Forty Years of Yamaha PW50

Motorcyclists born as far back as the Ford administration often share a common past: They have ridden or raced a Yamaha PW50.

Yamaha has sold more than 380,000 of the air-cooled two-strokes since the bike debuted in 1981, but the actual number of riders who got their start on a PW50 could never accurately be calculated.

Like a magazine left behind on an airplane or in a physician’s waiting room, PW50s often endure multiple life cycles. Growing riders pass them on to siblings or cousins. Some are stored for another generation.

Yamaha dealers report rarely, if ever, seeing a PW50 traded or sold on consignment. Likewise, owners seldom bring in their bikes for service. Easy to ride and even easier to maintain, the PW50 is a motorcycling icon.

The PW50 has aged, but it didn’t grow up. The original Yamaha YZinger PW50H landed in showrooms in late 1980, just in time for the holidays. A very similar machine will be gifted this year to another generation of riders.

Across the decades, the PW50 has changed colors, benefitted from sleeker bodywork and slightly improved suspension and undergone a 375 percent price hike. The “YZinger” nickname was dropped, and the model is now known simply as PW50, or “P-Dub” for short.

Otherwise, it’s the same 49cc, shaft-drive 10-in.-wheeled peewee that produces a beginner-friendly and parent-approved claimed 2.8 pound-feet of torque. While larger-displacement Yamahas received disc brakes, liquid cooling and advanced suspension, the PW50 has just chugged along.

Yamaha claims there are good reasons to leave the bike as is.

“We believe core value of kids’ models is invariant, and our design has been widely accepted in the world,” said Mike Ulrich, Yamaha off-road motorcycle senior communications specialist. “The role of the PW50 in Yamaha’s lineup is to introduce as many kids to motorcycling as possible and grow our industry for the future.”

Ulrich said major technological advances lead to development and tooling costs, which result in higher prices.

The original YZinger cost $439. The 2021 model retails for $1,649, a 10 percent increase from 2020 and the first price bump in three selling seasons.

Yamaha expected to sell 8,000 units in 1980, but after dealers got their first look at the bike, they scooped up 17,000. The following year sales skyrocketed, reaching 33,000.

▲ The author, smile in full bloom, on his Yamaha PW50 in 1983.
Photo by Jack Smith

Origin Story

In the fall of 1979, Yamaha product planners and engineers began discussions about an entry-level dirt bike, something more beginner-friendly than the competition-focused YZ50.

Bike sales were slowing, and dealers wanted a machine that youngsters could have fun riding, that didn’t make parents fret and that didn’t intimidate young or old with costly and complicated maintenance.

A popular keyword from the initial meetings was “toylike.” But they also wanted the new model to look like a real dirt bike.

“The target was complete beginners, kids around 5 or 6 years old,” said Takashi Matsui, a retired Yamaha engineer. “Kids that had finally learned how to ride a bicycle could now experience the fun of controlling their first motorized vehicle.”

Designers drew full-scale sketches to review and discuss until everyone on the team shared the same vision. A rounded, cartoonish silhouette emerged. The fenders and fuel tank were one-piece construction using flexible plastic. The seat extended over the fuel tank, because designers envisioned kids walking the bike while seated.

“The engineers would massage and rework relative to what the input was,” said Ed Burke, another Yamaha retiree who worked in product planning and development. “We’d go through that whole process several times.”

▲ Nicky Hayden parlayed PW50 experience into a championship-winning
road-racing career.
Photo courtesy of Hayden Family Archives

YZinger development was recorded in months, not years, which is lightning quick for an all-new model. The fast pace was possible because the PW’s guts were not new. The engine and many of the components already existed.

“Having that power information is key, because engines are the largest part of development and the most expensive,” said Burke, who flew to Japan 350 times during his nearly 40 years with Yamaha.

Matsui’s team pulled parts from two production scooters, 10-inch wheels from the Passol and a 49cc single-cylinder engine with an automatic transmission and a shaft final drive from the Carrot, which was exported as the QT50.

Designing bodywork that worked with the wheels and engine was the biggest hurdle for the development team. They wanted to use as few parts as possible to keep the price point low.

The QT50 scooter hauled adults around cities. It had proven durability, but also more power than most parents would want to put at the disposal of a child.

In response, Matsui, who worked on Yamaha’s world-championship-winning YZR500 Grand Prix road racer, did something that was counter to everything else he had done during his career: He reduced performance.

Ultimately, Matsui curbed the engine’s output with a throttle-adjustment screw and a removable flow-reduction plate in the exhaust pipe.

Parents could adjust the PW’s performance, and they needed little mechanical knowledge to maintain its drivetrain. Shaft drive is durable, and the two-stroke engine came with an oil injector—no mixing gas and oil.

Yamaha made a bike that looked small enough to slip down the chimney but still keep up on the trail. And at the race track, the PW50 quickly became the bike to own. Soon, for young riders who wanted to win, it was the logical choice.

Off To The Races

In its January 1981 review, Motocross Action predicted that the YZinger “will probably become the mainstay of the [50cc] class because of its maintenance-free construction.” Eleven months later, the same magazine called the little Yamaha the most innovative production bike of 1981.

The PW has never been classified as a competition bike, but it was present in force at the biggest amateur national motocross races of 1981, the World Minis at California’s Saddleback Park and Ponca City in Oklahoma.

And, it won.

From 1982 to 1993, the PW50 won every AMA Amateur Motocross National Championship for which it was eligible at Loretta Lynn’s Ranch in Hurricane Mills, Tenn. Other brands emerged in the mid-1990s, and KTM and Cobra now have a strong hold on the 50cc class, but the PW remains the overwhelming choice in (4-6) Stock Shaft Drive, which debuted in 1998. Through August of this year, the Yamaha is undefeated in that class, 23-0. Since 1982, the PW50 has won 36 titles at Loretta Lynn’s.

▲ Colin Edwards II is seen here on a PW50 at the 1982 AMA Amateur Motocross
National Championship.
Photo by MS Sports

Still Going Strong

The PW50 continues to be a steady seller. In 2019, Yamaha sold 8,200 examples. Earlier this year, when the COVID-19 lockdown lifted, consumers stripped dealerships of product. Finding any make or model of youth-oriented motorcycle was difficult.

Many dealers spent the spring and summer months without products. When the 2021 Yamahas arrived, they disappeared quickly. Most were sold before a crate, each containing three PW50s, arrived. Customers frequently call to inquire about pricing and availability.

The PW50 doesn’t net dealers much profit. After freight and setup charges, some shops make less than $100 per unit. One said $82.

“You’re not selling them to get rich,” said Ian Riley of Fredericktown Yamaha in Fredericktown, Maryland. “You’re trying to start a habit.”

Habits come with other expenses—gear, oil, tires, etc.—that help dealers maintain profitability.

Childhood today looks different than it did in 1981. Technology has changed drastically, attention spans have eroded, and the cost of riding has outpaced inflation. Kids and their parents also have more choices for entertainment.

But the Yamaha PW50 has not changed.

Brett Smith is an AMA member from Towson, Md.