Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128080
Show (Left)The MT-at 's rear sh ock is placed horizontally along the left s ide of the engine and a four-bar linkage connects the rear end of the shock with the swlnga rm. (Above) The Yamaha Drag Star 400 cruiser, an update of the model introduced at the 1995 Tokyo Motor Show. •••••••••••••••••••• a nd notice the new one. Here a re the famous individual exh aust pipes, d isc brakes wit h calipers ahead of th e fork tubes, wire-spoke wheels, passenger s tra p across the sea t, ch rome fenders ; it's all here. H eck, Honda even p laced the ignition switch under the gas tan k, jus t like in the old days. Honda term ed the CB Fou r a prototype , but it had every appearance o f a prod uction bike. Then aga in, the prototypes Honda d isplays a t every Tok yo Motor Show are bu ilt to such high qua lity sta ndards th at th ey look mass-p ro duced, In any case, the CB Four might be the perfect follow-on bike to th ose who bou gh t the Hond a Dream 50 (the little stree t bike styled after the historic H ond a C RII0 r oad ra cer fr om th e 1960s) tha t Honda presented at the 1995 Tokyo Mot or Show and later becam e a sa les hit in Japan - such a sales hit , in fact, that HRC now mak es hot-rod kits for the Dream 50. The remaining new bikes that Honda brought ou t for the first time at Tokyo we re all sing le-cy linder mod els, meanin g scoo ters and step- throughs and all variants in between . 0' ~ ~ CI> .c E !'! o z 8 Across the ais le from Honda, th e contras t cou ld not ha ve bee n g rea te r. At H onda , the stage presen ters w ere in w hi te lea the r ou tfits a nd th e complimentary bev era ge on press d a y w a s ora nge juice. At Yamah a, the present ers w or e black leat her and th e beverages we re beer and whiskey - and soft drinks we ren' t eve n available. And the mu sic? A slow version of th e Eric Clap to n's classic '70s hit, "After Mid nigh t." Yama ha's star of the sho w wa s th e postapocalyp tic roa d-warrior prototype "MT-Ol. " Honda fai thf u l, order yo u r s p eedy X-Wings now a nd get ou t o f town . . The MT-Ol is the answer to the question , "W ha t do yo u ge t when yo u take the 1600cc V-tw in engi ne from Yam aha's XV1 600A Road Star cruiser, convert the fina l drive from shaft to cha in, and squ eeze it int o a TZ250 fram e?" Move ov er, v-Ma x. and make room for Mad Max. "We mad e our best effort to red u ce the weigh t of the motorcycle and enjoy the eng ine more," beamed Seiya Nakamura, from Yamaha's product planning (Right) Yamaha 's prototype ECCY· not a motorcycle, but not a bicycle. Yamaha's first electric scooter. di vision . "The engine is from the Road Star 1600. That bike, tha t eng ine, is the biggest capaci ty in the world, now . But th e Road Sta r is ju st America n- type motor cycle. It is very heavyweight. The eng ine is ve ry s tro ng, torque is ve ry stro ng . But th e chas sis is hea vy. If we use tha t engi ne wit h very light cha ssis , maybe we can enjoy the engi ne's performa nce more . Tha t's why we s tu died this concept. " The resu lt is brutal - the kind of bike Eric Buell or John Britten wo uld build if corporate resources we re available, yet Na ka mu ra-san s tressed tha t Yamaha was not out to make a Japanese Buell. "O u r spi rit is d iffere n t," h e sa id . "T h e Bu ell concep t is a fast ra ci n g machi ne with Harley engine . Our concept is not speed, but feeling on the engi ne," To en su re tha t the rid er receives as mu ch sensory input as possi ble from the engi ne, Na ka mu ra -sa n ex plai ned, the exhaust pipes and muffl ers wer e delibera tely rou ted und er the se a t, a nd, in fact, th e twin muffler s look to be the only thin g suppo rting the sea t. "N ormally the exhaus t is und er th e bike," he said . "This bike, the exhaust is und er th e sea t. Th e rea so n is for the rid er to feel th e exha us t vibration , the pul se feelin g - an d the sound ." Like a T-shirt on Arnold Schwarzeneggar, the MT-{)1 chassis fits tight across the top of the cylinder head s and down the bad; of the rear cylinder. Ob long air filters project out of each frame spar above the engi ne, and abo ve th e fram e sits a tiny toupee of purple plastic bodywork. So where is the gas tank ? "Good qu esti on!" laughed Nakarnura-san , "Th is is a concep t mod el. Above the eng ine is a fuel-injection sys tem, and behind that we have a sma ll gas tan k." This reporter reckons the MTOI's fuel-tank