20 ms·

Yamaha MOTOROiD

494 points by susam 5y ago

StavrosK 5y ago
Oh man, this looks cool but the writing took me right out of the announcement. I don't usually notice bad writing, but this prose seems purpler than usual.
- tkgally 5y ago
  It's a translation of the Japanese at [1]. The original text is reasonable as Japanese advertising copy, but advertising copy usually shouldn’t be translated. Instead, it should be written anew in each target language, sometimes with different content and graphics. I worked freelance for twenty years translating Japanese to English, often advertising copy like this. Though I did my best, I was rarely satisfied with the result unless I was able to work closely with the Japanese client and write something original in English that met their needs and was appropriate for the target audience. Most clients didn’t have enough time, money, or awareness of the drawbacks of direct translation to make that possible. [1] https://global.yamaha-motor.com/jp/design_technology/design/concept/motoroid/ https://global.yamaha-motor.com/jp/design_technology/design/...
  - StavrosK 5y ago
    Ahh, that makes sense. Yes, unfortunately there's too much cultural context in advertising copy for it to translate even loosely.
  - doodlebugging 5y ago
    I enjoyed the story behind the bike. I found it engaging and I feel like the photos enhanced the story. As I read through it I was pretty impressed that an article like this, maybe first composed in Japanese, had such a smooth translation into English. I wondered whether it began as an English audience article. I was amused to find in one of the pictures a misspelled word. I didn't laugh but I did crack a smile. The trash can/ recycle bin in the cartoon encourages the viewer to "Picth In". Cool bike, great story. I hope they iron out the issues that they find and this bike makes it onto streets everywhere. I love how the Japanese people in the video linked on one post seem so accustomed to seeing cool stuff like this. I wish the guys at Yamaha all the success.
tomcooks 5y ago
Woah, cpunk as fuark Good luck getting that approved for street use in the EU but what a beauty. I wish there were driving videos available, I'll patiently wait
- ryan-allen 5y ago
  Their petrol motorbikes are absolutely wonderful machines, I can't wait for their transition into electric!
  - xgbi 5y ago
    I'm not so sure, the engines are great but they cheap out on suspensions lately. I had an MT09 Tracer that was wobbly as f. in curves and on stright lines at high speed. The rear shock was just too loose. Same for the MT07 since 2014.
    - jk7tarYZAQNpTQa 5y ago
      I've heard a lot of complaints about the wobbly MT09 Tracer at high (>160km/h) speeds. I've also heard it was only on the first models, and due to the hand guards having bad aerodynamics. AFAIK it's solvable with aftermarket (or no) hand guards.
    - squarefoot 5y ago
      I've had both Yamaha and Honda motorcycles in the past, and all of them had extremely poor suspensions. My Honda XLV1000 fell multiple times from the stand because how soft the suspension became after only 6 months even after tuning it for maximum force. I'm surely a contributing factor for being overweight, but they should be anyway approved for 2 people, and swapping the suspensions with aftermarket quality ones always solves the problem. Looks like many Japanese made bikes share this problem; they're fantastic, but their suspension system is definitely not on par.
    - erikbye 5y ago
      Try MT09 SP.
- 5y ago
CraigJPerry 5y ago
I can’t wait for electric motorbikes to be more diverse and advanced. I used to be a “my loud exhaust helps me to be seen” kinda guy. Until one day, sat in standstill traffic in my car on the M74 motorway just outside Glasgow, a rider on a BMW S1000XR, with the same loud exhaust as on mine, filtered past the window and I didn’t hear him until he was level with my rear passenger door. Exhausts sound great, i love the sound of a nice engine, it’s utterly intoxicating but it turns out that modern insulated cars block out the noise too well to make them useful as an awareness tool. So, i’m fine with a silent electric bike from a safety point of view. The exhaust noise was a false comfort blanket that deserves no faith put in it as a device to be better seen on the road.
- Negitivefrags 5y ago
  > “my loud exhaust helps me to be seen” People are very good at justifying thier anti-social behaviour to themselves.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - hellbannedguy 5y ago
    There are scumbags out their whom will drop ball bearings out there vechicle on bikers they don't like. I friend whom told me about two incidents. I will never understand that behavior. In my life, the loud sound of a bike is my least concern. Plus, in my passive aggressive wealthy county, a loud bike is a F---you to my phony liberal hypocritical neighbors.
    - ianai 5y ago
      You should be treating people like people-not limited terms like “liberal“, “conservative”, or anything else. People are people. Ends unto themselves. Not means to an end, such as whatever calling someone liberal allows you to do and feel.
