Some say that Yamaha sort of lost the start in the three-wheeler world where the Italian makers Piaggio and Quadro seem to dominate authoritatively. Still, the Yamaha OR2T is, alongside the MWT-9 we showed you earlier, the perfect proof that Iwata was not idling.
In fact, watching the OR2T in action makes us understand that Yamaha has been working around the clock to create such interesting working prototypes.
Obviously derived from the Tesseract concept Yamaha showed to the world back in 2007, the OR2T takes things to the next level. The front end of the Yamaha OR2T differs from that of the Tesseract and seems better adapted to real-life street use.
The OR2T looks like it can deal with road unevenness much more easily and provide a smoother ride even on surfaces that are very rough. If anything, the way the front wheels react to bumps reminds us about the Tricity we recently tested and found to be quite impressive.
Is the Yamaha OR2T the first new machine to use the Super Tenere engine?
Some say that the power plant of the OR2T concept appears to be the one Yamaha uses in their flagship adventure bike, the XT1200Z Super Tenere. The 4-wheeler seems to have a shaft final drive integrated into the independent swingarms, and the engine does indeed look similar to that in the Super Tenere.
It would not come as a huge surprise learning that Yamaha decided to use the XT1200Z mill for such a project. As far as we can tell, the Yamaha OR2T might very well be the next machine Yamaha rolls out. And with a powerful, proven engine, such a 4-wheeler would surely have the edge in competing with other similar machines.
Four wheels means double the braking power of a traditional motorcycle, double the contact patch for corner stability, braking or acceleration. And with a machine that leans confidently into the turn, the OR2T might be even more fun than what the short video shows.
We'll be in Milan shortly and bring you a ton of live photos of the OR2T, so stay tuned.
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