When it comes to the small-displacement trend that we’ve seen from manufacturers, Honda’s offering is competent, but lacking when compared to what has come out from Kawasaki, KTM, and Yamaha.
If the Honda’s “Light Weight Super Sports” concept (super high-resolution photo above), which will debut at the Tokyo Motor Show, is any indication though, the Japanese manufacturer is about to blow the competition out of the water with what will likely be the Honda CBR250RR.
Could Suzuki’s turbocharged Recursion concept bike be coming to market? There have been rumors already, but that news just got a lot more solid because of Suzuki’s trademark filings this week.
Registering the name “Recursion” in both the US and European markets, for use with motorcycles, the Japanese brand seems set to debut the new model in the coming months.
The question of course then turns to how closely the production machine will be to the concept machine, which features a 588cc intercooled and turbocharged two-cylinder engine. Very closely, we hope.
Adding more fuel to the fire, concerning Honda’s long-awaited V4 production superbike, the Japanese manufacturer has registered the trademark “RC213V-S” with the European Union.
As MotoGP fans should already know, next year’s production race bike will be called the Honda RC213V-RS, which should make the more plain “S” designation sound suspiciously like a street-going model.
Not exactly the most glamorous name for a road bike, especially one of this stature, one could not fault Honda for wanting to draw a link between the production model and its GP-racing lineage.
A brand better known for trotting out the same “timeless” designs each year, Suzuki seems to be finally waking up from its recession-induced slumber, and debuted two intriguing motorcycle concepts at the Tokyo Motor Show.
We already showed you today more photos of the turbocharged Suzuki Recursion street bike concept (please Suzuki, build this bike), and the Japanese OEM has shown a shining for the budding electric segment as well.
The Suzuki Extrigger electric concept is an interesting machine, as its form factor is very similar to the Honda Grom. Using the same electric motor as the company’s Suzuki E-Let’s scooter, we can assume that the Extrigger is packing the same unimpressive figures of 2hp and 11 lbs•ft of torque as the E-Let, though Suzuki does say that the Extrigger weighs a paltry 137 lbs, which is alluring.
Forced-induction was the trend du jour at the Tokyo Motor Show, with Kawasaki showing off a supercharged four-cylinder engine and with Suzuki debuting its turbocharged Recursion concept.
While Team Green is being tightlipped with what exactly its up to (all we know is that the supercharged motorcycle engine has been developed completely in-house), Suzuki is more keen with teasing its machine.
Releasing some more photos of the Suzuki Recursion, this bike is looking like a winner to us, with its water-cooled 588cc twin-cylinder engine that features an intercooled turbocharger.
Suzuki says the engine package is just shy of 100hp at 8,000 rpm, with peak torque coming in at 74 lbs•ft at 4,500 rpm. The Suzuki Recursion is also quoted as being 384 lbs dry.
Last week when Yamaha debuted its electric street bike concept, the Yamaha PES1, we thought it looked like a well-though out concept machine that gave the tuning fork brand some street cred for thinking about a future with electric motorcycles. After all, the Japanese company was light on details, and certain parts of the bike seemed a bit more Star Trek than reality. Turns out we were wrong.
Releasing a video of the Yamaha PES1 testing on the track, it’s clear that the concept is fully-functional (just like Data), which means Yamaha has set its phasers to stun with this 100kg machine. From the cuts of this quick YouTube flick, Yamaha seems as serious as a Borg cube with its electric project, which only adds to the intrigue on when they could debut a proper production model.
Maybe with the rumors about Honda being behind the Mugen Shinden project, Yamaha didn’t want Big Red to get too far ahead in the EV game. Whatever the case may be, we like it…even more than Klingon gagh.
Sometimes we like our concept motorcycles to be funky, and the Kawasaki J Concept certainly delivers in that department. Debuting at the Tokyo Motor Show a vision on what the future of motorcycling could become, the Kawasaki J is an electric trike/quad with a variable riding position/chassis configuration.
Not too dissimilar from the Yamaha Tesseract, the J Concept is an interesting exercise in design and technology proposals, and could be the future of leaning-trikes and similar vehicles. What are your thoughts?
The start of the Tokyo Motor Show is today, if you haven’t already noticed, and it looks like the Japanese OEMs have saved their best models for the home court advantage this year, with all four of the Big Four having something special for Tokyo.
Yamaha’s big announcement of course is the nearly-ready-for-production Yamaha R25 concept, a 250cc two-cylinder sport bike that Valentino Rossi says “packs quite a punch.” The tuning fork brand also has its more fanciful concepts to show-off, chiefly the Yamaha PES1 electric street bike and the Yamaha PED1 electric dirt bike.
Suzuki is in the mix as well, with its turbocharged Recursion concept, as well as its electric monkey bike, the Extrigger concept. Both of these motorcycles look like a hoot to ride, for very different reasons of course.
Not wanting to be left out on the forced-induction warpath, Kawasaki has its own blower for the two-wheeled world. Showcasing a supercharged four-cylinder engine at its booth, Kawasaki says it developed the turbine and motor in-house, and hints that we will see this in a motorcycle model in the near future.
Feeling the pressure to develop a 250cc sport bike for developing markets, Yamaha has finally released some details on the upcoming Yamaha R25, and we like what we see so far. A two-cylinder machine with racing in its blood, Yamaha’s concept is like a mini Yamaha YZR-M1 — devoid of lights and mirrors — and features racing livery with an Akrapovic exhaust to match.
The Yamaha R25 concept is an encouraging sign from Yamaha, even if what we are looking is a concept bike rather than a production-ready model.
But still, Yamaha’s approach in styling the Yamaha R25 to visually look like a miniature M1 is going to payoff huge dividends in Southeast Asia, where the bulk of the models are going to be sold, and where Rossi and Lorenzo have massive droves of fans. For us in the western world, well this bike just looks hot. We want one already.
The off-road counterpart to Yamaha’s electric Yamaha PES1 concept street bike, the Yamaha PED1 concept is the second electric motorcycle concept that Yamaha intends to debut at the 2013 Tokyo Motor Show. Like its on-road sibling, the PED1 features a monocoque chassis, along with a DC brushless motor, automatic/manual transmission, and a swappable lithium-ion battery pack.
The core of the Yamaha PED1 appears to be exactly the same as the Yamaha PES1, which one could easily be chalked up to a Yamaha designer reusing renders for each bike. However, the repurposing of the core components showcases a strong element of electric vehicles: their ability to use truly modular designs.
The Tokyo Motor Show is next week, and while we expect Honda to debut the Honda Gold Wing F6C at the show, it looks like Yamaha is set to make some waves as well. Teasing four concept motorcycles, two have caught our interest. First up is the Yamaha PES1 concept, which is an electric sport bike with a DC brushless motor and lithium-ion battery.
Yamaha is light on details, and we can imagine that the concepts are meant more to illustrate that the tuning fork brand is “thinking about” electrics, as is the vogue with OEMs at the moment. However, the design is interesting, especially with Yamaha suggesting that the battery pack, called the Yamaha Smart Power Module, is swappable on the sub-100kg machine.