    - NikolaNovak 5y ago
beebeepka 5y ago
Wow, this looks great. Straight out of some sci-fi anime I absolutely love motorcycles. Sadly, most people into seem to be in the game just for the sound alone. I have very, very strong feelings about the vast majority of this "community" and cannot wait for electric to take over. Sorry for the rant. I have to endure a lot of racers during all hours. It's hardly pleasent
- ulimn 5y ago
  I never understood those people. Even the standard, factory sound of my bike was distrubing a little on longer trips...
- turbinerneiter 5y ago
  Worst thing is that they are ruining it for everyone. Loud pipes, racing on the streets - causes more and more noise laws and motorcycle bans, making it harder for everyone. Also looking forward to ride electric. Currently, the range sadly doesn't enable what I want to do with my bike - ride it out of town, to the mountains, where there is no infrastructure. But hopefully soon. For inner city commuting, electric bikes are already a great fit - prices are the only problem left.
  - busterarm 5y ago
    They've taken the significantly-emptier streets of midtown-Manhattan and decided it's their playground evenings and late nights. Most of them are coming in from New Jersey. Usually it's 30 or 40 of them at a time and they ride extremely dangerously in addition to being loud.
    - bellazeus 5y ago
      It wouldn't be an issue if the NYPD were interested in enforcing the law.
      - busterarm 5y ago
        What do you want them to do? Between public sentiment right now and De Blasio and his bullshit, I'm surprised they haven't all quit by now.
protoman3000 5y ago
The design gives me some serious Horizon Zero Dawn vibes.
stonogo 5y ago
This concept was produced in 2017. There hasn't been any news about it since. BMW in 2017 had a similar self-balancing concept bike with some kind of AR goggle HUD. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXMGi9kQ3TE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXMGi9kQ3TE Also vanished. Honda had one too, also 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLZ6U71y700 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLZ6U71y700 Vanished.
ragazzina 5y ago
How do you pronounce it? The name sounds dangerously similar to MOTOrrhoids - at least in my language.
illegalmemory 5y ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Lx0ZJGgsFs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Lx0ZJGgsFs Here is a video demonstration,
- hbbio 5y ago
  From 2018!
- ece 5y ago
  I wonder why it didn't make it to production, at least the self balancing and electric parts of it.
  - tdonovic 5y ago
    I think the key thing is yet. I bet we will see a toned down version of it, esp the electric parts not too far in the future
vishnugupta 5y ago
Terrific looking bike. But > “MOTOROiD, stand up!” Why do we have to shove the voice assist in every conceivable gadget adding yet another point of failure :-|
- genericone 5y ago
  Allow me to present to you Optimus Prime with voice controls: https://youtu.be/JmlQSegO5pM https://youtu.be/JmlQSegO5pM Somewhere in there, the results of "Autobots roll out" is extremely satisfying.
alexander_gold 5y ago
What about jetskis ? https://superflyjetskis.shop https://superflyjetskis.shop
renewiltord 5y ago
Oh god, what a beautiful machine. I desire it greatly.
allie1 5y ago
I want one!
gaara87 5y ago
Shut up and take my money
vr46 5y ago
The last Yamaha I had tried to kill me constantly, it was brilliant. My modern BMW is the opposite, but this Yamaha looks like a T1000 on a mission to kill me again.
jp0d 5y ago
Big Yamaha fan here. Learnt riding a motorcycle on one of their old 2 stroke models when I was 11 years old! Have been thinking about buying an MT3 for casual riding. This is so futuristic. I'm sure it needs a lot more testing before public release. Even though I'll not be buying one when it's available, it's just too beautiful to ignore!
adreamingsoul 5y ago
This is awesome.
imvetri 5y ago
Brrrrm brrrrm engine effect is more fun that ssssp sssssp engines.
Jyaif 5y ago
The "Active Mass Center Control System" made me wonder: is it possible to make a passive balancing system that would keep a two wheel bike standing up?
- jacquesm 5y ago
  That's a good question. There are some Halbach array tricks that you could probably pull where based on displacement the central mass generates a current that then moves the COG back to where it should be to rebalance. The losses probably will cause it to fall over after a while so that would be more of a stay of execution than a complete solution. The lower resistance of the coils the longer it would stay up. And adding a small active component to overcome the losses and it would stay up until the power ran out, but that would violate your 'passive' requirement.
- oh_sigh 5y ago
  Yes, most bikes have them already - a kick stand.
baybal2 5y ago
I noticed, they use a hub motor on a swingarm. All hub motored bikes I rode have a very, very strong squat because of hub motor's huge torque. I don't see how they counter it here. I seen other EV motorcycles to counter it using parallelogram suspension setup: Kymco F9, Gogogro G1, Sunra Miku Max
