Yamaha has uploaded a new bike teaser, announcing the unveiling of a new vehicle in 8 days’ time. The video has been carefully edited so that it would offer almost no hints as to what bike is Yamaha preparing.
Until now, the most credible speculations revolve around two possible bikes: the small-displacement sport bike Yamaha has been rumored to work on for some time, and the FJ-09 we’ve been talking about lately. Both versions have their fair share of potential, but looking at the brief scenes in which a part of the front cowl can be seen, we doubt it’s the R25 bike.
If you look closely, the handle bars look really similar to what the FJR1300 sport-touring machines are equipped with… or maxi scooters. While we learned that Yamaha had some interest in the FJ bike, after registering a trademark for the FJ-09 name, we could expect this bike to surface pretty soon.
Still, some other details are making me wonder whether this mystery machine is not a scooter. As far as the video shows, it looks like the rider on this machine is in a rather far position from the bars… and sporty bikes are nothing like that. The shape of the handlebars is consistent with such a supposition, too.
And the engine in the beginning of the video doesn’t look at all like the 3-cylinder lump in the FZ-09, while looking very much like the one of a maxi scooter, with the elongated transmission and the short exhaust. Even more taking a look at the screenshot in this piece’s header, I might say we can see 4 fork stanchions… the clear sign of a 2-front-wheeled leaning scooter. Whether this is true or not, and whether we’re getting a 3- or a 4-wheeler scoot, we’ll see on the 25th of March. Watch this space for more info.
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