YAMAHA’S NEW CONCEPT MOTORCYCLE WOULD LET YOU SLALOM INTO THE FUTURE:

Yamaha spent the week at the Tokyo Motor Show airing out a few truly ridiculous reference designs, but none were more outrageous than the Niken three-wheeled motorcycle. Tricycles aren’t new, and this isn’t even the first leaning trike. But it’s the first idea like this to come from a major motorcycle company like Yamaha.

Being a reference design, there aren’t really any specs to speak of. Yamaha says that this “Leaning Multi-Wheeler” uses a liquid-cooled 3-cylinder engine and 15-inch wheels, but that’s about it.

Really, it’s all about seeing this thing in action. The video Yamaha released starts off with an actor pretending to ski down a road before doing the same action on the concept bike. (Well, technically, it begins with an actor swinging swords around while tapping touchscreen displays, but I digress.) The implication here is that the dual front wheels (and their discrete tubes and forks) would allow you to slalom down a winding mountain road more confidently and, hopefully, decrease the chance of eating it.

Yamaha’s in-house Stig certainly seems to be enjoying himself:

And it looked cool (albeit quirky) and futuristic at CES today: