Yamaha made a spectacular appearance at the Tokyo Motor Show with their all-new MWT-9 concept. Derived from the MT-09, as its name clearly states it, the MWT-9 introduces an older Yamaha "dream," that of leaning three-wheelers.
Now, three-wheeled bikes and scooters are nothing new, but they just seem to become way more popular these days. We tested the Yamaha Tricity and were impressed how agile it was, albeit the self-balancing feature was absent, given its price.
The Yamaha MWT-9 looks like a solid step made towards mass production. The initial concept, the GEN-01, also looked neat but its futuristic vibe was a bit too much for a production model. Without thinking about futuristic looks as being wrong, we, however, cheer the new direction Yamaha MWT-9 seems to follow.
Sporty performance is expected from a bike derived from the MT-09
Yamaha mentions an 849cc triple-cylinder engine, while the MT-09 has an 847cc one. This means that a bike like the Yamaha MWT-9 could be good for around 115 horsepower and 87.5 Nm (64.5 lb-ft), which are the figures of the MT-09.
Unlike the GEN-01, the Yamaha MWT-9 shows dual forks mounted on the outside, potentially increasing the front-end rigidity and accurate tracking in turns. We can also expect a 6-speed transmission just like that of the MT-09, and if Yamaha throws in a steering damper, riding the MWT-9 at 100 mph (160 km/h) or more definitely sounds appealing.
Visually, the Yamaha MWT-9 has already won us over, as the bike looks exceedingly evil, while retaining a strange combination of robustness/compactness and sportive agility.
There is no telling whether the Yamaha MWT-9 will include self-balancing, but something tells us it won't. And this is because Yamaha seems to avoid pampering its riders too much, looking forward to "force" them to behave like two-wheel riders and experience the same thrills, albeit a contact patch in the front that's twice as big as the regular one does add extra grip.
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