- jacquesm 5y ago
  That torque can be controlled by limiting the current though, it will still be plenty fast. You just ramp down the current as the squat increases.
Opt_Out_Fed_IRS 5y ago
ouch! My butt hurts just looking at it.
- doodlebugging 5y ago
  At least it doesn't have the upgrade that first crossed my mind when I read that the back wings were for a future HMI. I was immediately reminded of the recent articles on HN about the potential for oxygen absorption thru the anus. This led me to think that a more useful upgrade for an HMI might involve an anal probe connected to an on-board oxygen generator to feed oxygen to the rider to help them stay alert. It seems like it would be useful on long cross-country trips. The wings could be retained as part of a deployable crash cocoon to envelope the rider so that they are buffered from the impacts of collision. I did read in the comments that the range of this bike is probably pretty low so the functionality of the batteries would need to improve before this is practical for long-distance trips. In the absence of improved battery life, my upgrade would not be useful. It is probably good that I don't design and build things for a living. Some ideas are not worth pursuing. EDIT: I have thought of another advantage to the anal probe/oxygen generator. In the event of a non-fatal crash where the rider is injured but still has a heartbeat, the anal probe could function to supply continuous oxygen to the body preventing brain and organ damage as long as the oxygen generator functioned and the rider's heart was still beating. Hardening the oxygen generator should be important so that it is shielded from crash damage. This would also negate the need for resuscitation by mouth and in the event the rider's heart stopped, the anal probe could allow rescuers to focus on blood loss/circulation. With that in mind it should be self-contained and detachable so that it could travel in an ambulance without needing to be removed. That would also make it possible to become a discreet accessory that you would put on (in) before mounting the bike and you could just wear it concealed as you shop, refuel, etc. Maybe not such a hare-brained idea after all? I think I read too much.
fnord77 5y ago
At least one of their recent motorcycles don't look too different. Looking forward to an electric powerplant though https://www.motorcycle.com/manufacturer/yamaha/2022-yamaha-yzf-r7-review-first-ride.html https://www.motorcycle.com/manufacturer/yamaha/2022-yamaha-y...
101001001001 5y ago
That would be cool to build a bike that can navigate paved trails autonomously and take it out at night when nobody is around.
riffraff 5y ago
somewhat reminded me of the '90s Honda Cub[0] :) [0] https://barnfinds.com/barn-find-dirt-bike-1991-honda-cub-ez90/ https://barnfinds.com/barn-find-dirt-bike-1991-honda-cub-ez9...
IgorPartola 5y ago
This looks very different. What I like: bold design, articulating rear, battery compartment actually looks good. What I am curious about is how it actually rides. The photos and demos all look like they are out of a Boston Dynamics demo, less like they are for a bike you actually get on. What I don’t like: this thing will be ugly as sin once you make it street legal. Also lack of fenders (which is how you avoid getting mud all over your legs and back). As a cruiser fan, I can appreciate fast nimble sport bikes, but also can’t wait for someone to come up with an electric equivalent to the R18 or the Honda Rune.
the_biot 5y ago
Yet another "concept" vehicle, concept meaning "will never be manufactured". This is just marketing bullshit. Why do people take this seriously?
gabrielblack 5y ago
Mother of God, Yamaha take my money, please !
ur-whale 5y ago
Beautiful thang, straight out of Akira.
eddyg 5y ago
This needs a [2017] added to the title. https://global.yamaha-motor.com/showroom/event/tokyo-motorshow-2017/exhibitionmodels/motoroid/ https://global.yamaha-motor.com/showroom/event/tokyo-motorsh...
skohan 5y ago
Very eye-catching - reminds me of Akira. I assume those silver cylinders are battery cells? It would be interesting to see lithium ion cells being exposed like this as a design choice, like muscle cars sometimes expose part of the internal combustion engine as a way to center the power of the vehicle. Also based on the scope of this project, I assume that must be a known cell form-factor, but I had assumed most applications were using commodity 18650's unless otherwise constrained.
- javajosh 5y ago
  The batteries (I assume) caught my eye too, mainly because they seem exposed in the event of a crash. If the two thick yellow cables going to the rear axle are any indication, the motor is tiny and in the axle - so, not much to see there. :)
jcims 5y ago
Lots of pearl clutching in here lol.
- goldenchrome 5y ago
  No kidding, but does it surprise you that nerds don't like loud sounds?
14 5y ago
