Yamaha RX100 bikes being assembled at Escorts Yamaha factory in India
The Yamaha RX100 is a legend like none other. The RX100 was Escorts Limited’s “Bread and Butter” model for over a decade. The RX100 went on to become the obvious choice of all those looking for a fun-to-ride commuter that wasn’t expensive to buy. The RX100 is responsible for changing the way people looked at small displacement motorcycles. It remained in production till 1996. Here is a video that shows the RX100 being assembled at the Escorts Yamaha factory.
The video we have above takes us through various assembly processes. For the uninitiated, Yamaha Motor Corp and Escorts Limited joined hands in 1983 to produce the ”Rajdoot 350”, which was basically the India-spec Yamaha RD350B. It’s said that the sales success of the IND-SUZUKI AX100 surprised Escorts-Yamaha. Hence, in late 1985, they launched the Yamaha RX100. Compared to the 8.25 bhp AX100, the Yamaha RX100 delivered a significantly higher power output of 11 bhp. The Yamaha RX100 was initially available only in three colours – Cherry red, Peacock blue-green and Black. The first lot of the motorcycle came to us via the CKD route. They had ‘Made in Japan’ embossed on the gearbox cover.
Also, the speedometer housing of the initial lot of the Yamaha RX100s had the words ‘RAJDOOT’ written on them. These speedometers were manufactured by Yenkay. Later, the speedometer housings started having ‘ESCORTS’ written on them. These meters were manufactured by Pricol. The 2-stroke oil pump cover continued to have the word ‘RAJDOOT’ embossed on it instead of ‘Escorts’ or ‘Yamaha’. Hence, it’s speculated that Yamaha might have planned to launch the Yamaha RX100 as the ‘Rajdoot 100’, just like it launched the Yamaha RD350B as the Rajdoot 350.
The Yamaha RX100 didn’t get many updates throughout its lifecycle. The only major change it had was that the 6V electrical system was later replaced with a 12V system. Other than this, the pinstriping on the fuel tank was changed. Later, three new colours, Silver, Wine Red, and Metallic Blue, were also introduced. Other than this, the RX100 remained the same throughout its career. While it has been out of production for over a couple of decades now, it still enjoys a huge fan following. It’s almost a cult classic and well-maintained/restored examples generally sell for up to Rs 90,000.
