Photo: Yamaha
We're used to seeing bike makers release motorcycle models meant to celebrate something from their past. Most of the time, the target of the celebration is a person, a motorcycle model, or some corporate achievement. As of this week, you can add motorcycle frames to the list of things being acknowledged in such a manner.
Responsible for this is Japanese bike maker Yamaha, currently showing off its prowess over at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. There in the UK, the company pulled the wraps off something it calls the XSR900 DB40 prototype.
The bike, as its name says, has an XSR900 at its core. That's a neo-retro two-wheeled beast relatively new to the market (it was introduced in 2016) and related to the MT-09. At its core sits an 890cc engine rated at 119 ps and 93 Nm of torque.
Quite the potent powerplant for a bike that weighs just 193 kg (425 pounds) wet, but it's not that piece of hardware the DB40 is celebrating, but the chassis that holds it. That would be Yamaha's Deltabox, an approach introduced by the Japanese for racing bikes in the 1980s, and presently at the core of pretty much all of the most important Yamaha bikes in existence.
Technically a diamond-style frame, the Deltabox was drawn in such a way as to offer as much torsional rigidity as possible. Designed as a triangle connecting the head pipe to the swingarm pivot, and boasting a box-shaped cross section, the design has become the literal backbone of the supersport range of Yamaha motorcycles.
The first time the bike maker deployed the Deltabox was back in 1982, when the YZR500 OW61 Grand Prix took it to the track. Three years later, in 1985, it was fitted in the first production racer, the TZR250.
The name of the Goodwood prototype means exactly that: DB stands for Deltabox, while 40 is the number of years the frame has been on the market. Not many differences from stock are visible in the prototype, and Yamaha doesn't mention any significant changes aside from the ride featuring the most recent version of the Deltabox.
The bike can be admired on the tracks of Goodwood, where several high-profile riders will be taking it up the Hill each day until Sunday as part of the event's Batch 6 First Glane runs. The list of people who will be in charge of the machine includes former YZR500 Grand Prix racer Niall Mackenzie, VisorDown's Simon Hancocks, and Motorcycle News' Chris Newbigging.
We are not told what will happen with the bike after its presence over at Goodwood is no longer needed, but we'll keep an eye out for more developments and update if something notable happens.
The bike, as its name says, has an XSR900 at its core. That's a neo-retro two-wheeled beast relatively new to the market (it was introduced in 2016) and related to the MT-09. At its core sits an 890cc engine rated at 119 ps and 93 Nm of torque.
Quite the potent powerplant for a bike that weighs just 193 kg (425 pounds) wet, but it's not that piece of hardware the DB40 is celebrating, but the chassis that holds it. That would be Yamaha's Deltabox, an approach introduced by the Japanese for racing bikes in the 1980s, and presently at the core of pretty much all of the most important Yamaha bikes in existence.
Technically a diamond-style frame, the Deltabox was drawn in such a way as to offer as much torsional rigidity as possible. Designed as a triangle connecting the head pipe to the swingarm pivot, and boasting a box-shaped cross section, the design has become the literal backbone of the supersport range of Yamaha motorcycles.
The first time the bike maker deployed the Deltabox was back in 1982, when the YZR500 OW61 Grand Prix took it to the track. Three years later, in 1985, it was fitted in the first production racer, the TZR250.
The name of the Goodwood prototype means exactly that: DB stands for Deltabox, while 40 is the number of years the frame has been on the market. Not many differences from stock are visible in the prototype, and Yamaha doesn't mention any significant changes aside from the ride featuring the most recent version of the Deltabox.
The bike can be admired on the tracks of Goodwood, where several high-profile riders will be taking it up the Hill each day until Sunday as part of the event's Batch 6 First Glane runs. The list of people who will be in charge of the machine includes former YZR500 Grand Prix racer Niall Mackenzie, VisorDown's Simon Hancocks, and Motorcycle News' Chris Newbigging.
We are not told what will happen with the bike after its presence over at Goodwood is no longer needed, but we'll keep an eye out for more developments and update if something notable happens.
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