Yamaha TriTown

[Hugh Janus]

No, it’s not one of those rolling knee scooters for people with a broken leg; it’s an electric urban-transportation vehicle. (Yamaha/)

Yamaha has been pursuing the idea of a stand-up, electric three-wheeler for at least five years now, after first showing the TriTown as a concept back in 2017, and later revealing a near-production version in 2019. But until now it’s been a low-speed-bicycle replacement rather than something intended to be used on the street.

However, that all looks set to change with a road-oriented version of the same concept, updated and reworked to include equipment like lights, a license plate, and turn signals that all suggest it’s intended to have enough performance to be classed as a motorcycle or moped rather than a power-assisted bicycle.

Earlier this year, in its medium-term future plan, Yamaha announced an intention to push into “new mobility market areas” and specifically targeted two emerging segments. One sits between the traditional motorcycle market and cars—as indicated by machines like the 2019 MW-Vision, a hybrid-powered, leaning three-wheeler with a car-style seat and roof—the other slides between motorcycles and power-assisted bicycles. It’s into that latter segment that the TriTown falls, in its new road-legal form.

Top view of the TriTown shows more clearly where the rider places their feet. (Yamaha/)

As you’d expect, it’s an electric vehicle rather than one packing a combustion engine, but the new version is much less spindly and delicate looking than the original TriTown, which has seen limited use as transport in closed parks in Japan. Like the original, it features a hub-mounted motor inside the rear wheel and a set of swappable battery packs mounted in the main part of the frame between the rider’s legs, but the chassis and tilting front end have been redesigned to suit a higher-performance application.

While there’s too much bodywork to see details of the frame, the design now incorporates front and rear fenders for the first time, as well as a cowl around the vertical steering column and a new headlight on the nose. It also appears that Yamaha has added some sort of rear suspension, with clearances in the bodywork to allow the back wheel and its fender to move up and down. At the back, the addition of a license-plate bracket indicates that the machine’s performance is too high to slot into power-assisted bicycle categories, which vary from country to country but usually range from 15 mph to 28 mph depending on the category of bike. Ebikes capable of exceeding 28 mph almost universally require license plates and other road-going equipment.

A more detailed look at the front end and its leaning front-suspension system. (Yamaha/)

It’s not clear whether there is front suspension, but the new design has stronger-looking mag-style wheels rather than the wire-spoked wheels of the earlier, lower-speed machines demonstrated since 2019.

What the new design does share with the earlier models is the tilting steering arrangement, similar to the TriCity and Niken but with an unusual set of footplates rather than a seat. These footboards are attached to the front tilting system, just behind each wheel, and pivot at their rear mountings. That means they stay essentially level with the ground as the rest of the bike tilts, giving a sensation that’s said to be something like skiing. Although that might not be something that appeals to hardened motorcyclists, once combined with the stability of the three-wheeled layout it’s easy to see how it could attract urban riders looking for an alternative to public transportation or cars but not yet prepared to move to two wheels. As personal mobility moves increasingly into new areas, blurring the traditional lines between cars, motorcycles, and bicycles thanks to different powertrains and wheel arrangements, riders taking on transport like this surely more closely resemble motorcyclists than car drivers.

Source

[XTreme]

[boboneleg]

[Buckster]

Pretty much the future for jap bikes.

[Catteeclan]

Are they those exterminator guns the daleks have sticking out front?

[Six30]

midget dago bummer transport, get to abandoned villages much quicker.