Yamaha RX100 is 'Father Of Bullet' And Coming Soon? Fact Check!
We were surfing through the Google Discover feed when this fascinating piece of news came to our notice. The headline says 'Yamaha RX100 Launches As The ‘Father of Bullet’'. It further mentioned the engine capacity and top speed as well. The headline had a hook that was strong enough to make most people click. The image had what looked like the AI image of a motorcycle. Amused, we opened the link and saw what was inside.
The article is quite detailed. It starts by claiming that Yamaha has finally resurrected the RX100 nameplate and the new bike mixes 'retro charm with modern aggression'. The image justifies this claim. The motorcycle in the image shows a somewhat modern motorcycle with some resemblance to the legendary RX100, with retro-styled LED headlamp, sporty fuel tank design, split-seat design and LED tail lamp.
The article further claims that the new RX100 is powered by a 225cc air-cooled engine (!) mated to a five-speed transmission and has a top speed of 120 kph. The claimed mileage, according to the article, is 40-45 kpl. The story even has tables and bullet points to back its claims. Overall, this article has done the narration in a convincing way.
But Is This True? Of Course Not!
Atleast some of you might have guessed by now- this is a fake news article with a clickbaity title. It aims to capitalise on the Indian buyer's affinity towards the legendary RX100 nameplate and generate clicks (and revenue), and honestly succeeds in doing so.
Despite being a complete hoax, traffic to this article is likely giving the website a steady stream of revenue. We did more digging and found out that more websites have carried the story. Most, if not all, have ads running on the respective pages.
These sites are essentially fooling Google to extract traffic from Discover. Google usually punishes them after a while - but in that period, they get a lot of traffic by publishing such fake news, raking in some revenue, and then when the site is banned, they just start again with a new name. We do not know about this particular website, though. Maybe they would just delete the article later!
Google has lately been rolling out back-to-back updates to its algorithm and backend. These are intended to deliver the users a better experience on the platform. There is now a strong focus on preventing fake news and clickbaity articles from rising to popularity. Despite these, articles such as this continue to be read by many.
People tend to click on an article that talks about their favourite motorcycle and read along. Google considers this a positive signal and brings more people to the article. The real problem, however, is that such stories often confuse and mislead people.
Is Yamaha Working On Bringing The RX100 Back?
This question has been around for long. Several rumours have surfaced over the years. More recently, Yamaha confirmed that they will not be bringing back the RX100. However, the bikemaker is reportedly working on resurrecting the RX nameplate with a larger capacity engine.
Back in its day, the RX100 had stellar acceptance in India. It featured a 100cc two-stroke engine, and had an impressive power to weight ratio. It was so fast that it soon gained fame for being a 'pocket rocket'. The manufacturer is well aware that the new motorcycle will have big shoes to fill when launched.
Another Instance Of Fake News
Remember us debunking the Patanjali electric scooter? Well, that was another classic case of fake news amassing massive viewership. The Patanjali story even listed the detailed specifications, price and range figures.
Bottomline
Considering its huge popularity in India, the Yamaha RX100 has been a fake news staple for years now. We have seen many reports, renders and speculations around it. Most of these are false. Yamaha might bring back the RX nameplate is all that's been confirmed yet. We'll keep you posted on the further developments as they happen. Till then, please don't fall for hoax stories or generated videos...