Motorcycles

Yamaha announces narrow, light and very affordable Tricity tilting 3-wheeler

Yamaha announces narrow, light and very affordable Tricity tilting 3-wheeler
Yamaha's Tricity 3-wheeler
Yamaha's Tricity 3-wheeler
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Tilting narrow-track vehicles: as traffic worsens, these things look sure to take off
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Tilting narrow-track vehicles: as traffic worsens, these things look sure to take off
Toyota's i-ROAD concept: close to production
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Toyota's i-ROAD concept: close to production
Toyota's i-ROAD concept: close to production
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Toyota's i-ROAD concept: close to production
Honda's E-Canopy - an evolution of the Gyro
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Honda's E-Canopy - an evolution of the Gyro
Honda 3RC - ultra-futuristic take on the 3-wheeler
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Honda 3RC - ultra-futuristic take on the 3-wheeler
Peugeot's hybrid 3-wheeler concept
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Peugeot's hybrid 3-wheeler concept
Peugeot's hybrid 3-wheeler concept
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Peugeot's hybrid 3-wheeler concept
Nissan's Land Glider - electric concept
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Nissan's Land Glider - electric concept
Nissan's Land Glider - electric concept
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Nissan's Land Glider - electric concept
Honda's proven Gyro platform
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Honda's proven Gyro platform
Lumeneo's Smera - battery powered and fully enclosed. It sold only 10 units and the company went bankrupt
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Lumeneo's Smera - battery powered and fully enclosed. It sold only 10 units and the company went bankrupt
Piaggio's MP3 YouUrban
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Piaggio's MP3 YouUrban
Traffic snarls in Bangkok, Thailand
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Traffic snarls in Bangkok, Thailand
Yamaha's Tricity 3-wheeler
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Yamaha's Tricity 3-wheeler
Yamaha's Tricity 3-wheeler
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Yamaha's Tricity 3-wheeler
Yamaha's Tricity 3-wheeler
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Yamaha's Tricity 3-wheeler
Yamaha's Tricity 3-wheeler
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Yamaha's Tricity 3-wheeler
Yamaha's Tricity 3-wheeler
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Yamaha's Tricity 3-wheeler
Yamaha's Tricity 3-wheeler
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Yamaha's Tricity 3-wheeler
Yamaha's Tricity 3-wheeler
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Yamaha's Tricity 3-wheeler
Yamaha's Tricity 3-wheeler
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Yamaha's Tricity 3-wheeler
Yamaha's Tricity 3-wheeler
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Yamaha's Tricity 3-wheeler
Yamaha's Tricity 3-wheeler
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Yamaha's Tricity 3-wheeler
The Can-Am Spyder non-tilting 3-wheeler
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The Can-Am Spyder non-tilting 3-wheeler
Peugeot's Metropolis: available now
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Peugeot's Metropolis: available now
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View gallery - 40 images

Regular readers will know that we’re big fans of the tilting 3-wheeler platform here at Gizmag. Narrow track vehicles are evolving and sprouting up all over the place, but Yamaha’s brand new Tricity represents the first production effort by a major motorcycle company – and it seems to be focused in all the right areas to make it a huge success.

Motoring giant Yamaha has thrown its considerable weight behind the tilting three-wheeler concept as a traffic-busting personal mobility solution with its launch of the 125 cc Tricity in Europe. Let’s take a look at where the market’s at for these kinds of vehicles and what makes them a good option.

Tilting narrow-track vehicles: as traffic worsens, these things look sure to take off
Tilting narrow-track vehicles: as traffic worsens, these things look sure to take off

Why a tilting three-wheeler?

If you think traffic is bad in your city right now, it’s going to get a lot worse. Populations are on the rise, and the trend in most countries is toward urbanization. The daily commute is already a nasty part of our day, and travel times are on the way up. Asia provides us with a bit of a petri dish as to what comes next. Cities like Shanghai and Bangkok are massively overcrowded and cars move like molasses – they’re just too big.Motorcycles are vastly more practical in these types of cities, especially for solo travelers. And most car commuters ARE solo travelers – the average occupancy of a car on an Australian road, for example, hovers between 1.2 and 1.3 people.

Motorcycles are quick, fuel efficient, very easy to park and skinny enough to filter through gaps in traffic. This is great for the riders themselves, but just as helpful for other drivers. If a motorcycle sits in line with traffic, it acts almost identically to a car in terms of its impact on traffic congestion, but if it filters through traffic, it’s almost as if there was no vehicle on the road at all. So filtering bikes are a huge benefit to pretty much everybody on the road.

Of course, bikes have their own issues, safety being one that’s at the forefront of the mind's of many potential motorcycle commuters, and weather exposure being another. You can get hurt on a bike, they tend to fall over every now and then, and you get wet when it rains.

