Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

39th Tokyo Motor Show which has been a theme of Honda and others at previous Tokyo Motor Shows. The difference this time is that the E4-0 1 seeks to combine the comfort of a scooter with the performance of a superbike. It has been a project at Honda that is now in its fourth year and headed by Heijiro Yoshimura, the designer of Honda's RC21 1V MotoGP racer. "I left the RC211V in the beginning of 2002, after I finished the development and gave it to HRC," Yoshimura said. "I have seen many, many bikes over the years, and I have studied many bikes from the past, and I have never found a motorcycle that 1 thought was perfect. Therefore, coming into this project I wanted to create something that was perfect for me and anyone else. Anybody can look and say, 'This is the perfect motorcycle, a perfect road bike.'" Though the DN-O I and E4-0 I were developed by separate teams, the use of key words to provide the vision for the designs were common to each effort. In the case of the E4-0 I , the key words were "elegance," "excitement," "enjoyment" and "easy" - hence the model name "E4." Unlike the DN-O I, the E4-0 I is a concept that will not go on sale until at least the next Tokyo Motor Show. There are still a number of key design details to work out, such as the and rear brakes, a power trunk that opens and closes at the touch of a button and is large enough to hold two helmets, and a front grille that scoops air and channels it through a double-layer windscreen that flows over the rider's head and reduces wind blast and noise. Another world first, according to Honda. ''As the project team, we wish and want to see this in the market," Yoshimura responded when asked if he thought Honda would sell an E4-0 1 motorcycle. "That is our aim. But before we sell the E4-0 I, we need to get the ON-O I in the market." Outside of the ON-O 1 and E4-0 I, Honda gave world premiere showings of two scooter models that are essentially targeted for the domestic market. The premiere Forza scooter has a minor makeover with new lights, front and rear, and a seven-speed manual mode replacing the six-speed manual mode of the outgoing model. Brand new is the NP6 scooter, a long and low, young person's scooter powered by a I 24cc air-cooled single. One version presented was designed to carry surfboards and snowboards.... selection of an automatic transmission design. Nonetheless, the E4-0 I shows that Honda is committed to changing people's views on motorcycles and scooters. Today it's an either/or question; in the future there will be no distinction. Powerful, high-speed scooters are coming our way. "First, the concept was created thinking of Europe as the target," Yoshimura explained. "We made this bike so it can go an average speed of 160kph (100 mph). The reason why we choose a scooter style is because there are many high-speed motorcycles in the market. But a scooter design for a motorcycle, this is the first one ever. It's a scooter, and it's a supersports motorcycle as well." The E4-0 I is powered by a 903cc in-line four-cylinder engine, similar to the engine of the CBR900RR, except that the cylinder bank is nearly horizontal. Wheels are I7inch, the front fork is an inverted type, rear suspension is a Pro-Arm single-sided (like the RC30 and RC4S) with Unit Pro-link (like the RC21 IV). The front brakes are dual-disk with radial calipers. The only area on the performance spec sheet that looks dubious, if any, is the selection of I980s-era tire sizes: 120/70-17 on the front and 180/S5-17 on the rear. The E4-0 I is to Honda as the SLSOO sports car is to Mercedes-Benz. A vehicle with power, acceleration and speed that is at least an "8" and approaching a "9" on a scale of zero to 10, and a solid "10" in terms of comfort, luxury, and build quality - quality such as a built-in air bag, a floating LCD display with navigation and a compass, a cast-aluminum handlebar with integrated hydraulic reservoirs for the front 26 NOVEMBER 9,2005 • CYCLE NEWS YAMAHA To celebrate its SOth anniversary, Yamaha created a museum-like presentation for its Tokyo Motor Show booth with the theme "The Art of Engineering." "We display new models and special exhibition models that give practical examples of our efforts to achieve truly Yamaha character in our products, develop innovative technologies and products with added value, as well as our efforts in the area of 'smart power' that utilizes new power sources," Yamaha president Takahashi Kajikawa said. Indeed, of the nine world premiere models presented by Yamaha, five were "smart power" models. On the center island display were two hybrid models. The HV-O 1 is a normal-looking scooter on the outside, but under the plastic panels are a gasoline engine and an electric motor. At least that's what Yamaha wanted people to think: No specifications or hardware examples were available for review, and Yamaha's representatives just gave a shrug when questions were asked. The other hybrid was the futuristiclooking Gen-Ryu. Oddly enough, the GenRyu looked somewhat similar to Honda's top-secret and distinctive DN-O I. But the mechanical systems of the Gen-Ryu were as different as night and day to the DN-O I. The Gen-Ryu is a cruiser scooter powered by an engine from the YZF-R6. Power from the engine is fed to an electric generator, and electric power from the generator is delivered to an electric motor that drives the rear wheel. To provide a little extra boost, high-capacity batteries are part of the power system. The man behind the design of the GenRyu is Hiroshi "Macky" Makino, a five-year veteran of Yamaha USA, now working in Japan again. "We already have a lot of scooters. If you compare to the motorcycle, the motorcycle is more aggressive, no doubt," Makino said. "That's why we want to make a scooter with motorcycle performance. The riding position is like a cruiser, very relaxed. The engine is 600cc but has 1000cc performance - amazing. It's very quiet, a silent feeling - whoosh. It's a completely different thing in the motorcycle world. And it's a very smart way, yeah? High performance with low fuel consumption. Basically, a 600cc engine has high performance, but at the low-rpm range, the 600cc engine doesn't have much power. That's why the electric motor can help with torque. It's a very good combination." Unlike internal-combustion engines, electric motors do not stall. That is, as a load is applied, an electric motor will slow down and torque will increase. An electric motor can be slowed down to zero speed with a substantial amount of torque available - something impossible with an internal-combustion engine. "This is a very simple system, with no transmission - but the computer control is complex," Makino said. "This shows a different direction: more smart. We didn't show macho or some horsepower motorcycle." The Gen-Ryu platform also highlighted Yamaha's Human-Machine Interface (HMI) technology. This includes a vehicle-to-vehic1e distance warning system, a corneringlight system to improve night vision, voice navigation, a hands-free music player and phone system, a CCO camera rear-view system, and a noise-cancellation system co-developed with Yamaha's audio electronics business group. "The helmets have a noise-cancellation system, like some Bose or Sony headphones," Makino said. "This system is almost the same, but is different. If you use the Bose system on a motorcycle, it does not work. For example, the tire noise is hard to cancel. Yamaha Music has some technologies that we can use." The Gen-Ryu may not appeal to many American motorcyclists, but that doesn't faze Makino. "If it's not popular in the U.S., that's okay - this is the Tokyo Motor Show," he said. For the Americans visiting Yamaha's display, there was a prototype of the 2008 VMAX. Specifications were not proVided

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