My friend bought a Zero electric motorcycle. A lot of fun and definitely has zip. Very quiet and makes almost no noise. He can hit a top speed of about 140km/hr but can not stay at that speed a long time due to battery overheat. It has a range of about 90km but their are bigger battery packs available for a price. The charging is slow and takes about 10hrs but again for a price you can pick up a fast charger which cuts down charge time greatly. Yes it is a fun bike but ultimately the range and speed ability plays a factor in usefulness of the bike. When I ride with him I constantly have to make sure I don't take off ahead or lose him. Also with a range of 90km you really can't go far. A trip out to the lake 30km away becomes sketchy if there is no power source out there to charge. For me a good electric bike would have a range of at least 200km and include any fast charging with the base model.
nailer 5y ago
Has anyone read Daemon / Freedom by Suarez? There's a part where a compound filled with armed guards are assaulted by driverless motorbikes wielding swords.
leon_sbt 5y ago
Really interesting concept. I like the general lines of the bike. Looks really well thought out/clean sheet mechanical design. Two points of contention: 1) After putting over 40k+ miles on various bikes, I never once wished there was a self balancing feature to make it stand up on its own. At a stop light; I put my foot down; at a really long stop light, I put the kickstand down. If the self balancing feature can function as form of driver aid. Meaning you declarivity tell the bike "I want this line with this apex"; then the bike will follow through with it's active systems. That would be wild. 2) The device right behind the rider gives me goosebumps. In a crash; seems like a great way to break your back and be pinned in the bike. Background data:MechE background. Owned and crashed high CC several motorcycles. I'm doing totally fine healthwise; just really lucky.
- Abishek_Muthian 5y ago
  >After putting over 40k+ miles on various bikes, I never once wished there was a self balancing feature to make it stand up on its own. At a stop light; I put my foot down; at a really long stop light, I put the kickstand down. As someone with 138cm height, All I ever wanted on a normal sized motor-bike is self-balancing. So far my options to ride a normal size bike is to convert it to three-wheeler with after-market attachments(I'm not confident about the safety, Quality of such work), Going for a 3-wheel scooter like Peugeot Metropolis(Not really a bike). Self-balancing bikes would make the dream come true for many like me.
  - leon_sbt 5y ago
    You have a very valid point. I'm 5'11" so getting my foot down at stop lights has never been an issue; unless I'm dealing with a 450cc dirt bike. My GF is about 5'2 and stopping a motorcycle in traffic is actually a pretty big deal. She isn't tall enough to put her foot down, without awkwardly angling the bike. The only bike should could ride of mine is a 250cc ninja. The 400cc+ supermoto was way to awkward/tall for her to comfortably ride. I'm totally open to the self-balancing idea now.
    - Abishek_Muthian 5y ago
djtriptych 5y ago
As a former daily rider, I'm incredibly excited about this vision. I do wonder immediately about safety. In crashes, separation from the bike is almost always good for the rider. Being strapped in via the hip harness sounds incredibly dangerous. I wouldn't ride that faster than a SLOW walking speed in it's current iteration. I don't care how good the AI is. No surprise there are no demos of anyone riding this at speed.
gooseyard 5y ago
I feel like I'd get speared in the kidneys by the weird tail shroud thing in a rear-ender, although it probably wouldn't happen since I don't think I could wedge my bulk into that space to begin with :)
JustSomeNobody 5y ago
Why would one want to be pinned into the seat that way? Seems very dangerous during an accident, however, I must admit I'm not a rider so, I could be wrong.
codezero 5y ago
I’m waiting for my logicoma
system16 5y ago
This looks really cool and I can't wait for electric bikes to become more mainstream in North America. Although I can't see the weekend outlaw-cosplay Harley crowd warming up to them.
Technomaniacz 5y ago
And they thought about this in 2017! Damn, Yamaha is working on some pretty interesting Electricals. This would be one costly bike to crash tho!
weatherlight 5y ago
I was secretly hoping this was a new FM synthesizer.
slver 5y ago
It looks like one of the reject prototypes from Robocop. And by this I mean it looks super-cool and it'll probably kill you.
LargoLasskhyfv 5y ago
Hmm. Self-balancing, image recognition... That bike looks like straight out of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daemon_(novel_series)#Daemon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daemon_(novel_series)#Daemon Or the right tool for some 'Hiro Protagonist' to deliver Pizza through the snow of nuclear winter without crashing. Anyways, I APPROVE! Edit: What are the 2 banks of 3 cylinders where the ICE-motorblock would be? Supercapacitors?
romanr 5y ago
If it can balance, it can self-drive! Westworld bike.
Animats 5y ago
