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Yamaha PES1 Concept – Another OEM Considers Electrics

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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.

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Bikes

2014 Yamaha MT-09 Street Rally – Three Cylinders of Hoon

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We wouldn’t call it a new model from Yamaha, but one of the new releases from the tuning fork brand at the 2013 EICMA show is the 2014 Yamaha MT-09 Street Rally.

A collection of bolt-on pieces for your Yamaha MT-09 (that’s the Yamaha FZ-09 for us Americans), the Yamaha MT-09 Street Rally started life as dealer-made bike in Europe, but Yamaha liked it so much it has become an official option when buying the new three-cylinder street bike.

A pretty aggressive working over on the otherwise conservative MT-09, the Street Rally includes new fuel tank shrouds, side number plates, and fork covers, which give the MT-09 a more supermotard look.

The Yamaha MT-09 Street Rally is also trimmed in a “Tech Graphite” paint scheme; and lastly, headlight covers, knuckle guards, along with wider footrests and a slimmer seat complete the package.

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Bikes

2014 Yamaha MT-07 — Two Cylinders of Value

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Releasing the Yamaha FZ-09 (the Yamaha MT-09 for you Europeans) this year with much success, Yamaha seems set to do an encore performance, having taken the wraps off the 2014 Yamaha MT-07 tonight in Milan.

Whereas the FZ-09 was powered by a 850cc three-cylinder engine, the MT-07 makes-do with a 270-degree crank 689cc parallel twin lump, which is good for 74hp and 50 lbs•ft of torque. Other key figures are the Yamaha MT-07’s 395 lbs wet weight and 3.69 gallon fuel tank.

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Racing

Watch Graves Yamaha Build a Superbike from the Frame Up

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Time-lapse build videos are always fascinating, and since it’s well into Friday afternoon now, we are of course padding the post count here at A&R with this installment from the Monster Energy Graves Yamaha AMA Pro Superbike team.

In five hours the Graves crew built this Yamaha YZF-R1 race bike from the ground up, but you can see them put it together in just over a minute’s time. If you look close enough, you can even spot the reasons why Josh Herrin & Josh Hayes are running away with the 2013 AMA Pro National Guard Superbike Championship.

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Bikes

2014 Yamaha YZF-R1 Race Blu Debuts at Silverstone

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Love it or hate it, Yamaha’s “Race Blu” livery is back for a bevy for Yamaha’s 2014 models, including the 2014 Yamaha YZF-R1 and 2014 Yamaha YZF-R6. Debuting in Silverstone during the British GP, the special livery is supposedly based off the colors that the factory Yamaha Racing team uses in MotoGP, except for the minor detail that the special color scheme really looks nothing like the livery currently found on Lorenzo or Rossi’s Yamaha YZR-M1 race bikes (expect a livery change in Misano, perhaps?).

That being said, it is an attractive design with its matte black and shiny blue paint, and the Race Blu livery should help sell a few more units for Yamaha, as we have gotten word that the R1 and R6 will go without a refresh for the upcoming model year…again. Last year the Race Blu painted bikes stayed in Europe, and we expect the same for this year as well. Sigh…maybe 2015 will have some surprises in the sport bike category from the tuning fork brand.

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Racing

Q&A: Randy Mamola Talks About the MotoGP Season So Far

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With MotoGP’s summer break officially underway (and just days away from now concluding), Asphalt & Rubber sat down with Randy Mamola at the finish of the US Grand Prix at Laguna Seca, to get the Grand Prix legend’s perspective on how the 2013 MotoGP Championship was shaping up so far in his eyes.

Obviously, the man of the hour at the time of our discussion was Marc Marquez, who had just recreated one the most talked about passes in motorcycle racing history, and had won at one of the most enigmatic tracks on the GP calendar…after having never been to Laguna Seca before, naturally.

Sharing his insights on Marquez and the talent that the Repsol Honda rider exudes, Mamola gave us his unique perspective on the leaders for this year’s MotoGP title, amongst other issues in the paddock. Read the Q&A from our dialogue after the jump.

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Racing

MotoGP: Yamaha Debuts Seamless Gearbox at Brno Test – Shift Times 58% Quicker than Conventional Gearbox

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It had been widely rumored that Yamaha would have some important updates to test at its private test being held yesterday and today at Brno.

The biggest expected update to be tested was a seamless gearbox, but though Yamaha Racing Managing Director Lin Jarvis had hinted they might be testing the new gearbox, it was far from certain.

As the test at Brno was a private one, no media were invited who would be able to verify whether the seamless gearbox was being tested or not.

Fortunately, however, the Brno circuit was allowing visitors in to watch the test. And among those was Pavel, who runs the Czech Valentino Rossi fansite http://www.rossi-yamaha.cz/.

Pavel shot some video footage of the private test – thankfully not covered by the blanket ban Dorna has on all coverage of the official tests – and was kind enough to send us the audio from the recordings.

Armed with that audio, we were able to analyze the sound, as we have done previously (on both the Honda and the Yamaha), to try to judge whether Yamaha was indeed testing a seamless gearbox, and if it was, what advantage it was giving the riders.

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Racing

Video: 12 Questions with Valentino Rossi

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It’s the US GP at Laguna Seca, which fans should know by now means a special video from Yamaha Racing that features the tuning-fork brands riders. Instead of the elaborate plots lines, and amazing acting skills from some of MotoGP’s finest, Yamaha has toned it down a bit for 2013, and done a simple Q&A with nine-time World Champion Valentino Rossi.

With some help from Uccio, The Doctor got 12 questions, randomly selected from out of a helmet, which he answers in the video. Pretty basic, right? More like hilarious. If you didn’t have an understanding already of why Rossi is loved around the world, you will rapidly understand why with this video. At the very least, you will find out if Valentino is a member of the mile-high club. Yeah…that question happened.

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Banter

Video: Mark Toia’s “Reunion”

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We forgot to say it to our American readers, but welcome back from the long Fourth of July weekend. We hope you celebrated the birth of our great nation by blowing up a small piece of it. Trapped back in your work cubes now, longing for the five or days off you just came from, we have just the thing for your Munday blues.

Yamaha gave Mark Toia a few Yamaha WR450 dirt bikes, and let the filmmaker do his thing. Shot in Queenstown, New Zealand (yes, it really is that beautiful there), Toia tells a good story about childhood friends reuniting at their favorite meeting spot, many years later. It’s a beautiful short. It’ll make you feel good. Call your mother afterwards. She misses you.

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News

Yamaha Hints at Upcoming Leaning Multi-Wheeler

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Yamaha Motor Co. recently had its investors meeting, and the Japanese company left a curious item for its second-to-last slide in the presentation: a leaning multi-wheeler. Unfortunately, the proposed machine doesn’t appear to be a production version of the Tesseract concept (shown above), but instead a new sporty three-wheeled scooter, to take on bikes like the unfortunately named Piaggio MP3.

Expected for the 2014 model year, we should see the Yamaha’s Leaning Multi-Wheeler (LMW) at the EICMA and Tokyo Motor Show later this year. No word yet on what will be beneath the fairings, but it is expected that the leaning trike will around 300cc to 400cc in displacement, and go head-to-head with the MP3 on price (insert 99¢ download joke here).

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