Yamaha Bravo

The Yamaha Bravo was a snowmobile built by Yamaha Motor Company for thirty years, from 1982 to 2011. It was first launched in 1982 with a 249 cc single-cylinder two-stroke engine driving a 98 inch long track, and from 1987 buyers could choose a 136 inch track or a 102 inch track instead. The long, wide track let the light machine float well on snow, which made it popular with trappers and beginners. Short-track versions ran at about 70 km/h and long-track versions at about 55 km/h. Yamaha later changed to a 246 cc engine with little else altered, so parts stayed largely interchangeable, and by the late 1990s only the 136 inch track model was still sold. The Bravo was valued in remote Arctic villages, particularly in Nunavut, for being tough, reliable and easy to maintain. Yamaha stopped building it after the 2011 model year as the market moved toward cleaner machines.