It's neat to have all those powered degrees of freedom, but what problem does it solve? The BPG transforming bike [1] was a more promising direction. It could transform from a self-balancing Segway form for indoor and sidewalk use to a motorcycle form for roads. It looks like something from Transformers or the RideBack anime, but they got a prototype on the road. Now that had real potential. BPG never got that to to work well enough, and pivoted to another product, an off-road thing that runs on dual caterpillar tracks. Yamaha could probably make the BPG concept work. That would be a boon to delivery drivers everywhere. The proposed animal-like haptic interface is interesting. But what do you do with it on a two-wheeler? On a horse trained for it, you can do quite a few useful moves - turn on the forehand, turn on the hindquarters, full pass (sideways), half pass (moving partly sideways while facing forward). I've owned several horses, all of whom could do those things. One was an ex-police horse who had all that manuverability and more, and could work in tight spaces when necessary. Now, that's just listening to the rider. Cutting cows out of a herd (which I don't do) has the horse doing much of the driving. Watch [2]. The rider is in control in the early stages, getting the desired cow partially separated from the herd. But watch the part where the cow is trying to get past the horse. The horse is clearly in charge then. That cooperative giving control back and forth is common in riding. It takes quite a bit of training and practice for both horse and rider. Miscommunication can result in injuries. It's possible to build all that into a vehicle; the control system for the F-15 fighter-bomber is notable for doing quite a bit by itself, with the pilot indicating what they want to happen and the control system figuring out how to do it, using the aircraft's many control surfaces. That takes a lot of pilot training to use properly. Maybe if both wheels of the bike were steerable, it could do more. The new electric Hummer has four-wheel steering and can crab at low speeds. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odI4WaYEcCU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odI4WaYEcCU [2] https://youtu.be/nCRzUjn4I7I https://youtu.be/nCRzUjn4I7I
- salmo 5y ago
  I think it's wonderful to see "pure R&D" these days. The days of Bell Labs, Xerox PARC, etc. are gone. Even NASA is so much more restrained. Focus on practicality leads to incremental change. But free research and aspirational (maybe impractical) goals are what brought us the revolutionary technology we rely on today. This is as kooky as Doug Englebart's team's work was at the time, and similar in the focus on the human/machine interface. Some aspect or later interpretation may stick just like Augment's ripples through the industry. Startups can't do it. It takes large organizations to maintain the resources for long-term benefit like this. So I commend Yamaha for putting the cash into an impractical effort. I hope they keep it going. My kids may get something revolutionary out of it.
patrickcteng 5y ago
I want one.
bamboozled 5y ago
This is what makes Tesla kick ass, they sell their “concept cars”. They make them available. This is just fluff. “When MOTOROiD was revealed at the Tokyo Motor Show, it drew massive attention and was a prime topic of the show, but it also triggered something rather strange, especially since it is a concept model. People were already searching the internet to see how much it would cost; people were not just asking Yamaha directly, but internet forums had topics with users speculating over what the MOTOROiD’s price would be. Show visitors were also saying things like, “I don’t even have a license yet, but I’d definitely want to ride something like this,””
- bmitc 5y ago
  Other companies, especially one like Yamaha, actually care about quality, and they can't rely on meme levels of overhype and government subsidies in their production. If Tesla's quality reputation says anything, then indeed they do sell their concept cars. Yamaha makes excellent motorcycles and puts out some rather wild ones, for example the H2 models.
kemitchell 5y ago
I was really hoping this was going to be Yamaha announcing the first affordable, full-size e-bike, the Tesla 3 of two-wheelers. I guess we're still in the high performance slash high tech phase.
gregors 5y ago
There is a huge resurgence of motorcycling. People aren't calling e-bikes - motorcycles - but that's exactly what they are. Looking forward to many more EV bikes
rapjr9 5y ago
Don't these head down designs for motorcycles kill peoples necks? Having to keep your head tilted up means the bike is only useful for short drives. Ride it across several USA states and your neck will be frozen, especially with the neck muscles having to fight both gravity (with added weight of helmet) and bumps to keep the head level. Head down lowers air resistance in racing, but seems useless for a vehicle you actually intend to use for transportation. If they really want an advanced design lay the rider completely flat, face down, and invent an optical/camera system that gives them the same visibility that having the head vertical would.

