Double-Front-Wheel Motorcycle

Don't Call It a Trike: Why We Love Yamaha’s Double-Front-Wheel 
Motorcycle

It's not a trike. It’s a blast.

By David Curcurito
JONATHAN GODIN

Specs

• Price: $16,000
• Engine: 847-cc three-cylinder with double-overhead cam
• Transmission: Six-speed
• Horsepower: 115
• Torque: 64.5 lb-ft at 8,500 rpm
• Weight: 580 lb
• Kickstand: None

No one in the community of motorcycle enthusiasts was clamoring for anything with three wheels. And I know what you’re thinking: I ain’t riding no fargin’ tricycle.


But Yamaha has a history of taking chances for no obvious reason, only to end up being completely right. “We wanted to make a motorcycle with more grip,” says Leon Oosterhof, Niken’s product planning manager. The company didn’t start out thinking they’d build a three-wheeled bike, but “once the solution was set, we decided we definitely needed an extra front wheel.” Most companies won’t turn a screw before conducting years of consumer-trend studies. Yamaha didn’t think twice.

Hence, the new Niken, the most fun you’ve had on three wheels since you were burning across the driveway on your Big Wheel.


YAMAHA

The Niken doesn’t ride like a trike. It’s a whole new class of machine—an enhanced motorcycle for the sole purpose of pushing corners hard and having people stare at you in amazement. The front end feels heavy at first, and it should. There’s a lot going on under the handlebars: upside-down front forks, dual-leaning front wheels. It takes some getting used to at slow speeds, but that lumbering sensation goes away fast. Yamaha was smart enough to stage this road test for us in the Austrian Alps, where the roads suit it: sweeping turns, crazy-tight hairpins, gravel, wet corners, and discarded roadside schnitzel.

I’ve ridden plenty of miles in my life, but I’m not a phenomenal rider. I’m nervous—and excited—for the ride ahead. When I get up to speed, the Niken makes me feel confident. No matter the turn or the deep lean angle, there’s always plenty of rubber contacting the pavement. Usually the weakest rider is last, so as not to hold up the better riders, but today I jump to third as we start hitting the turns. The Niken’s front-end grip is extraordinary. I forget about the pavement in my immediate vicinity. I’m able to look at the entry and exit lines way ahead of what I’ll normally allow, which makes my lean angle deeper and my turns faster. Coming out of the corners, I accelerate fast, then brake hard before the next one. Only occasionally does the back end kick out a little when I hit a patch of gravel or a wet leaf in a hairpin.


Ignoring the extra front wheel, the Niken is a powerful three-cylinder motorcycle with a healthy 115 horsepower.
YAMAHA

The 200 miles we covered that day were the best I’d ever ridden. You want to put an asterisk next to that because I had three wheels under me, go right ahead—Yamaha doesn’t care, and neither do I.

I didn’t think I was good enough for those roads, the same way I stay away from some of the curves back home. But on that day, on this bike, I was.