For the market of personalized and entertaining models, today's so-called crossover, its essence is multi-functional: from the shape to the configuration, it can seek a balance of different, or even diametrically opposed needs under complex road conditions, so that a car can meet the needs of different scenes, and can be "in one step" without buying a few more cars, thereby reducing expenditure, which is the core meaning of cross-border and multi-functional.
Back in late October and early November 1987, Yamaha presented the all-new versatile TDR250 at the 27th Tokyo Motor Show in Japan. The car was already defined as a "reference car" at the time, and was officially launched in 1988.
The 1988 TDR250 (factory number 2YK) was powered by a water-cooled two-stroke, inline-two-cylinder engine from the 1985 TZR250 sports car, with a bore, 56.4 mm x 50 mm stroke (the same specification as the final 1990 TZR250R/3MA in the final inline-two-cylinder version), a displacement of 249 cc, a YPVS power valve, the same Mikuni TM28SS carburetor as the TZR250, and a maximum horsepower output of 45 hp (the Japanese version). For the European and North American versions, the TDR250 is 46 hp and the TZR250 is 50 hp).
The body features a steel-tube double-cradle frame, an adjustable upright fork, a monotube rear shock absorber, 230 mm of ground clearance, a seat height of 820 mm (760 mm for the 1985 TZR250), 18-inch front and 17-inch rear diameter steel wire wheels are fitted with off-road tires as standard, and the overall curb weight is 153 kg. The car was developed with the concept of "New Riding Experience", which means that the TDR250 is a versatile crossover between the TZR250 sports car, the RZ250 sports street bike, the DT200R and the XT225 Serow off-road vehicle. At the beginning of its development, Yamaha competed in the Rallye des Pharaons in Egypt with an engineering prototype of the TDR250, which at the time was second only to the famous Paris-Dakar Rally.
Pictured below, official profile of the 1988 TDR250 (Image source: Yamaha Motor).
The TDR250 was a "short-lived" model: first released in 1988, last updated in 1990 in Japan, and last updated in Europe and the United States in 1993, just around five years into history, like most two-strokes.
It's worth recalling that this versatile model from the two-stroke two-cylinder sports car powertrain power platform is equivalent to today's two-cylinder 600 class adventure cars – perhaps many riders don't have much of an impression of a two-stroke, two-cylinder 250 cc class sports car like the TZR250, which is slightly more powerful than the 400 cc class of contemporaries with four-stroke inline four-cylinder engines.
Pictured below, the 1988 - 1989 TDR250 in Japan.
Pictured below, the 1990 TDR250 in Japan and Europe.
Pictured below is the North American version of the 1990 TDR250 with a square rear brake light and a mile scale on the dashboard.
(To be continued)