Yamaha Serow 250

The Yamaha Serow 250 looks very purposeful, just how a dual-purpose motorcycle should look – straight in your face. The minimalist and simple design of the Yamaha Serow 250 looks focused for a motorcycle of this category, however, in this process, it has lost the track of modernity, and looks a bit old school for today’s generation of motorcycles.

At the front, the Yamaha Serow 250 has a round headlamp enclosed in a rounded cowl, below which it gets a tubular plate-like small protection panel. There are old-school round themed amber-colored turn indicators at the upper corners of this front fascia. To make it look purposeful, Yamaha has fitted the Serow 250 with rubber paddings for the front forks as well as high mounted front fender, the latter of which looks quite big for the motorcycle.

What additionally (and actually mainly) makes the Yamaha Serow 250 look so focused is its lean profile, consisting of the high placed fuel tank with a sloping design and slim extensions with incorporating sleek airflow vents. The exposed tubular frame adds to the rugged design, whereas the slim side body panels make it look very agile. As with all the dual-purpose motorcycles, the Yamaha Serow 250 too gets a slim and totally flat long seat.

Compared to other dual-purpose motorcycles available in the market, the Yamaha Serow 250 gets quite wide looking rear side body panels, which end up in a rather broad tail lamp cluster, consisting of tightly stacked in amber rounded turn indicators adjacent to the tail lamp. The short rear fender as well as high mounted exhaust pipe complete with chrome shielding, make it look aggressive from the rear.

The rider’s cockpit of the Yamaha Serow 250 is complete with a slightly upright handlebar with silver-finished levers on either side, rounded rearview mirrors, and a tiny all-digital instrument console. Speaking of the instrument console, it gets a small rectangular panel that shows a digital speedometer, odometer, and fuel gauge. Not only this panel is scarce in the information it displays, but also the small fonts of the panel are hard to read while it is on the go.

The Yamaha Serow 250 gets a very sturdy mechanical hardware, with the motorcycle being engineered around a diamond frame and having the combination of upside down hydraulic telescopic forks at the front and monoshock with rectangular swingarm at the back. To make it off-road-ready, the Serow 250’s suspension is tuned on a stiffer side, with the motorcycle getting dual-purpose tubeless tires wrapped around 17-inch spoked wheels. Talking about its braking setup, the Yamaha Serow 250 gets single disc brakes at both the wheels.

Don’t go by the ’250’ suffix in its name, as the Yamaha Serow 250 gets the same four-stroke, single-cylinder, liquid-cooled, fuel-injected, 155cc motor from its stablemates like YZFR-R15, MT-15, and XSR 155. This 155cc motor, coupled with a 6-speed gearbox, pumps out a maximum power output of 19.3 PS, while the peak torque output is rated at 14.7 Nm.

To make it as simple as old school as possible, Yamaha has skipped on equipping the Serow 250 with any major safety feature, and that also means that the motorcycle misses out on a proper ABS.

To sum it up, the Yamaha Serow 250 is mainly for those who prefer to ride more on off-road tracks rather than on smooth tarmacs. The wonderfully tuned chassis, along with nimble handling, makes the Yamaha Serow 250 an incredible fun to ride machine. In urban setup, the Yamaha Serow 250 feels very underequipped and old fashioned.