Yamaha working on futuristic quad?
2011-06-06 08:44
FUTURE QUAD: Yamaha's Tesseract quad could be unveiled in the near future.
A sketch accompanying a patent filed earlier in 2011 by Yamaha points to a possible production Tesseract. Judging by the level of detail, it may well arrive sooner than you’d think.
When the concept of the leaning four-wheeler was first shown at the 2007 Tokyo auto show it cause quite a stir – not least because of its decidedly edgy styling.
The patent sketch points towards a slightly less ground-breaking design than that of the concept, and although the machine described in the patent documents does retain the leaning ability of the original Tesseract it differs from the concept in two significant ways.
For starters the “production” version will be powered by a parallel twin engine as opposed to the V-twin of the concept and secondly power will be channelled to the rear wheels through much more practical dual shafts rather than chains.
Similar to the Piaggio MP3, machines such as the Tesseract make motorcycling much more accessible to car drivers keen on the joys of a bike but deterred by safety concerns.
If Yamaha did go ahead and created a production model of their leaning concept, would you jump at the chance to own one?
Below is a video of the Tesseract concept first shown in 2007:
