Scooter Review

YAMAHA CV50A Jog

Why drive when you can jog?

JEREMY BOWDLER

Yamaha’s Jog seems to have been around forever, bravely flying the flag for 50cc scooters in an Australia where scooters were sneered at, consigned to the very minor role of carrying those who couldn’t afford a car. For 15 years, until it was discontinued in 2004, the humble CY50 was but a poor relation in the Yamaha range – except to those who actually bought one. Now Australia has changed, the scooter market has boomed and the Jog is back and, in the best news of all, almost $500 cheaper than when it disappeared.

To be honest, I was expecting just another 50, perfect for the rental market and applicable to car-driving folk in our more liberally-minded States. Then I rode it. Boy, was I wrong!

To look at, the Jog is just another 50, with a bland, single colour scheme, a long nose and diminutive stature. I was the lucky guinea pig since my commute is more suited to the slower pace of a 50 than anyone else’s in the office. And what pleasing lines the Jog had when it left the factory have been, shall we say, amended by the idiotic demands of the local Australian Design Rules which, by specifying a minimum distance between indicators, have forced Yamaha in Australia at least to retrofit extra indicators to meet the regulations. So the Jog comes with eight indicators, four more than necessary, even if the originals, faired into the nose piece and tail unit, are not connected. I wouldn’t blame any owner for having the eyesore extras removed and reverting to the originals once the scoot has been registered, even if it is against the letter of the law. It’d tidy up the aesthetics no end.

But that’s of secondary concern to the big question of how the wee beastie performs. And here the Jog gets the big thumbs up.

Off the mark, it’s faster than pretty much anything I’ve ridden, bar the Peugeot Ludix Blaster which is just on $2000 more expensive. The pick-up from the centrifugal clutch and variator mean that keeping ahead of traffic from the lights is a breeze and the speedo has hit 30km/h by the time you’ve crossed the intersection. From there the needle races around to the 60km/h mark in short order – and stays there.

Technically, 50cc scooters imported into Australia to meet the car-licence regulations in WA, SA, QLD and the NT are supposed to be limited to no more than 50km/h,though in practice very few of them are. The Jog is limited in speed as is so often the case by a restrictor washer in the exhaust port. Removing it will increase speed, at the expense of ADR legality. It would be a sensible modification in terms of real-world safety, though it is not one either Yamaha nor this magazine can condone. That’s a decision best left to the owner.

One modification I would make, however, is to liberate the high-beam switch, currently blanked off – again for ADR reasons – because there is no in-dash high beam warning lamp. It’s an easy fix and an important one in my books. The reason for the ADR mess is that the Jog is produced principally for the domestic Japanese scooter market and the Japanese have a more sensible approach to many things compared with some of the seemingly hide-bound ADR regulations. Yamaha Motor Australia ensures that the Jog complies with ADR rules which allow it to be imported.

After that, you may want to make some choices based upon your individual needs and safety.

Although the scooter is tiny, I managed to fit my 195cm frame into the riding position without fouling my knees on the ignition key, integral glove compartment or ’bars and, most impressively, my Shoei full-face helmet (which, incidentally, with its rear spoiler is one of the largest helmet shells on the market) squeezed into the underseat storage without any problems.

On my pothole-ridden back-roads commute things went from good to better. The suspension, though non-adjustable and hardly high-tech, coped with my weight and the vagaries of speed humps, roundabouts and potholes and delivered a comfortable controlled ride. The 10-inch wheels seemed unfazed by whatever I threw at them, debunking yet another scooter myth, and the front disc/rear drum combination was more than enough to haul me up from top speed. The rear drum in particular allowed me to play with the traffic, locking up the back wheel at will as I came to a stop, creating a noise and a sideways spectacle that had the surrounding drivers choking on their portable breakfasts or smudging their lipstick as they applied it at the lights. Great fun. And when I got where I was going, the Jog, at 69kg dry, was almost light enough to be carried upstairs. Certainly sticking it inside the gate of your average terrace house would be a cinch. One of the great things about the Jog comes from its parent company. Yamaha makes some of the best motorcycles in the business and the quality control has been carried over to the Jog, with paint finish and panel fit second to none. The seat opens via the ignition switch to reveal a capacious storage area and the fuel and two-stroke oil filler caps. Behind the seat, a sturdy rack has four tangs to make tying gear on a snap.

The other thing to bear in mind with the Jog is the broad spread of Yamaha dealers nationally, which makes finding one and getting it serviced an easy proposition. It is also useful when the time comes to kit out your Jog with some or all of the dedicated factory accessories, like a 23-litre topbox, windscreen, sidestand kit (with ignition cut- out) or front shopping basket.

In short, for the money, the Yamaha Jog is one of our favourites for a cut-price commuter...

As published in TW SCOOTER MAGAZINE - 18/10/2006
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