Comments on: Yamaha Triples: Past, Present and Future (News)

By: shine

shine — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 01:21:26 +0000

Blah blah, they pretty much announced it already. Although they talked about a crossplane triple which is not really known at this point.

Bottom line is the current engine is not making people run out and buy lots of R1s. I don’t know if it’s the crossplane but Kawi and BMW are putting out much more power.

Regardless of the race bikes, triples make a lot of sense on the street, with extra torque and reduced cost. Especially for the smaller displacement models. Yamaha has wised up and knows that it’s foolish to be a slave to the past. Innovate or die.

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By: Lel

Lel — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 13:05:18 +0000

I love shafties, the low maintenance is ideal for where i live. dont get me wrong i know chain drives offer more power but for something that will be used as a daily commuter, i would love it if yamaha brings back shaft drive tripples.

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By: Norm G.

Norm G. — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 14:27:23 +0000

re: “Since Triumph and MV Agusta both produce performance bikes with triples”

you forget… benelli and petronas ALSO produced performance bikes with triples. bikes that were ner-do-well and got handed their ass in the large displacement category.

re: “it hardly seems like such a stretch to believe that Yamaha could — or would.”

only to the layperson ignorant to history. yamaha just invested 7 years in the greatest R&D excercise in the history of grandprix and motorcycling (furasawa, rossi, WSBK, spies, etc) to commercialize a 4-cylinder crossplane. they (yamaha) have given birth to an entirely new engine configuration and they OWN it. when’s the last time this has happened in any sector car or motorcycle…? this is the equal if not the greater of what honda did in ’69 with the CB750. nothing chapped honda’s ass more than the release of the ’09 R1.

for those keeping score at home (or perhaps NOT keeping score i should say), so far yamaha has won 9 titles with this technology, and hayes and lorenzo just added 2 more titles bringing the total to a whopping 12…! the tuning fork didn’t achieve all this by being too stupid to know that “you don’t fix anything that isn’t broken”. they have a USP and will not give that up by randomly lopping of a cylinder.

that untested engine you see is not destined for any of their class winning sportbikes. bad business decisions regarding one’s USP is the domain of dorna/ezpelata, not a manufacturer who just revolutionized the industry and has yet to see a ROI given that the tech’s only offered in a single model.

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By: Craig Jackman

Craig Jackman — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 13:45:13 +0000

Ask Colin Edwards how much he remembers the Cube. Particularly when it grenaded into flames underneath him at near 200mph. I’ve never heard anyone else call a motorcycle “born evil”.

Still, for the street, high performance triples probably make more sense than a high performance 4.

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By: Kent Kangley

Kent Kangley — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 14:33:17 +0000

The late ’70s were very interesting times for Yamaha. You could get an SR500 single, XS650 twin, XS750/850 triple and XS Eleven four. Only Honda, with singles, parallel twins, v-twins, inline fours, flat fours and inline sixes had a range as diverse, and they still didn’t have a triple.

I own an XS Eleven which shares much of the engine’s architecture with the XS750/850 triples. It’s a great motorcycle.

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By: Mitchel Eden

Mitchel Eden — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 04:16:40 +0000

The 1980 Yamaha XS850 looks so cool. If only they are still available today. We have 2 honda motorcycles. Just the moped ones. I have always wanted to drive the bigger motorcycles.

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By: Steve P

Steve P — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 10:50:00 +0000

I saw a Yamaha snowmobile with a 900 cc triple motor a couple of years ago. What a sweet sounding motor.
I remember thinking what great motor for a bike. I love the way a Vtwin makes power and the excitement of an Inline four. To me a triple gives the best of both. I owned a 1981 Yamaha Seca 750 and felt it was a bike that was ahead of it’s time.
I also recall a 900 Seca. Both I think were shaft drive. I hope Yamaha brings a 1090 Seca. That would be sweet!

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By: Fred M.

Fred M. — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 04:41:59 +0000

Todd, no you don’t typically ride your street bike at the RPM range where it produces the most power. How much time do you spend in the top 15% of your RPM range?

Dave and Dino are correct: A wide power band with a flat torque curve is more useful and satisfying on a street-oriented sport bike. I can take a lower horsepower bike with a wider power band and simply embarrass you on a twisty road. It’s all about the area under the torque curve, not the peak horsepower.

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By: Fred M.

Fred M. — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 04:33:44 +0000

And that’s what we call the dumbest comment ever.

Yamaha showed a “crossplane” three-cylinder engine at the INTERMOT show this year. Visordown got word from their sources within Yamaha Japan that the Yamaha YZF-R6 & Yamaha YZF-R1 will be two of the bikes to receive such engines. Since Triumph and MV Agusta both produce performance bikes with triples, it hardly seems like such a stretch to believe that Yamaha could — or would.

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By: WJBertrand

WJBertrand — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 16:33:48 +0000

Besides the poor handling, I had a large share of reliability issues as well. First, the engine would burn a quart of oil every 300 – 500 miles, even after Yamaha rebuilt the top end twice. The oil seal in the final drive blew out twice, soaking the rear tire with 90wt grease. The electric starting system was so weak that if it didn’t catch on the first try, the battery would be drained to the point that sometimes even kick starting it would not work. I learned to always use the kick starter if the bike had been sitting any amount of time. I had a frame crack that required re-welding, two failed voltage regulator/rectifier assemblies. The long bolt that served as the rear engine mount (and also held the foot pegs) was threaded too short. The nut would run out of threads before the correct mounting force was achieved. This left the rear part of the engine to move up and down a quarter inch or so. The dealer could not figure it out but I finally solved it stacking a few washers under the nut to move it back out where there were some threads. The dealer ended up using my fix to address several other customer’s bikes with the same problem. Yamaha didn’t seem to have a clue. The fuel petcock failed in a manner that would drain the reserve as well as the main tank – leaving you stranded.

It really was a terrible bike. Caused me to switch to Honda and I have not looked back!

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