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New products: Yamaha YZF-R3, YZF-R1 and MT-09

Look to the future at Yamaha

After the MT-09, Yamaha will bring further three-cylinder models, there are also innovations with a recently presented two-cylinder in-line engine, and the in-line four-cylinder of the new YZF-R1 expected for the end of 2014 is being intensively developed. Recent rumors suggest this order.

Just has Yamaha presents the new MT-09 in Croatia – a photo can be found at the top right, the driving report follows this story from page 16. So much can already be revealed: The new three-cylinder engine made a very positive impression on test manager Gert Thole.

New products: Yamaha YZF-R3, YZF-R1 and MT-09

Look to the future at Yamaha

Studio Cova Ltd, Yamaha

The model designation YZF-R3 does not quite match the previous YZF models. After all, the R1 does not have a single and the R6 does not have a six-cylinder.

The developments described, however, almost without exception affect high-priced motorcycles. According to the official price list, a Kawasaki ZX-6R 636 costs 13,195 euros, a Yamaha YZF-R6 12,290 euros. The YZF-R3, on the other hand, would be significantly cheaper. If it followed the price level of the MT-09, which costs 7995 euros with ABS, the sport version, which is otherwise closely based on the original model, should be available for less than 9,000 euros. This would open up a new athlete segment with better market opportunities. Incidentally, the price difference between the Honda Hornet 600 and the almost identical CBR 600 F, which can certainly serve as models in terms of modular strategy, is only 300 euros.

The assumption that the Yamaha product planners give a YZF-R3 priority over a fun bike is supported by the fact that the athlete is technically closer to the MT-09 and can therefore be produced more quickly. Tea wheel and tire dimensions, brakes and suspension elements of the MT-09 could be used unchanged or with minor optical retouching, while a fun bike would at least need longer suspension travel, which could not be achieved without major interventions in the chassis geometry and ergonomics. A travel enduro, a type of XT 850 Z, would require even greater development effort. Everything is possible, even likely, but probably not yet this fall for the 2014 season and certainly not everything at the same time. Tea author would very much like to be wrong on this point.

Kar lee

Yamaha YZF-R1 2015: Nothing new from the future sports flagship, but a design that fans can spend a little while waiting.

The successor to the YZF-R1 is definitely not expected before autumn 2014 – that much is already clear. Nevertheless, it is already a topic that computer retouchers itches their fingers from time to time. MOTORRAD shows a rather conservative design in two color variants. As an expression of the dream of many Yamaha fans.

A short flashback: Just before Yamaha presented the R1, which is still current today, at the end of 2008, it was actually clear to the fans and the professional world that their design was either the YZF-R6, which had been shown a year earlier, and the MotoGP factory machine M1 would take as a model. But the latter was only the case in the area of ​​the engine – keyword “crossplane crankshaft”. The design, especially the lush rear section, turned out to be modern, but not very pleasing, and many fans still want a further developed R6 outfit or an M1 replica. Judging by the first spy photos, Yamaha actually seems to be based on the dainty R6 and to construct an exhaust system with a side silencer for the R1, which replace the raised exhaust ends of today’s R1. This enables a delicate rear end, but also requires a completely new design of the swing arm and its lever system.

Minoru Tomiyama

The two-cylinder in-line engine that Yamaha recently showed off in a rather casual way is modern, simple and very compact.

Change of subject: It was a so-called business briefing in Tokyo, at which Yamaha casually but officially presented a new two-cylinder in-line engine. Additional information was scarce, but colleagues from the Japanese motorcycle magazine "Young Machine" were allowed to take photos of the engine. On one of the photos, which also shows part of a display board, the number combination 90 x 71 can be seen, but without a unit of measurement. The assumption that it is a question of bore and stroke is obvious, but further information makes it rather improbable. By comparing the size with a compact camera, the resourceful Japanese colleagues determined that the central axes of the two exhaust manifolds were only 80 millimeters apart. This makes a bore of 90 millimeters in the narrow cylinder block almost impossible, especially since the position of the spark plugs shows that the exhaust ports are not brought together within the cylinder head. It is more likely that the engine has a 71 millimeter bore and 90 millimeter stroke, i.e. it would have a long stroke. That would bring him to 712 cm³ displacement. Admittedly a bold assumption, because motorcycle engines outside of the chopper and cruiser segment are almost exclusively short-stroke engines.

On the other hand, with the engines of the NC-700 models, Honda only showed how the modern version of a long stroke engine can look and work in the year before last. The bore / stroke ratio of 73 to 80 millimeters is not quite as extreme as the presumed values ​​of the Yamaha engine, but they are by no means out of the world. Honda justified the long-stroke design with the lower gasoline consumption, which was made possible by the shorter flame paths and the resulting optimized combustion.

In addition, thanks to the high torque that the long-stroke engine can achieve at low engine speeds, the drivers would upshift early and save fuel as a result. The distinctive bulge of the chain well at the level of the exhaust camshaft also suggests that the new Yamaha twin receives variable exhaust valve timing, which is brought about by a mechanism on the sprocket of the exhaust camshaft. This would serve to further optimize the torque curve.

These indicators and the compact dimensions of the two-cylinder qualify it for a wide range of applications, from the entry-level street motorcycle à la Honda NC 700 or Kawasaki ER-6 to a lightweight two-cylinder successor to the XT-660 models . However, the Japanese colleagues put a question mark on such assumptions. When they did a computer retouching with this engine, they executed a completely different machine – an athlete, what else?

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