What Is Yamaha Motorcycle Connect And How Much Does It Cost?

Mention the name Yamaha, and most people will instantly think of motorcycles. Yet, the history of Yamaha and its manufacturing begins not with the highly tuned growl of a motorcycle engine, but the beautiful tones of a piano keyboard — yes, Yamaha began life as a manufacturer of pianos. However, although the company still makes pianos, the release of Yamaha's first motorcycle (the YA-1 in 1955) changed the direction of the company and set its motor vehicle and audio divisions on separate paths. In the space of three years, the company sold 11,000 YA-1s, and the bike sowed an early seed that has seen Yamaha grow to be one of the world's top motorcycle manufacturers. 

Seventy years on, the world is a radically different place. The early visionaries who changed the path of Yamaha's history could not have foreseen the interconnected world of the internet, GPS, and Bluetooth. These are the technologies that Yamaha's Motorcycle Connect app uses to enhance the experience of all Yamaha riders. The application is free to download and use and is available for both Android and iOS devices. Among the features that the app offers are a riding log, fuel consumption data, error codes, and more. Let's have a more detailed look at the Yamaha Motorcycle Connect app and how it can help riders get the most from their motorcycle. 

Yamaha Motorcycle Connect — or just Y-Connect, as it's also known — is a free smartphone app developed by Yamaha that uses Bluetooth to connect to certain Yamaha motorcycle models. We cover the main compatible models in the next section, but Yamaha has a model checker on the Yamaha Global website. 

The app works by connecting your smartphone to a motorcycle's Communication Control Unit (CCU). Once paired, the app provides real-time access to various metrics, including fuel consumption, battery level, engine temperature, and ambient temperature. It can also display phone notifications on the motorcycle's dashboard screen and lets the rider answer calls, provided the system is connected to a Bluetooth headset and the bike model features handlebar controls. Other features include maintenance recommendations, a record of your last parking location, navigation, and weather forecasting. It can also display details of any malfunctions on your phone screen. In case you miss the bad news, it can even automatically email the fault details to a pre-determined email address. 

Perhaps one of the more interesting applications is the riding log. This automatically begins once the bike has traveled more than 0.6 miles and records info such as the time, route, weather, and date. It also allows you to add photos of the journey to create a comprehensive record of your travels. However, as we discover next, not all Yamaha motorcycles are supported by the app.

Not all the bikes in the Yamaha range are compatible with the app, so check this before downloading it. As previously noted, the easiest way to confirm this is to pop along to the compatibility checker on the Yamaha website. Some of the main models that are listed as compatible include the XMAX 250 and 300, the Ray ZR, the FZ-S & FZ-X, and the YZF-R15 (incidentally, a bike that made it onto our list of the most unforgettable Yamaha R-Series bikes). Of course, the CCU that enables the connection is essential, so if your bike is missing this, then the app won't work. 

Available functions also vary by model. For instance, there are different functions for EV motorcycles and those with internal combustion engines. There may also be some regional restrictions affecting the app. While there is no information from Yamaha detailing this, a Reddit post seems to confirm that it is the case, with some users having to use Yamaha's MyRide app instead. Finally, for the system to work, your device needs to meet some minimum specifications. For Apple devices, the minimum is an iPhone 6S or later, running iOS 14 or higher. Android phones need to run Android 8 or higher and support Bluetooth version 4.1 or later. The company has come a long way since its time as a piano maker, and the Y-Connect app is another demonstration of Yamaha's evolution through the years.