VOL. 51 ISSUE 43 OCTOBER 28, 2014 P63
none other than Kazuhisa Takano,
who for many years was one of the
key chassis engineers in Yamaha's
Grand Prix racing department.
Takano was responsible for
concocting the sweet handling
of the legendary YZR500 two-
stroke and Valentino Rossi's title-
winning YZR-M1 MotoGP four-
stroke, which repeatedly allowed
them to defeat the more powerful
Hondas to win races and World
Championships.
Ten years ago he moved over
to product R&D at Yamaha's Iwa-
ta HQ to head up the team that
conceived the Tricity so that's
how long Yamaha has been
working on this whole new family
of three-wheeler products.
The key to riding fast, but
also to doing so safely, on a GP
racer is to have trust in the front
tire, and if there are two of them,
that's better than one. That was
the premise that drove the Tric-
ity's creation, aimed at delivering
greater rider confidence, espe-
cially to the 16-year olds who can
ride it in Europe, as well as to car
drivers-turned-scooteristi.
However, older and more ex-
perienced riders can also ben-
efit from this, thanks to the vastly
enhanced ride quality and rider
feedback from the Tricity's unique
LMW/Leaning Multi Wheel front
suspension design, even though
its 3.5-inch wheel travel is less
than, say the conventional 125
Xenter's 4.3 inches.
This patented system features a
lightweight parallelogram link that
allows the rider to lean the Tric-
ity into a turn in much the same
way as a conventional two-wheel
scooter – 36 degrees of bank an-
gle is available before the center
stand grounds on the right.
The parallelogram link's com-
ponent parts are connected to
the fork and the frame's steer-
ing head, so that when you en-
ter a turn this system allows the
twin front wheels to lean over in
parallel to one another. As they
do so, the track remains almost
consistent, aimed at ensuring a
natural and intuitive feeling while
cornering, as well as enhanced
stability without heavying up the
steering. Plus, the narrower track
means that the Tricity is no wider
than a conventional scooter, thus
ensuring the same lane-splitting
capability that helps it carve its
way through tight urban conges-
tion in a way the MP3 sometimes
struggles to do.
But that's only part of the
