The bike, which is quite a nice looking piece of machinery if you’re into that kind of thing, has a engine of only 149 cubic centimetres. Nevertheless, many Thai news reports prefer to class it a “big bike”. Any two-wheeled machine with an engine of 149cc is far from a big bike to any Western big bike fan. So now you may be wondering, “Where are you heading with this?”
You also might be wondering why we’ve referred to how Thai media might report on this bike.
The answer is simple, because in recent months this bike, the Yamaha M-Slaz, has been making the news. Not only the news, but in the very latest incident, the headlines.
Yes, it is sad to say that this bike has been in the news in recent months because the riders of the said bike have been involved in accidents – yep, big surprise there, motorbike accidents in Phuket – with several resulting in the deaths of the riders.
In fact, in the past eight weeks alone, The Phuket News has reported four accidents involving a Yamaha M-Slaz, and there could well be some accidents involving a Yamaha M-Slaz that have gone under the radar that not made it to the news.
But an even more glaring factor in each of these four stories, beyond the fact that they all involve a Yamaha M-Slaz, is that in every incident the rider of the bike in question has been a Thai male aged between 18-25.
Now The Phuket News is in no way saying that these accidents are due to the bike itself. What we are pointing out, however, is the combination of youth-targeted design and marketing on behalf of the manufacturer, and overconfidence and youthful recklessness on the part of the rider, that has created a lethal cocktail on our roads.
Given that people are free to buy any bike they can afford, and that more young riders join us on the road every day, it seems like there is little that can be done to prevent more of these predictable, but statistically inevitable accidents. Except perhaps giving Yamaha M-Slaz riders as wide a berth as possible on the roads when you see them.