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Yamaha XJR1300 and SR400 Sacked by the Euro 4 Emission Standard?

It looks like we should make better preparations to say goodbye to more famous motorcycle models from January 1, 2017, when the Euro 4 emission standard becomes effective for newly produced bikes.
Must we say goodbye to the Yamaha XJR1300? 11 photos
Photo: Yamaha
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Apparently, the neo-retro Yamaha XJR1300 and SR400 jewels are next on the "to be sacked" list of victims the new standard leaves behind, sources in the French market indicate. If this turns out to be true, then we've got rather small chances to get one of these bikes with zero miles on them.

Yamaha will most likely continue to manufacture them in smaller runs that will be sold in markets outside Europe where the emission standards are less strict, but they will get an "unobtainium" tag on the Old Continent.

Customers still looking to get their hands on these models will most likely have to import them from foreign markets and hope they'd still be legal to register in Europe... only God knows how these regulations could change in the coming years.

The Yamaha XJR1300 and SR400 are only two of the models that will be affected by the Euro 4 standards starting January 2017, and more motorcycles are expected to be sacked.

Manufacturers who want to retain older models for EU markets will have to upgrade their engines or engineer brand new ones

No word from Yamaha so far, but we just know they saw this one coming. The EICMA show in Milan is still a good half a year away, and there's plenty of time for developments in this direction.

For the moment, it's hard to predict what Yamaha will choose to do, knowing that there are only two possibilities to make these bikes available in Europe in the future.

Yamaha could try (and maybe they're doing this as we speak) to upgrade the engines to make them legal for road use. To what extent is such a solution a feasible one is a thing only Iwata's engineers know, while the economists will have to analyze the costs and benefits ratio.

Or, Iwata could decide in favor of engineering new power plants for these models, making them Euro 4 compliant and even making sure they're future-proof with even stricter standards.

Not sure if any of these will happen, so until new data surfaces, you'd better talk to your Yamaha dealer if you were planning to get an XJR1300 or SR400. Motostation has even rounded up the stocks in France and they seem pretty confident that the fat lady already sang and these models are gonners.
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