Scooter Review Yamaha Vino 125 When it comes to scooters, a little drop of a quality vintage is always welcome.
Words & photography by JEREMY BOWDLER Wow. That looks just like a Vespa.Is it European?
No. It’s Japanese. Actually, to be strictly accurate, it’s Taiwanese.Built there for Yamaha.
So it’s crap, then?
Not on your Nellie. While it is true that there is variable quality coming out of the region, the Vino is built to Yamaha specs, much like the Chinese-built Honda Today50 is built to Japanese specs for the Japanese market. Quality isn’t an issue. And check out the styling. It does look like a retro Italian scooter, with the single instrument pod and the svelte lines.
What’s with the blanked-off oval panels in the legshields and the tailpiece. That doesn’t look too svelte.
Thank your local licensing agency, in this case those responsible for Australian Design Rules. Those blanked-off holes are for the stock indicators. Apparently Australian car drivers require a certain distance between indicators or they can’t recognise which direction the scooter is about to take. Lowest common denominator? You bet.
Still the styling’s pretty sweet. What about the engine.
The Vino has an air-cooled, four-stroke single which rows it along quite nicely, with a pleasant exhaust note. The engine dimensions
are 51.5 x 60mm, so the bore (the size of the piston) is less than the stroke (the travel of the piston). This undersquare dimension is a good indicator in a four-stroke engine of good torque (as opposed to power – and an oversquare engine gives higher rpm and more power). Torque is what you need for getting away from the line and for around-town duties, translating as it does into lowdown urge. The two-valve head aids this (where a four-valve head is better for high rpm cylinder filling). Essentially the engine is tuned for around-town use, which is good. It may get a bit breathless at the top end, but this is largely academic in terms of the Vino’s use.
So it’s down on power? Is that what you’re saying?
No. The engine is biased towards torque in the midrange, rather than top-end power. Part of this is because a CVT transmission tends to work at the peak torque rpm of a scooter. And that means instant go whenever you twist the throttle. Trust me. It’s good.
And the handling? No use having a brain if you haven’t got a body to carry it around...
Absolutely on par with your regular scooter. The front telescopic forks have 80mm of travel (generous for a scooter) while the single
rear spring-damper unit has 65mm to use before you get bounced out of the seat. With a dry weight of only 104kg, that’s heaps. The 10-inch wheels perform pretty well, without undue nervousness. They’ll certainly tell you when it’s about to go pearshaped, with a large margin for error. The 180mm disc up front is effective and is backed up by a 110mm drum at the rear. Keep it adjusted and you’ll be fine.
So it’s pretty much an around-town scooter?
Yes. The wheelbase of 1230mm combined with the 10-inch rims mean sharp steering and manoeuvrability are to the fore, while
the 4.7 litres of go-juice should give you a fair distance before you have to replenish the government’s coffers.
One-up or two?
There’s reasonable accommodation for your better half. The seat’s comfortable, but there’s no grabrail. Hugs around the waist are in
order, I’m afraid. Unless you like that sort of thing.
Odds and sods?
The seat latch is operated via the ignition switch, which is handy, and the underseat storage will take a full-face helmet. There’s a rack on the back which will take gear, but be careful how you strap In Vino Verita sit down as the fuel fi ller cap nestles between it and the back of the seat. It’s a pain to have to reattach gear each time you want to fill up and I can’t see how a topbox could be fi tted and still let you fill‘er up. The instrumentation is good, though mounting the fuel gauge in front of your left knee strikes me as an afterthought. There’s no glovebox, but there is a surprisingly spacious open parcel bin on the left.
Should I buy one?
It goes well, is built to Yamaha’s quality expectations, it’s got Italian styling ... and it’s $1500 cheaper than the Vespa LX125. Over to you.
And now for something smaller...
Yamaha’s Vino also comes in a four-stroke 50cc guise. Far from being the same scooter with a different engine, the Vino 50 has a liquid-cooled engine, bottom-link front suspension with 65mm of travel (55mm from the rear spring-damper unit) and a shorter wheelbase of 1160mm. Tyre sizes are down from the 125’s 3.5x10 to 90/90x10 and braking at both ends is by drum. The weight is a miniscule 76kg, and even the seat height has been lowered, to 715mm.
The price, too, is smaller, at $2799+orc. So it really is just like a little sibling, which is just they way it should be.
(AD Says - Dont forget Yamaha have just dropped the price of the Yamaha Vino 125 to $3990 + ORC as well as the Yamaha Vino 50 to $2490 + ORC Effective April 2007)
As published in TW SCOOTER MAGAZINE - 27/04/2007
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