've gotten right around 60

06:04 miles per gallon during the course of our ride. Obviously we're doing a lot of

06:08 stoplight to stoplight riding here, but if you're a cruiser and you keep the

06:14 speeds lower, Yamaha says you can get upwards of 70 mpg out of this vehicle.

06:19 Look at this, yoursnapshot.com. That's sick. This guy's taking photos. That's

06:24 awesome. And I love this engine. It's really nice and peppy. You'd be surprised

06:30 how much pep this 196 cc overhead cam single has. Like for a 200 cc bike,

06:38 this motorcycle engine is more powerful than some 250 cc water-cooled engines

06:45 I've ridden. It's really neat how much torque this thing has. We rode this bike

06:52 on the freeway and as you can see later in the video, this thing has some pep

06:58 with a top speed of upwards of 80 miles per hour. How crazy is that? Now

07:03 obviously at those engine running speeds, this engine vibrates quite a bit, but

07:09 considering its price point, considering it's more rudimentary engineering,

07:16 having a bit of engine vibration is par for the course. Absolutely acceptable.

07:22 Now this motorcycle is pretty fresh. We only have 105 miles on the clock, so the

07:30 transmission is a little sticky. It's definitely broken in since we

07:35 began our ride when the motorcycle at 25 miles on the clock. So it's breaking in,

07:41 but it's a little bit stiff. These older school motorcycles, the tolerances on

07:45 them, they're almost a little...the tolerances just have a little bit

07:51 more room where these motorcycles need a little bit more time to break in than a

07:56 modern motorcycle. With modern motorcycles, the tolerances on them are

08:01 generally really tight and they break in very fast. So not a big deal.

08:08 I'm sure this transmission will loosen up after a while, but the one thing I do

08:11 like about it is the solid shift feel. You really know when you're putting it

08:16 into the next cog or downshifting into one cog below. Clutch action, it's nice

08:24 and light. Nice and light. It has a decent level of response. You're really not

08:31 going to be using the clutch. Basically you just use a tool to let it out.

08:34 There's not like a lot of clutch slipping that has to happen with this

08:37 motorcycle because it's so light and the power is so modest. But if I was someone

08:44 that wanted to learn how to ride on a forgiving motorcycle, I think this TW 200

08:49 would be a good option just because of its low seat height and how...eww...and how

08:55 accommodating it is with the clutch and the engine. Alright folks, we are back on

09:02 the road. We had to pull over and take a photo and adjust my camera and Jared

09:06 wanted to talk to me for a second. So here we go again. Now this motorcycle

09:11 rolls on an 18-inch front and 14-inch rear spoke wheel with Bridgestone Trail

09:20 Wing all-terrain dual sport style tires. The tires are nice and meaty and they are

09:28 really cool. They almost provide a second set of suspension just because they're

09:33 so oversized and the sidewall is so tall especially at the rear.

09:41 Now this motorcycle employs a telescopic fork and a coil spring shock

09:49 absorber that works without a linkage. It attaches directly between the frame and

09:54 swing arm. Just over six inches of suspension travel up front and just a

10:01 little bit under six inches out back. This motorcycle rides really good for a

10:06 for a little 278 pound street bike. This thing rides over bumps good and like we

10:12 said the tall sidewall tires they almost act as a second set of suspension. Look a

10:18 curve! The only curve in Florida and we did it and it felt good on Yami's TW 200.

10:25 I love how agile this little bike is. It's so fun to ride. Well there was a big

10:32 bump and that's where having a maneuverable light weight and low to

10:37 the ground motorcycle really pays dividends. This would be a really good

10:41 bike to learn how to ride on. Very forgiving. Look how beautiful this Pete

10:48 Moss is. Now the seat on this motorcycle like we said it's very low to the ground.