494 points by susam 5y ago

Oh man, this looks cool but the writing took me right out of the announcement. I don't usually notice bad writing, but this prose seems purpler than usual.

tkgally 5y ago
It's a translation of the Japanese at [1]. The original text is reasonable as Japanese advertising copy, but advertising copy usually shouldn’t be translated. Instead, it should be written anew in each target language, sometimes with different content and graphics. I worked freelance for twenty years translating Japanese to English, often advertising copy like this. Though I did my best, I was rarely satisfied with the result unless I was able to work closely with the Japanese client and write something original in English that met their needs and was appropriate for the target audience. Most clients didn’t have enough time, money, or awareness of the drawbacks of direct translation to make that possible. [1] https://global.yamaha-motor.com/jp/design_technology/design/concept/motoroid/ https://global.yamaha-motor.com/jp/design_technology/design/...
- StavrosK 5y ago
  Ahh, that makes sense. Yes, unfortunately there's too much cultural context in advertising copy for it to translate even loosely.
- doodlebugging 5y ago
  I enjoyed the story behind the bike. I found it engaging and I feel like the photos enhanced the story. As I read through it I was pretty impressed that an article like this, maybe first composed in Japanese, had such a smooth translation into English. I wondered whether it began as an English audience article. I was amused to find in one of the pictures a misspelled word. I didn't laugh but I did crack a smile. The trash can/ recycle bin in the cartoon encourages the viewer to "Picth In". Cool bike, great story. I hope they iron out the issues that they find and this bike makes it onto streets everywhere. I love how the Japanese people in the video linked on one post seem so accustomed to seeing cool stuff like this. I wish the guys at Yamaha all the success.

tomcooks 5y ago

Woah, cpunk as fuark Good luck getting that approved for street use in the EU but what a beauty. I wish there were driving videos available, I'll patiently wait

ryan-allen 5y ago
Their petrol motorbikes are absolutely wonderful machines, I can't wait for their transition into electric!
- xgbi 5y ago
  I'm not so sure, the engines are great but they cheap out on suspensions lately. I had an MT09 Tracer that was wobbly as f. in curves and on stright lines at high speed. The rear shock was just too loose. Same for the MT07 since 2014.
  - jk7tarYZAQNpTQa 5y ago
    I've heard a lot of complaints about the wobbly MT09 Tracer at high (>160km/h) speeds. I've also heard it was only on the first models, and due to the hand guards having bad aerodynamics. AFAIK it's solvable with aftermarket (or no) hand guards.
  - squarefoot 5y ago
    I've had both Yamaha and Honda motorcycles in the past, and all of them had extremely poor suspensions. My Honda XLV1000 fell multiple times from the stand because how soft the suspension became after only 6 months even after tuning it for maximum force. I'm surely a contributing factor for being overweight, but they should be anyway approved for 2 people, and swapping the suspensions with aftermarket quality ones always solves the problem. Looks like many Japanese made bikes share this problem; they're fantastic, but their suspension system is definitely not on par.
  - erikbye 5y ago
    Try MT09 SP.
5y ago

