Ever since Piaggio dropped their MP3 on the scooter market some nine years ago, many of us were wondering how long it would be before some company took the tilting 3 wheeler idea and attached it to a sport bike. Lots of home brew projects started popping up in garages and even Harley had their stillborn Penster, but why not something with some real performance possibilities? Yamaha might be moving in that direction with their MWT-9 concept that showed up in Tokyo. It’s an 850cc triple in a sporty package that happens to have two wheels in front.
This Leaning Multi-Wheel (LMW) concept model proposes a new type of category in the realm of sport riding. Under a development concept of a “Cornering Master,” the MWT-9 mounts a 3-cylinder 850 cm3 engine on a seamless and dynamically styled body. The exceptional cornering performance provided by the twin front wheels and the bank angle maximized by the outward positioned front suspension forks enable a high level of performance that lets the rider go freely through twisty roads with ever-changing road surfaces and dotted with tight curves in succession.
An extra front tire seems like a great idea, better braking, more traction in slippery conditions, and if attached to a capable bike, it could be a serious corner carver, as their “Cornering Master” concept name suggests. The way the front wheels are mounted, it doesn’t seem to add much to the overall width, either.
Here’s their video, but with all of the fancy lighting and artistic camera angles, you can hardly see it in action.
I’ve been waiting to see something like this, and if the price was right, I could see a lot of riders moving this direction. What I really, truly do not understand is why Harley hasn’t gone this route with the substantial segment of their market that buys trikes, but I gave up trying to understand the Motor Company some years ago.
Now, if you look at the Motobot Yamaha is showing at this same show, the obvious question in my mind is why they don’t put it on this trike. Balance issues would be trivial and they could concentrate on control. Maybe they don’t want you to see how easily human riders could become superfluous, but that’s a discussion for another day.
todd says
Just looks like a lot more weight to me.
The other Todd says
I get the impression from the video that the lean angles on this are pretty poor. Note how all the turns are quite shallow compared to what a Piaggio MP3 can manage. Not ready for prime time?
Paul Crowe says
I doubt any three wheeler will ever get riders over into serious superbike lean angles, dragging knees and elbows, but this isn’t for that crowd, at least I wouldn’t think so, but I have to wonder if some of the Harley and Gold Wing trike riders and Can-Am Spyder riders wouldn’t enjoy some nice curvy roads a lot more if they could lean over into the turns and still have the extra stability of three wheels.
On the other hand, a lot of riders don’t push over all that far on any number of bikes and they might not see any real issue with lean limits. Until something like this gets a workout with regular riders to get some feedback, we’ll have to watch the videos and speculate.
anon says
I would think lean angle is limited because of the choice to go with telescopic forks combined with simple geometry: Just envision the differential in fork lengths necessary for extreme angles. The inside leg(s) would need to compress quite far, and the outside leg(s) would need to be quite long. The fork travel would need to be greater than conventional forks for the same lean angles. Seems like it would be a non-starter. A rider might be able to compensate – just hang-off more – but that would be a lot of climbing around.
Yeti2bikes says
I wonder if you can “pick up” the outside wheel if you lean too far? For me this falls into the ‘I’d like to ride that but doubt I’d own one’ category.
todd says
Exactly. Lifting the wheel will become the challenge like everyone who’s owned a GTI.
Either that or the extra mass of the outer wheel and forks will require less lean angle for the same cornering speeds.
Ken Spencer says
Look closer at the linkage at the top of the forks, this is much like the Piaggio, the parallel links stay pretty much parallel with the ground so the fork travel isn’t used up by leaning it.
Also I would think that you could corner it very aggressively even if it didn’t lean over at 45 degrees, because you could hang off it on the inside of the turn.
I hope that Yamaha builds it because I really want to ride one.
deez says
I still see front tire slippage putting you on the ground with these things. same as 2 wheels, just costs more? might as well buy a car with no roof? im going to qualify a resounding “whatever” to all 3 wheeled things forever and always. even seeing a 30s morgan with a big JAP engine on the front just makes me want to build a 30s bike from it. or add posi-traction. im a blasphemist. totally unashamed.
Jason says
That is not been my experience from test riding a Piaggio MP3. The dealer rep told me it was impossible to lowside so I purposely hit gravel patches while leaned over in corners. The front end slide across the gravel and then smoothly hooked up on the other side. While it is still likely possible to lowside a leaning trike, the margin of error for a leaning trike is much larger than on a traditional motorcycle.
Jason says
The traditional Harley trike is marketed towards people that cannot physically hold up a heavy motorcycle at a stop or during slow speed maneuvers. Leaning trikes still need the operator to hold them up at a stop.
Piaggio tells owners to only use the tilt-lock feature on the MP3 for parking not at stoplights.
Ron Dougherty says
Been riding for 53 years and if it gives some extra stability to keep me riding another 10 years I’m all for a 3 wheeler. Current bike is a FZ-09 and I love that engine. Glad to see it in the MWT-9. They should be able to build it for about 2,000 more than the FZ-09 and that should be 8-10 thousand less than Honda’s Neowing. A 4 cylinder with electric motors can’t be as cheap to build.
Eugene Hirte says
Yamaha make a 125cc three-wheeler for the Taiwan market. Looks really cool. But the price is around $5,000 US which is about $1,500 to $2,000 US more than a standard 125cc. It is not listed even on there web site for Taiwan but they are out there driving around.