The Yamaha Nouvo Automatic : The Best of Both Worlds

By design, scooters have small wheels, a large under-seat storage bin and a high revving motor beneath the rider. Step-through mopeds (or cubs or under-bone motorcycles, as they’re more commonly known), on the other hand, have larger wheels, small under-seat storage and a relaxed motor between the rider’s legs. Each design layout has its own advantages and disadvantages, but wouldn’t it be great to get the best features of both designs? Yamaha may have had the same idea when it created the Nouvo Automatic.

Yamaha adapted its scooter design to the Nouvo while maintaining the dimensions and the large wheels of a step-through moped. This cross-breed design gave the bike some space to mount an under-seat storage bin large enough to store a full face helmet, while giving it the stance and the appearance of say, a Yamaha Crypton.

The design maintained the riding convenience and safety of a step-through moped. A sculptured front fairing shields the legs of the rider and is artfully connected to wide step boards, which are separated by a panel that conceals the battery and the carburetorís air box. The upper section of the front fairing houses the crystal headlight and amber turn signal and has a mount for an optional carrying basket.

A handlebar-mounted bikini fairing/front panel mimics the shape of the front fairing while the handlebar bulkhead panel houses the instrument cluster, which includes a 160kph speedometer, a fuel gauge, and turn signal and hi-beam indicators. Yamaha has thoughtfully integrated all headlamp controls on the left handlebar control pod, leaving the right hand pod clean and uncluttered, save for the requisite red starter button.

But the big difference between the Nouvo and the common step-through moped is in the shifter, or rather, the lack of it. Whereas a common step-through bike has a shifter peg for left-foot shifting of its clutchless manual transmission, the Nouvo has none. (While you’re at it, you’ll notice that there’s no brake pedal on the right side of the bike either.)

Instead, this bike offers the shiftless convenience of a Continuous Variable Transmission (CVT) and thus, you need not learn to shift the darn thing to learn to ride it. Just like a scooter, you just hop on the saddle, remember that the left hand lever pulls the rear drum brake while the right lever clamps the 2-piston caliper to the front cross-drilled disc brake, start the engine, twist the throttle and go. It’s that simple.

Equipped with 16-inch spoke wheels shod with a 70/90R16 Dunlop in front and an 80/90R16 in the rear, the Nouvo gives you the confidence to ride over Metro Manila’s potholes and ruts that threaten to swallow puny 10- or 12-inch scooter wheels. The larger wheel diameter also allows the forced air-cooled 4-stroke OHC 115cc single cylinder motor to rev lower at normal traffic speeds resulting in less engine wear and lower fuel consumption as compared to scooters with the same engine size but smaller wheels.

According to Boy Albos, Norkis Trading Co. Inc. senior vice-president for marketing, the Nouvo will be available by October after Yamaha has effected some minor changes suggested by Norkis to adapt the bike to local conditions. Reservations have supposedly been flooding their sales offices since they displayed the bike in their showrooms early this year, indicating that the Nouvo is poised to become one of the best-sellers in the booming motorcycle market.

Who knows, the Nouvo may yet usher in a nouveau trend of crossover motorcycles — one that incorporates the best features of two seemingly different worlds.