And this is where the strength of the three-wheeler can show itself. A tilting three-wheeler need not be much wider than a motorcycle, and yet it’s got double the grip at the front end where you really need it, and the added stability of a triangular footprint on the road.

We’ve spent a good deal of time with the first of these jiggers to hit the market – Piaggio’s excellent MP3 250cc – and while the looks and the concept of these strange-looking trikes tend to rankle the sensitivities of battle-hardened bikers like ourselves, nobody in the Gizmag family who rode the thing got off with anything short of praise about the platform’s handling, grip and general riding feel. They’re really that good.

But it’s not sports riders these things are targeted at, it’s the commuting masses. And in terms of ease of use, a feeling of road security and the ability to cover over mistakes that could be catastrophic on a two-wheeler, the three-wheeler platform knocks it out of the park. I’d put my Nanna on one.

Narrow track tilting vehicles are going to be huge in the coming decades, and it’s very significant that a relative giant like Yamaha is throwing its hat into the ring at this early stage. Let’s take a look at some of the other significant examples on the scene to see where the Tricity fits.

The Can-Am Spyder non-tilting 3-wheeler
The Can-Am Spyder non-tilting 3-wheeler

Can-Am Spyder

I’ve included the Spyder simply to demonstrate how NOT to design a practical 3-wheeler. It’s as wide as a car and doesn’t tilt, therefore unifying the disadvantages of cars and bikes in one fell swoop. Of course, traffic busting is not Can-Am’s aim with this machine, it’s more of a sports tourer.

Honda's proven Gyro platform
Honda's proven Gyro platform

Honda’s Gyro Canopy

A massive success in Japan, the Gyro is a tilting three-wheeler with two wheels at the rear end, plus a giant windscreen and a roof. These extremely efficient 50 cc trikes have been around for more than 30 years, having debuted in 1982. Many have large storage boxes on the back, making them outstanding urban delivery and courier vehicles.

Piaggio's MP3 YouUrban
Piaggio's MP3 YouUrban

Piaggio’s MP3

Our first experience with the 3-wheeler revolution, the sharp-handling MP3 now comes in several different flavors, including the compact YoUrban 300cc (pictured) and a hybrid electric. The MP3 series appears to be Piaggio’s primary focus at this point, the twin front wheels making easy and secure work out of the many road surfaces you find in European urban centers.

Peugeot's Metropolis: available now
Peugeot's Metropolis: available now

Peugeot’s Metropolis

Peugeot has been experimenting with tilting three-wheelers for a long time now, its hybrid 3-wheel-drive Evolution looking all but production ready back in 2009. As it stands, the 400cc Metropolis is Peugeot’s entry into the market with a conventional rear wheel drive, but the company has also been experimenting with roofed-in concepts to further appeal to car drivers.

Nissan's Land Glider - electric concept
Nissan's Land Glider - electric concept

Nissan’s Land Glider

First shown in 2009, The Land Glider comes at the problem very much from the car side of the equation. A 4-wheel, fully enclosed and fully electric tilting narrow tracker, the Land Glider has yet to materialize as a production vehicle.

Toyota's i-ROAD concept: close to production
Toyota's i-ROAD concept: close to production

Toyota’s i-Road

If you want to bet on any company getting it really right and setting the goalposts for the next wave of 3-wheelers, Japanese auto giant Toyota might be a good place to look. Its i-Road concept is looking very close to production, and being tested in several countries. Fully enclosed and electrically powered, the i-Road has a modest 50 km range, but is unique in that it’s automatically self-balancing so that the rider (driver?) never needs to put a foot on the ground when it’s stopped. It’s probably the closest thing on the horizon to a driver-friendly narrow track car alternative that’s set to take advantage of Toyota’s absolutely vast international distribution and manufacturing channels.

Yamaha's Tricity 3-wheeler
Yamaha's Tricity 3-wheeler

Back to the Yamaha Tricity

So in that landscape, where does the Tricity fit? For starters, don’t be confused by the clearly electric-sounding name. The Tricity is powered by a simple 125 cc scooter motor. It features a tilting parallelogram front suspension geometry not unlike the Piaggio platform, and a unified braking system not unlike what Honda rolls out on its larger sports tourers.Its key points of differentiation in this developing market are its light weight (just 152kg when fully fueled and ready to roll), its apparently very slim front profile, and its affordable price – less than €4000.

The slim front profile is significant. The Piaggio MP3 was wide enough to make us think twice in many lane filtering situations, but the Tricity looks a lot thinner. And when you consider that lane filtering is one of the key attractions of these narrow track vehicles, that could be a very important feature. It’ll be interesting to learn exactly what its dimensions are but the eye test puts it several inches slimmer than the MP3 or Metropolis.

Yamaha's Tricity 3-wheeler
Yamaha's Tricity 3-wheeler

But the price tag is equally important. The Piaggio and Peugeot retail for double what Yamaha is asking, and that’s no small consideration for consumers looking for a cheap, quick commuter.