CraigJPerry 5y ago

I can’t wait for electric motorbikes to be more diverse and advanced. I used to be a “my loud exhaust helps me to be seen” kinda guy. Until one day, sat in standstill traffic in my car on the M74 motorway just outside Glasgow, a rider on a BMW S1000XR, with the same loud exhaust as on mine, filtered past the window and I didn’t hear him until he was level with my rear passenger door. Exhausts sound great, i love the sound of a nice engine, it’s utterly intoxicating but it turns out that modern insulated cars block out the noise too well to make them useful as an awareness tool. So, i’m fine with a silent electric bike from a safety point of view. The exhaust noise was a false comfort blanket that deserves no faith put in it as a device to be better seen on the road.

Negitivefrags 5y ago
> “my loud exhaust helps me to be seen” People are very good at justifying thier anti-social behaviour to themselves.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- hellbannedguy 5y ago
  There are scumbags out their whom will drop ball bearings out there vechicle on bikers they don't like. I friend whom told me about two incidents. I will never understand that behavior. In my life, the loud sound of a bike is my least concern. Plus, in my passive aggressive wealthy county, a loud bike is a F---you to my phony liberal hypocritical neighbors.
  - ianai 5y ago
    You should be treating people like people-not limited terms like “liberal“, “conservative”, or anything else. People are people. Ends unto themselves. Not means to an end, such as whatever calling someone liberal allows you to do and feel.
  - NikolaNovak 5y ago

beebeepka 5y ago

Wow, this looks great. Straight out of some sci-fi anime I absolutely love motorcycles. Sadly, most people into seem to be in the game just for the sound alone. I have very, very strong feelings about the vast majority of this "community" and cannot wait for electric to take over. Sorry for the rant. I have to endure a lot of racers during all hours. It's hardly pleasent

ulimn 5y ago
I never understood those people. Even the standard, factory sound of my bike was distrubing a little on longer trips...
turbinerneiter 5y ago
Worst thing is that they are ruining it for everyone. Loud pipes, racing on the streets - causes more and more noise laws and motorcycle bans, making it harder for everyone. Also looking forward to ride electric. Currently, the range sadly doesn't enable what I want to do with my bike - ride it out of town, to the mountains, where there is no infrastructure. But hopefully soon. For inner city commuting, electric bikes are already a great fit - prices are the only problem left.
- busterarm 5y ago
  They've taken the significantly-emptier streets of midtown-Manhattan and decided it's their playground evenings and late nights. Most of them are coming in from New Jersey. Usually it's 30 or 40 of them at a time and they ride extremely dangerously in addition to being loud.
  - bellazeus 5y ago
    It wouldn't be an issue if the NYPD were interested in enforcing the law.
    - busterarm 5y ago
      What do you want them to do? Between public sentiment right now and De Blasio and his bullshit, I'm surprised they haven't all quit by now.

protoman3000 5y ago

The design gives me some serious Horizon Zero Dawn vibes.

stonogo 5y ago

This concept was produced in 2017. There hasn't been any news about it since. BMW in 2017 had a similar self-balancing concept bike with some kind of AR goggle HUD. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXMGi9kQ3TE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXMGi9kQ3TE Also vanished. Honda had one too, also 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLZ6U71y700 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLZ6U71y700 Vanished.

ragazzina 5y ago

How do you pronounce it? The name sounds dangerously similar to MOTOrrhoids - at least in my language.

