2018 Yamaha Niken First Look
Rennie Scaysbrook | October 25, 2017
Yamaha is joining the three-wheeled leaning trike party!
It seems rare these days when a radical, far out concept actually makes it to the production line, but that’s exactly what’s happened with the 2018 Yamaha Niken, which was unveiled at the Tokyo Motor Show last night.
The Niken is Yamaha’s first large capacity Leaning Multi-Wheeler (LMW), which is powered by the firm’s superb Yamaha FZ-09 three-cylinder motor.
Yamaha is keeping pretty quiet on the Niken, with no price or availability in the U.S. (yet), but what they have said is as follows:
“This model is equipped with LMW technology to reduce the effects of changing ride environments and to deliver a high feeling of stability when cornering,” states the Yamaha press release. “It achieves excellent performance for spirited and sporty riding on various road surfaces and the capability to freely carve through the continuous corners on winding roads. The body design makes full use of the unprecedented front-end suspension mechanism, pairing 15-inch front wheels with dual-tube upside-down forks that visually accentuate the machine’s sporty performance and create a high-quality look and feel at the same time.”
You may be asking yourself just why a Yamaha has done this, but we think the question should be “why not?”. The Niken will open up riding to a new range of people, and will surely prove to be a worthy steed for riders with varying levels of disability who can’t operate a conventional motorcycle.
When we have more info on the Niken, we’ll pass to on to you!