capacity to be on e or two gallons. It's not a touring bike. Lik e th e gas tank, Yamaha fo u nd space to be lacking for the rear sho ck insid e the fram e stru cture, so the shock was placed hori zontall y along the left sid e of the eng ine. A fou r-ba r linkage connects the rear end of the shock with the swingarm. The front sus pensio n is equally striking, visua lly , but fo llo ws a ccepted d esign pra cti ces, Th e fron t fo rks are mas si ve upsid e-d own units, and th e lo w er s liders ha ve ca li pers mounted with bolt s paralle l to the disc, like the latest trend in Grand Pr ix and Wor ld Supe rb ike. The calip ers themsel ves are special, but wit h many parts taken from the YZF-R6. Unde r the en gine is an oil su mp tank, agai n for re a sons hav in g to d o more . w it h a lack of sp ace else w he re on the bike than anything else . Even the location of the turn-signal lamps ar e unconventional: on the ends of the handlebars, wit h an amber bulb for the front and a red bulb for the rear. Other unu su al items of no te : rig h tha nd-side chain drive, a resu lt driven by w hat Yam aha had to work with fro m the base engine rather than a tribu te to H a r ley -Dav id s o n , a n d carbon -fiber spokes fitted to aluminum hubs a nd rims in each wh eel. With the MT-{)I , Yamaha has recognized that while people buy horsepower and buy speed, torque and acceleration are what rid er s reall y desire. Yamaha has no desire to join the 20o-mph club. "Nowadays, so many m otorcycl es are co m peting in terms of fig u res, for exam ple, maximum power or maximum high sp eed ," sa id Nakamura-san. "Bu t our concep t is not just figures, but feel' Ing and taste, our emotions. Maybe by next Tokyo Motor Show we will go further, based on his concep t. No t jus t figu res, but a lso the e mo tio na l as pect. Enjoy the riding, enjoy the sport." Yam aha displ ayed other motorcycles lab eled " prototyp es" but that actu ally lo oked to be mo dels th at jus t need ed brochures to be printed and they wo uld be read y for sa le. This inclu ded a new Drag Star 400 cruiser, an upd ate of the mode l la u n ch e d at th e 1995 Tokyo Mo tor Show an d now wit h a new leather seat, new head lamp, new ins trument panel, new oval mirrors, an ai rind uction system to clean u p exha us t 'emissions, and a lar ge "EXTREME VER510 " sticker on each sid e of the rear fender. The Drag Star 250 has also been restyled, going for more of the HarleyDavidson look, and the lightweight VB1 has been re-engined fro m a 50cc disc valve two-stroke to a horizontal 50cc four -stroke for more of the Honda look (a n d the e missio n p erforman ce of a four-st roke engi ne ). The engine in the ball oon-tire, off-road TW2 00 ha s also bee n updated for bett er emission performance. Last but not least in Yam aha's lineup are the electric hybrid bicycle products. Invented by Yamaha and introduced in 1994, these produ ct s a re 100-percent bic ycl e in ap pea ra nce and user operatio n, bu t have a small elec tr ic mo tor, powerful batter y and a computer controller to measure the ped aling effort of th e rider and co m m a n d the electr ic motor to provide a com par able assist ther eby reducing the effort of bicycle riding : With sa le s now over 460 ,000 uni ts to date, Yama ha disp layed a nex tgeneration prototype that incorporates a very small (u nd isclosed capacity) fou ... stroke engine to recharge the battery w hile on the run, and to provide power for cruising when the rider wants a rest. One other pr ot otype Yamaha vehicle tha t is and isn 't a motorcycle (but that w as on d isplay with the motorcycles) was the "ECCY." Yamaha did not offer an e x p la n a t io n fo r_ t he m eaning of "ECCY," but remember it as Yamaha's firs t.elect ric scooter. The hybrid bicycle produ ct d ev el opm ent has led to the d evelopment of h igh-en er gy-d ensity batt eries, compact ye t po we rful electricmotor technology and advanced con trol system s. Yamaha has sca led these system s for use on a scoo ter. The scoo ter is ' powered by a 580-watt DC motor and a 26-Amp-hour nicke l-hydrogen battery , and Yamaha claimed a charging time of 3.5 hou rs. Yama ha claimed performance that rivals engine-powered scooters, but wi th 580 watts of power - less than one hors ep ow e r - o ne had to figure tha t someone in market ing was a bit op timistic. Nakamura -san' s sta temen t tha t Yama ha is not competing in terms of figures applies beyond the scope of the MT-{)l.