10:56 It's almost like a dirt bike seat but it's a little bit wider than a

11:00 conventional dirt bike. Still we rode basically all day in this saddle

11:09 yesterday and the seat is a little bit... you're you want to get off it after

11:15 riding for 60-70 miles but realistically you're not going to be riding 60-70 miles

11:20 at a time on this motorcycle. This motorcycle is designed for short jaunts

11:24 around town and for short jaunts around town and short blasts for point A to

11:30 point B it works great. The foot pegs on this motorcycle are they're like

11:38 off-road bike foot pegs. They're serrated but they're a little bit teensy weensy

11:43 but not that big of a deal. Steel handlebar. I like the bend on it. It's got

11:49 nice rearward sweep. Not too high not too low. Would be nice if it had a crossbar

11:54 pad but that's just the way it goes I guess sometimes. Again this is a $4,800

12:01 motorcycle. Look at those animals. I love being in nature. There's nothing more I

12:09 like than riding my motorcycle and seeing new places and seeing new

12:14 adventures and seeing Mother Nature in all of its glory. Now the braking package

12:20 on this motorcycle this single disc front disc brake it works really good.

12:24 The master cylinder offers good response. The rear brake is not quite as

12:32 responsive in terms of modulation. Of course it's a drum brake and drum brakes

12:37 don't have that precise level of modulation as a disc brake but the

12:42 brakes get the job done and I like how much feel this motorcycle has for an

12:48 entry-level $4,800 motorcycle.

12:54 Unfortunately this time we didn't get to ride this motorcycle after dark. I wanted

13:00 to but it started raining like crazy and I just wasn't up for riding in crazy

13:08 rain. Maybe I'm getting old. So we weren't able to test out the headlight on this

13:15 vehicle.

13:18 It's worth noting that this since it was manufactured originally in 1987 this

13:24 thing doesn't have any LED anything. Halogen bulb headlight halogen bulb turn

13:29 signals halogen bulb tail light no LEDs but we're cool with it.

13:38 All right folks I am taking in this beautiful trees and this moss over

13:48 hanging the trees just looks so awesome. These rearview mirrors do a nice job of

13:53 showing off what's going on behind you. They buzz a lot. This engine has quite a

13:59 bit of vibration at basically any speed but especially at higher RPM. So the

14:07 mirrors do cloud up a little bit but they still have good surface area to see

14:12 what's going on behind you. Oh my gosh we're getting balked by all these cars

14:19 and bikes. This is bike week. A lot of folks riding without proper motorcycle

14:27 safety gear. As always you always want to don a helmet full face helmet gloves

14:33 riding boots over the ankle and long pants and a long shirt or jacket when

14:38 you're operating these motor vehicles.

14:44 Now Yamaha is renowned for its durability and its ability to manufacture

14:51 products with extreme high quality and this TW 200 is no different. Service wise

14:59 after your initial service at 600 miles Yamaha wants you to change the engine

15:05 oil at 4,000 miles. After that service intervals are every 3,000 miles. So

15:11 basically every 3,000 miles you want to change the oil you want to change the

15:16 filter and then every other time I'm sorry every other oil change you change

15:22 the oil screener or clean the oil screeners. There's an oil filter and an

15:27 oil screener. So every 3,000 miles you change the oil and oil filter and every

15:33 other oil change you want to clean the screener. You also want to check the air

15:37 filter at that mileage duration and oddly enough Yamaha wants you to check

15:44 the valve clearance of each of the two valves at 3,000 miles too. So I guess you

15:51 would kind of say this motorcycle is a little bit maintenance hungry if you're

15:55 actually putting thousands of miles on it but in our experience these these

16:00 vehicles are built so tough that even if you don't check the valve clearances it

16:05 doesn't even really matter because they're always just gonna be in spec.

16:08 But still technically Yamaha Motor says for maximum reliability and durability

16:14 and performance you should check the valve clearances on this motorcycle

16:18 every 3,000 miles.

16:22 Wow what a beautiful little ride today. Now another neat feature about this

16:32 motorcycle is you can actually bring a passenger. There are passenger foot pegs

16:37 the passenger seat area is relatively long just because the saddle is so

16:43 long and the motorcycle gets more wide at the back so your passenger has a

16:47 little bit wider platform to sit on. Of course you're not gonna be any doing any

16:53 touring style rides on this vehicle but for jetting around with the missus or

16:58 the mister just running quick errands with one of your best friends this

17:02 motorcycle is fully capable of that.

17:11 All right folks we're gonna turn the camera off and try to catch up to these

17:17 Harley guys. We will catch in with you in a little bit.

