The Yamaha SR400 will also go on sale in 2024, although only in Thailand, where it remains in its reduced form, protected by homologation regulations that still allow it to exist and by a market that, of course, continues to seek it out.
We have already spoken about this historic model several times, most recently to highlight the theme of its Final Edition in 2021, which would put an end to the evolution (but the term “history” would be much more accurate) of a bike that had remained essentially unchanged from 1978 until 2021, when it had to surrender to anti-pollution regulations and the need for ABS, circumstances that made Iwata opt for the end of the line.
However, one last step was taken for the SR400, identified in the Thai market, which – we imagine – not only for homologation reasons (similar regulatory environments are common in other Asian markets, for example), but also for sales volumes made it possible for the tenacious single-cylinder to survive, which is confirmed on the list for 2024 by Yamaha Thailand with only a color update, but technically unchanged.
For those who don’t know the SR400, let’s just say it’s one of the bikes that lasted the longest in production without departing too far from its original configuration: it was born in 1978 based on the XT500 (actually 500 cc, but the 400 cc arrived shortly afterwards to satisfy the Japanese market and survived as a global model) and arrived in Europe, where it arrived in very small numbers.
On the other hand, the small, single-cylinder, two-valve-per-cylinder, air-cooled engine, with crank start, rigorously and anachronistically, just over 24 hp at 6500 rpm and 28 Nm of torque, with rear disc brakes, was sold at practically the same price as the similar XJ6, which may not have been a milestone in the roadster segment, but still had a four-cylinder engine, disc brakes and ABS.
In short, the SR400 was never cheap, Yamaha got it right – in our opinion – by placing it in a heritage segment and nobility is never taken for granted: to be clear, in Thailand it costs a little less than the MT-07 (around 7,800 euros, at today’s exchange rate) and it’s wonderful to see that it still has circular instruments without LCD, to find the same electric blocks from the 1980s, not to mention the real light clusters and buttons that represent the period of the legendary XS.