Yamaha has already doubled-down on its leaning multi-wheeler (LMW) concept, bringing us both the Yamaha Tricity scooter and the Yamaha Niken.
Now it seems that the Japanese brand is ready to bring us a hat trick of these machines, with Yamaha CEO/President Yoshihiro Hidaka tipping that the folks from Iwata have more multi-wheel leaners coming down the pipe.
To give us more insight though, a slide accompanying Hidaka-san’s speach should a blurred out model, sitting in-between the Tricity and Niken model, perhaps indicating that a mid-sized LMW is coming to us soon from Yamaha.
“Since the launch of Tricity commuter in 2014 we continued R&D activities and in the last year’s Tokyo Motor Show we have presented large size sports model Niken, which will be launched in the market this year,” said Hikada.
“Not just limited to these two models we will be expanding customer base with new values of LMW.”
Of course, it is possible that Yamaha could be looking at building a four-wheel LMW, as we have seen concepts of such a machine from Yamaha, such as the Yamaha MWC-4 leaning car concept.
The interesting part of this news is Yamaha’s continued commitment to the LMW program, which ties into a larger trend from the Japanese manufacturers that continues to explore and redefine what the powersports industry actually is.
For powersports, We normally think in terms of the already defined segments: motorcycles, ATVs, PWCs, etc – but in order to address the changing climate of transportation, and the changing tastes of different generations, maybe we have to rethink what purpose a motorcycle serves to the consumer, and then redefine our products to meet that need.
We’re not sure if LMWs are the future of powersports, but they are certainly interesting and becoming more pervasive. Keep your eye on this space, this isn’t the last we’ve seen from Yamaha on this subject…not by a long-shot.
Photos of the 2018 Yamaha Niken Leaning Three-Wheeler:
Source: Yamaha via Canada Moto Guide
Comments