T135 Development Story(Product Planning)

Mr. Shinichiro Nishimura of Product Planning describes the T135's "Performal Moped" concept. "This is a machine that will give you the feeling of a quality ride in everyday use. But at the same time, if you decide you really want to push it, it will respond with an excitingly sporty ride. This is what makes the T135 a completely new type of moped, like nothing before.
The rider is the main character in this drama and so it has to be a motorcycle that can move the rider's soul, a motorcycle that can bring true satisfaction. This is why the engineers and designers who build it must bring real passion to their work. And it was this kind of passion that drove the T135 development project.

The motorcycle development process begins in product planning. The job here is to decide on the product concept: what kind of product is going to be built for what kind of target user. Says Product Planning's Nishimura, "We used a lot of analysis and survey results to build the T135 concept." But, he emphasizes that, "Underlying it all was a strong determination to out do the competition. Among the things we wanted to beat the competitors at were functionality and fuel economy. And, more than anything, with the T135 we wanted to beat the competition in the area of Yamaha's traditional strength: the performance of the ride.

In the past Yamaha's strength was in the field of performance 2-stroke engines. In the moped category as well, Yamaha brought out models with spunky 2-stroke engines that won popularity in the marketplace. But, as the trend of the times shifted to 4-stroke engines, Yamaha turned its focus to producing practical models.

Still, one quality that has always been in the blood of Yamaha engineers is the pursuit of models that are truly fun to ride. This led to the desire to build a 4-stroke model with the same sprite and spunky ride of a 2-stroke. To do this, top priority had to be placed on getting a powerful 4-stroke engine.