In the digital age, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) have become a good resource for sleuthing out upcoming machines from motorcycle manufacturers.
The publicly accessible online databases have outed Ducati’s plans to build a “frameless” motorcycle (later known to be a patent for the Panigale), tipped-off the coming of the water-cooled engines to Harley-Davidson, and even hinted at Honda doing something with the Africa Twin name.
Trademark registrations have tipped off bikes like the Ducati Diavel, Ducati Scrambler, and Yamaha YZF-R3; and for today, it seems another motorcycle has been outed by the government agency: the Yamaha FJ-09. Registered with the USPTO, the FJ-09 is likely to be a three-cylinder sport-tourer, if the tuning fork brand keeps to its naming conventions.
Historically, the FJ line has been touring-focused, with the FJR13000 currently towing the sport-touring line here in the United States. It makes sense then that Yamaha could introduce a smaller displacement model for consumers, and it makes even more sense for Yamaha to use the FZ-09 platform to do so.
Yamaha has made no secret about its desire to use three-cylinder engines in upcoming models, and with the FZ-09 (MT-09 for our international readers) being a hit, and relatively cheap to produce, Yamaha has seemingly decided to double-down on its investment.
The timing is appropriate, as A&R just recently published several concept sketches by Oberdan Bezzi, which used the FZ-09 as the basis for a three-cylinder adventure-tourer.
It shouldn’t take much for Yamaha to make the transformation on the FZ-09, a full fairing, some bags, and poof…an affordable, comfortable, and powerful middleweight tourer. Sign us up for one.
Source: USPTO via Motorcycle.com
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