Tilting three-wheeled motorcycles look like going mainstream with the showing by Yamaha of a sporting MWT-9 concept at it's press conference at the opening of the 2015 Tokyo Motor Show today. The three-cylinder 850 cm3 MWT-9 concept is described as a "cornering master" and the indications are that it is likely to extend the existing three-wheeled 125 cm3 Tricity scooter into an entire family of three-wheelers.
As Yamaha wrote in it's brief press statement: This Leaning Multi-Wheel (LMW) concept model proposes a new type of category in the realm of sport riding. Under a development concept of a “Cornering Master,” the MWT-9 mounts a 3-cylinder 850 cm3 engine on a seamless and dynamically styled body.
Perhaps the most exciting aspect of tilting three wheelers is their ability to corner faster and safer than two-wheelers due to the extra traction available by two tire footprints at the front.
Yamaha's press release states:The exceptional cornering performance provided by the twin front wheels and the bank angle maximized by the outward positioned front suspension forks enable a high level of performance that lets the rider go freely through twisty roads with ever-changing road surfaces and dotted with tight curves in succession.
Honda was the first of the Japanese manufacturers to experiment with Leaning Multi-Wheel (LMW) concept models and it's three-wheel Gyro (aka Canopy) has now been a mainstay of Japanese urban transport for more than three decades. The Gyro has it's two-wheels at the back though and although the bike tilts, the two rear wheels remain flat on the road and the chassis pivots on the rear driving platform.
The Tesseract was designed for Yamaha by Luciano Marabese, the man who also designed the Piaggio MP3 three-wheeled scooter and the Yamaha Tesseract four-wheeled motorcycle shown in 2007. Marabese has subsequently designed a third generation tilting system and has built his own company, Quadro, to market its three- and four-wheelers.
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