The Tricity should debut as the narrowest, lightest and cheapest 3-wheeler on the market, backed by Yamaha’s excellent reputation and broad networks. It has an excellent chance of really shaking things up. We look forward to getting our hands on one!

View gallery - 40 images
29 comments
29 comments
Freyr Gunnar
> Cities like Shanghai and Bangkok are massively overcrowded and cars move like molasses – they’re just too big. Motorcycles are vastly more practical in these types of cities, especially for solo travelers.
Even more practical for most uses: A simple bicycle. If it's too hilly, an electric-assisted bicycle.
Doesn't use any gasoline and causes much fewer accidents because of their lower speed.
Daishi
The Can-Am Spyder hasn't even been on the market that long and I see them everywhere in rural Pennsylvania. They aren't effective at lane splitting but with no real competition in the US their sales seem to be doing pretty well.
The Tricity is a different market but also less than a 3rd of the price. These are meant as city commuters but after seeing the bicycle the other day with 2 front wheels intended for sand etc. I can't help but wonder how well this setup would do off road. I think they would probably fare better in the rain too.
@Freyr bicycles are also kind of impractical means of travel for people who have commutes longer than 4 or 5 miles and they can be a nuisance for automobiles if in the road because they travel under the speed limit.
BigGoofyGuy
I disagree with the comment about the Cam Am Spyder not being a practical three wheeler. IMO, it is very practical. I also consider it be very nice looking.
I believe the tilting is only really need at higher speeds. At lower speeds - like driving in a city - it would not be really needed.
Ormond Otvos
I admit I've only got 58 years of two wheeling behind me, but I'm currently riding my Honda Reflex 250cc in groups with several MP3 Piaggios. and I don't see any advantage to them at all except not having to put your foot down, a trivial non-problem for any low seat bike.
The front end is quite complex, the wheels are still small, and I wonder what the result of a flat in front at speed would be.
For absolute simplicity and economy, the 125cc low line bikes and scooters, like the Honda 150, seem the best idea. From there, it seems just personal esthetics and willingness to pull off sheet plastic Tupperware to get to anything.
I don't think the three wheelers are any safer.
Mel Tisdale
Being retired, I no longer commute, but I do need to go into town quite often. Living out in the countryside causes me to need a vehicle that not only gets me into town, but allows me to shop there too. And having shopped, bring what I have bought back home. My dog's weekly food requirements alone would tax the load carrying capacity of nearly all of the vehicles discussed.
While I can understand the benefits of having the extra grip at the front end that the reverse trike arrangement delivers, I would still feel that the tilt mechanism would allow the thing to slide from under me before I could catch it if I hit a particularly slippery patch. At least with a car, I stand a chance of catching it before it falls over. Whilst being physically old, I am still young enough mentally (circa late teens, I reckon) to enjoy deliberately doing so when conditions allow - it provides one of the very few plusses from the winter's snow.
In short, you would not catch me on any tilting vehicle in winter conditions, or, if it doesn't have weather protection, even when it rains. In short, these vehicles are not really much of a traffic solution in countries that are far flung from the tropics, and not much use there either in the monsoon season.
amazed W1
Two wheels at the rear is not a good idea, except posibly when you have a burst or rapid puncture.
There are a large number of vehicles that demonstrate this, from the famous APE mini van to certain of Reliants "cars". The weight transfer on cornering needs increasing resistance to outwards tilt at the front which isn't easy to produce in the normal motorbike way unless the rear wheels give virtually zero resistance to falling over when stationary.
anmufti
I will go with Piaggio ....... beautiful. Oh, I am sorry am I suppose to look at the vehicle?
hdm
i bought one of the first MP3's in Boston area...it is way above any two wheeler in terms of stability and cornering ability. The yamaha model is a knockoff for sure..nothing new there...but yamaha is a great company. i'd buy one... but i want the enclosure and 500cc....room for me and da Dog.
cheers,
Vincent Singleton
The price is around $5,000 that not very "affordable",
Thomas Boles
I've ridden 2 wheelers (bicycles and motorcycles) for 40 years. I've lost traction with the front wheel on both and had the resulting road rash and emergency room visits. From what I read, the two wheels in the front design does a lot for stability in marginal situations and considering all the crap on the road in cities, that is a good thing. I'd love to ride an MP3 just to see what it's like. I have ridden a CanAm Spyder for a day and did not like it. My 2 wheeler sensibilities rioted in curves at speed and I did not enjoy the experience. The orange one in the picture above is not to my taste, but some other versions look much better in my eyes. The MPS looks a little insect-like in person, even with a beautiful woman astride it, but as with most vehicles, you really don't see much of them when you are going down the road. How it feels at that point is the important thing, not how it looks. When you get off and are admiring the thing, that's when it's looks matter.
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