17:21 Wow folks look at these like Everglades swaps. This is so beautiful.

17:28 Look at just how everything is just so flat and green. Hey what's up road pics.

17:37 These TW 200s are great ways to connect the dots in your city or town and just

17:43 see stuff and enjoy the classic feeling of riding a motorcycle. No electronics, no

17:50 gizmos, no doodads, no suspension to fart around with. You just twist the

17:57 throttle and enjoy the ride. All right folks here we are on the Interstate 95

18:06 heading north and as you can see this 23 TW 200 is more than capable at being

18:16 operated at freeway legal speeds. We are in top gear fifth gear at 65 miles per

18:24 hour and we are passing traffic. Traffic's a little bit thick today on

18:31 the I-95 so it's nice having a motorcycle that is so maneuverable. One

18:38 caveat about this bike is because it offers such a low seat height. It's a

18:44 relatively low and compact motorcycle so when you're riding these petite type of

18:52 motorcycles you really have to do your best to stand out in traffic just

18:56 because it's easier for big rigs and tall SUVs to miss you and just not see

19:04 you on the road. So that's why a lot of times I like to ride with my bright

19:09 headlight just so I stand out more in traffic especially in bright midday sun.

19:16 Every little bit helps even the clothes you wear, the motorcycle riding jacket,

19:22 the color of your helmet. Realistically if you want to stand out more and be

19:27 seen it's good to wear brighter and loud colors. As I've gotten older I'm not so

19:32 much a bright loud colors kind of guy. I like earth tones and blacks but those

19:37 colors blend in a little bit more with the scenery and if you want to stand out

19:41 in for optimum motorcycle safety bright graphics, bright colors are the way

19:48 to go. Alright folks now we're going 75 miles per hour. Look at this little TW

19:54 200. This thing eats for a little bike. There's my buddy Jarrett Yamaha's

20:02 street bike media coordinator. He's in the race tuck position. He's got a couple

20:10 miles per hour on me. Let me get here in the tuck. There we go. Now we got some

20:15 draft going. Oh yeah maybe this is not safe but it's NASCAR and it's fun.

20:20 Alright folks here we are at the legendary Cabbage Patch in Daytona Beach

20:28 Florida for Daytona Bike Week. Cabbage Patch is a place where you can camp and

20:34 hang out and ride your motorcycle and serve as a home base. Cabbage Patch is

20:42 named after that bar right there. We are going to cruise in. Thanks man. Thank you.

20:52 He says to make a left and go all the way down so that's what we're gonna do.

20:56 Make a left and go all the way down. Now still before noon here at Daytona Beach

21:07 Bike Week so it's a little bit quiet but still it's cool to see all the vendors

21:13 and all the guys out there oogling over each other's bikes. The cool thing about

21:19 Bike Week is you just have a smorgasbord of different types of bikes. You got

21:27 trikes obviously a bazillion Harleys and a bazillion Indian motorcycles and

21:36 other American motorcycles out here. Wow look at that thing. Look at that Boss

21:41 trike. That thing is sick. Wow.

21:46 So a lot of cool things to look at. If you need a half helmet you can buy it

21:56 here. It's kind of a strange way to stack those half helmets. And then we

22:04 have more vendors selling t-shirts and leather vests and all kinds of stuff. But

22:10 what we're really here for is a hot dog. A corn dog. It's breakfast time and when

22:20 in Daytona why not have a corn dog for breakfast. In the spirit of Bike Week why

22:29 not have a corn dog for breakfast. Just joking we're having an Italian sausage

22:34 instead. Yeah buddy gator went with the Philly cheese steak. It's a breakfast.

22:40 Another good breakfast choice. Oh yeah man thank you.

22:46 With a lemonade. Man you're living your life dude. Oh the breakfast of champions.

