Whether or not you like how creative (read: silly) the guys at Bikes and Beards can get, their shenanigans can be both entertaining and/or informative. Not everything they do is necessarily relevant but at least, when they get busy testing things nobody ever wondered about, their stuff ranks high on the fun scale.  

Sometimes, they get (a little) more serious and they introduce us to some really neat stuff. In their latest video, we get to meet the latest addition to host Sean’s fleet of weird and wonderful bikes: a teeny tiny 1986 Yamaha YSR80, one of the smallest road-legal bikes ever made.  

The model was initially designed for the Japanese market, but a quick Google search confirms that a number of people imported them to the States over the years. As rare and as exotic as it looks, there are a few people selling them online. The little YSR runs on an 80cc two-stroke, single-cylinder engine but don’t be fooled by its size: it can actually pull its weight!  

Initially, Sean seriously doubts the bike can reach the claimed top speed of 100km/h (62 mph). Who can blame him for underestimating the YSR—considering the size of the engine and of the bike itself.  

Before he puts the claimed top speed to the test, however, he gives us a little walkaround of the rare little bike. We hope he didn’t pay too much for it, despite its apparent good shape, according to his evaluation, it’s pretty rough— a bad paint job, a few ill-replaced bits, obvious wear and tear, etc. That doesn’t mean the bike isn’t road ready and that Sean won’t give it a whip. Watching him kickstart the tiny sportbike is quite the funny sight.  

Even funnier is when we next see him on the road, straddling the miniature bike for the first time. Turns out not only can the YSR actually cruise at a sustained 62 mph, it even goes a little beyond that to reach 64 mph. Woo-hoo! Cheek-clenching speed, right?  

All jokes aside, it looks like we’re missing out because he describes the baby Yamaha as the “best motorcycle out there”. His description of the experience says it all: “It’s like a (Mazda) Miata; you can go as fast as you want but you’re never really going over the speed limit.”  

Of course, a proper Bikes and Beards video wouldn’t be complete without a few shenanigans—that’s the part where he demonstrates that you can do everything with that bike including get to work, flood your neighbors' house, and get in a fight with your colleague. Hey, he didn’t promise it would be anything useful.  

The bottom line is that the YSR80 is awesome with the added bonus of fitting in a pocket—granted a big one, but a pocket nonetheless. Well folks, looks like we’re going shopping.  

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