Its been just on a month since Yamaha launched the YZ65 on to the Australian market with a host of come and try days being held around the nation.
The Demo days proved to be a huge hit amongst both riders and parents, giving the next generation of motocross stars, and future weekend warriors the opportunity to test rider the newest junior race bike on the market. A completely new race bike designed from the ground up.
We were lucky enough to spend the day at the South Australian demo day, hosted by Shane Metcalfe at Gillman in South Australia, with the riders there getting to spend quite a number of hours cutting laps around a full prepared motocross track. It was not long until a handful of those riders were rocking up at recent race days aboard their very on YZ65's.
It was a theme that played out across NSW, Qld, Victoria and soon to be Tasmania.
While the YZ65 Demo day was a massive hit in our eyes, it did leave us asking some questions, so we hit up a couple of Yamaha Australia's leading players to find out a little bit more about how the YZ65 came to be and some of the new Yamaha lingo we have seen starting to pop up around the place.
Our first stop was Yamaha Australia's Marketing Manager, Sean Goldhawk to ask a few questions about Yamaha's entry into the 65cc junior motocross market.
Thanks for your time Sean, can you fill us in a bit about the development of the YZ65, how long has this bike been in the works and what lead to Yamaha re-entering the Minibike racing market in the 65 class
Yamaha has always been active in the junior race bike class starting with the YZ50 which became a YZ60 in the early 1980s. Unfortunately, this model was dropped from the lineup as the focus moved to the YZ80 for the race class. This left a gap from riders wanting to move from the PW/TT-R fun bike range into their first MX bike.
All I can say is the new model has been in planning a long time because the jump from fun bike to YZ85 has always been just that little bit too big.
You mention a gap for riders wanting to move up from the fun bikes to the bigger race bikes before the YZ65 being announced. One thing we have noticed of late is Yamaha mentioning "Step-Up" Can you tell us more about Yamaha’s Step Up philosophy.
Yamaha’s aims to offer a bike for every size and ability so that when a rider grows they are able to step up to the next model seamlessly. This means they can stay with a familiar set up with Yamaha and become a customer for life. If you consider an average customer may buy 20 bikes throughout his or her riding career, then it makes good sense to offer this.
How important is the YZ65’s role in Yamaha’s Step up Philosophy
The YZ65 is the first step on what we call the VictorYZone ladder – the entry point to the entire YZ range. And being the first rung is clearly a key role for our smallest YZ. This is where the first buzz of excitement is sparked and let’s face it, we all remember our first bike don’t we?
The VictorYZone ladder is something that we really took note of last year with the launch of the 2018 YZ450F and is something most of us have become familiar with over recent times. Another logo that was seen a lot at the YZ65 launch and in general regarding anything Yamaha, the Yamaha BluCru logo, can you tell us a little more about the BluCru and what it means to Yamaha.
bLU cRU is the name we give to the passionate community of riders in our blue and white world, which covers our road and off-road competition models – our blue bikes essentially.
We are fostering our bLU cRU riders by offering them training, places to ride, technical assistance and connecting them with our race teams. So bLU cRU offers aspiration and a place to belong. It also offers a point of difference for our members, and another reason to buy Yamaha and so is a key element in YMA’s marketing plan 