22:52 Philly cheese steak. Look at this sausage. Yeah. Alright folks here we are on Yamaha's

22:59 2023 TW Trailway 200 here in Main Street on Main Street here in Daytona Beach

23:09 Florida. Look how many people are here right now. It is crazy. Look at all these

23:17 bikes. Harleys, Indians, Kawasaki's, there was a Honda. Everything. Of course we all

23:27 know that Harley-Davidson's are the most common bike here at Bike Week but it's

23:32 still cool to see other brands too. Look at Indian Motorcycles huge setup. That's

23:36 a good setup for Indian. Nice to see them out here supporting this event. You

23:45 certainly don't see a lot of Yamaha motorcycles nor TW 200's but I'm pretty

23:53 happy to be on this bike. Folks it's raining a little bit. We're on the East

23:57 Coast where it actually rains regularly. So we are going to head to where it's

24:07 dry over there. Alright folks we made it. We just paid $20 to that gentleman right

24:14 there and for $20 that allows you beach access for a 24-hour period here in

24:22 Daytona Beach Florida. Wow spring break is in full effect. Look at all the people

24:32 here. This is wild that we get to ride our motorcycle on the beach here. How

24:39 cool is that?

24:44 It's a beautiful day out here. Probably about 82-83 degrees. A little bit more

24:54 humid than we're used to. Actually a lot more humid than we're used to in

25:00 Southern California but it's a refreshing change of pace.

25:09 Pretty neat that the all-conquering TW 200 you ride it on the road. You can ride

25:15 it at highway speeds. You can ride off. It is awesome. A lot of things to look at

25:22 and see. A lot of people walking around enjoying the day. We should have brought

25:30 a little cooler full of sodas and posted up here and had some fun. You can totally

25:36 do that here. Well folks that was a fun little beach jaunt here in Daytona Beach

25:43 Florida. Right now we're rolling our Insta360 ONE X 3 360 video cam. That is

25:52 how we get some of this cool 360 footage that we will show you guys off in this

26:00 video. Look folks we've got a little doggy riding with this lady. How cute is

26:08 that? Little doggy's got his goggle. Look at his face. It's so happy and so pumped

26:14 to be riding in the wind. Look at it. So neat that right lady's riding the Harley

26:21 Davidson Heritage Softail I believe. She's got a helmet on which is nice to

26:26 see and gloves. Fingerless but still gloves. So it's nice to see people

26:33 donning appropriate motorcycle safety gear when riding down here in the

26:41 Sunshine State of Florida. We're in Daytona Beach Shores. This is the north

26:47 end of Daytona. We are on A1A. This highway was made famous by Vanilla Ice's

26:58 song from the 90s Ice Ice Baby. Then then then then then then then then then then

27:05 then then. Yeah! Yo VIP let's kick it. I used to love that song when I was a

27:14 child and now we're here riding on that same stretch of highway that was modeled

27:22 it was modeled after in Vanilla Ice's hit song. Well folks there it is.

27:30 Yamaha's 2023 TW 200. This was a fun Daytona Bike Week special edition. We

27:38 covered a lot of miles, saw a lot of stuff, ate some great fried food in the

27:45 spirit of Bike Week and had a blast on this $4,800 TW 200. This is a really nice

27:54 little bike and a perfect addition to the avid motorcyclist's garage. It looks

28:01 cool. It's super functional. It's built Yamaha tough. It has that old-school

28:07 80s vibe that is very much in style and these things hold their value. You

28:14 wouldn't believe how expensive these bikes are on the used market. So if you

28:20 buy it you know that you're gonna get a bike that's not going to just deplete in

28:25 value. Would I spend my $4,800 on this 2023 TW 200 from Yamaha Motor? You bet! I

28:34 would love to have this bike in my garage. This bike would be great for

28:38 running errands on in the city I live, for doing, going to the grocery store. You

28:43 can add a mount here to this tail piece right here so you can have some form of

28:49 permanent storage and this bike is a great little motor cycle from Yamaha.

28:56 It's true to the adage that if it ain't broke don't fix it and that's what

29:01 this this 2023 Yamaha TW 200 is all about. Alright folks, that's a wrap from

29:09 today's special edition review live from Daytona Beach, Florida bike week. We will

29:16 check in with you folks next time. Make sure to surf on over to

29:19 MotorcyclistOnline.com. That's where all of our written content comes to life.

29:24 Give this video a thumbs up if you liked it and thumbs it down if you didn't and

29:28 we'll see you guys next time. Thanks for riding with us.

29:31 Yew!

29:33 [Music]

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