The Tokyo Motor Show saw Yamaha unveil its new three-wheeled leaning motorcycle concept called the Yamaha MWT-9. The new concept arrives close behind the heels of Yamaha’s 03GEN-f, 03GEN-x and the Tricity concepts. Seems like the year 2016 is poised to be the year of the leaning trikes with Honda also having revealed their leaning multi-wheeler concept called the Honda Neowing at the Tokyo Motor Show.
With the new leaning multi-wheeler concepts, Yamaha says, it wants to explore new dimensions of ‘kando’. Kando is the Japanese word for the simultaneous feeling of deep satisfaction and intense excitement that comes from experiencing something of exceptional value.
The Yamaha MWT-9 concept leaning multi-wheeler has an aggressive styling with a bulky looking front end. The front suspension features a total of four forks and the setup seems to be inspired by earlier concepts such as the 03GEN. But, with the Yamaha MWT-9 the upside-down forks are placed towards the outer-side of the wheels. This change might be to provide better stability as the MWT-9 is a larger and heavier vehicle compared to the earlier 03GEN concepts.
The Yamaha MWT-9 trike is powered by a three-cylinder, liquid-cooled engine which has a capacity of 849cc. We believe that this engine could be a revised version of the mill powering the Yamaha FZ-09. Other than the engine configuration and size, no more technical details have been released about the Yamaha MWT-9 leaning multi-wheeler concept yet.
Though leaning multi-wheelers are not exactly motorcycles, they exploit the same experience and pleasure that comes with riding a motorcycle, but, with added safety. When it comes to manufacturers, the leaning multi-wheelers would be an exploration of a completely new segment which is aimed at a new set of customers. We imagine that the three-wheelers would especially be very appealing to non-motorcycle enthusiasts who prefer better safety compared to two-wheelers.
If all goes to plan at Yamaha, we can expect these three-wheeled motorcycles to be running on the roads by 2017 at the earliest. With Yamaha already out with three concepts in the leaning multi-wheeler segment, it seems like we are not too far from swinging our legs on one of these. Honda is also making a point that it is close behind Yamaha in pursuit of the new segment with the unveiling of the Honda Neowing leaning trike concept. It won’t be too long until the other two Japanese manufacturers pitch in on exploiting the new segment.