illegalmemory 5y ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Lx0ZJGgsFs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Lx0ZJGgsFs Here is a video demonstration,

hbbio 5y ago
From 2018!
ece 5y ago
I wonder why it didn't make it to production, at least the self balancing and electric parts of it.
- tdonovic 5y ago
  I think the key thing is yet. I bet we will see a toned down version of it, esp the electric parts not too far in the future

vishnugupta 5y ago

Terrific looking bike. But > “MOTOROiD, stand up!” Why do we have to shove the voice assist in every conceivable gadget adding yet another point of failure :-|

genericone 5y ago
Allow me to present to you Optimus Prime with voice controls: https://youtu.be/JmlQSegO5pM https://youtu.be/JmlQSegO5pM Somewhere in there, the results of "Autobots roll out" is extremely satisfying.

alexander_gold 5y ago

What about jetskis ? https://superflyjetskis.shop https://superflyjetskis.shop

renewiltord 5y ago

Oh god, what a beautiful machine. I desire it greatly.

allie1 5y ago

I want one!

gaara87 5y ago

Shut up and take my money

vr46 5y ago

The last Yamaha I had tried to kill me constantly, it was brilliant. My modern BMW is the opposite, but this Yamaha looks like a T1000 on a mission to kill me again.

jp0d 5y ago

Big Yamaha fan here. Learnt riding a motorcycle on one of their old 2 stroke models when I was 11 years old! Have been thinking about buying an MT3 for casual riding. This is so futuristic. I'm sure it needs a lot more testing before public release. Even though I'll not be buying one when it's available, it's just too beautiful to ignore!

adreamingsoul 5y ago

This is awesome.

imvetri 5y ago

Brrrrm brrrrm engine effect is more fun that ssssp sssssp engines.

Jyaif 5y ago

The "Active Mass Center Control System" made me wonder: is it possible to make a passive balancing system that would keep a two wheel bike standing up?

jacquesm 5y ago
That's a good question. There are some Halbach array tricks that you could probably pull where based on displacement the central mass generates a current that then moves the COG back to where it should be to rebalance. The losses probably will cause it to fall over after a while so that would be more of a stay of execution than a complete solution. The lower resistance of the coils the longer it would stay up. And adding a small active component to overcome the losses and it would stay up until the power ran out, but that would violate your 'passive' requirement.
oh_sigh 5y ago
Yes, most bikes have them already - a kick stand.

baybal2 5y ago

I noticed, they use a hub motor on a swingarm. All hub motored bikes I rode have a very, very strong squat because of hub motor's huge torque. I don't see how they counter it here. I seen other EV motorcycles to counter it using parallelogram suspension setup: Kymco F9, Gogogro G1, Sunra Miku Max

jacquesm 5y ago
That torque can be controlled by limiting the current though, it will still be plenty fast. You just ramp down the current as the squat increases.

Opt_Out_Fed_IRS 5y ago

ouch! My butt hurts just looking at it.

doodlebugging 5y ago
At least it doesn't have the upgrade that first crossed my mind when I read that the back wings were for a future HMI. I was immediately reminded of the recent articles on HN about the potential for oxygen absorption thru the anus. This led me to think that a more useful upgrade for an HMI might involve an anal probe connected to an on-board oxygen generator to feed oxygen to the rider to help them stay alert. It seems like it would be useful on long cross-country trips. The wings could be retained as part of a deployable crash cocoon to envelope the rider so that they are buffered from the impacts of collision. I did read in the comments that the range of this bike is probably pretty low so the functionality of the batteries would need to improve before this is practical for long-distance trips. In the absence of improved battery life, my upgrade would not be useful. It is probably good that I don't design and build things for a living. Some ideas are not worth pursuing. EDIT: I have thought of another advantage to the anal probe/oxygen generator. In the event of a non-fatal crash where the rider is injured but still has a heartbeat, the anal probe could function to supply continuous oxygen to the body preventing brain and organ damage as long as the oxygen generator functioned and the rider's heart was still beating. Hardening the oxygen generator should be important so that it is shielded from crash damage. This would also negate the need for resuscitation by mouth and in the event the rider's heart stopped, the anal probe could allow rescuers to focus on blood loss/circulation. With that in mind it should be self-contained and detachable so that it could travel in an ambulance without needing to be removed. That would also make it possible to become a discreet accessory that you would put on (in) before mounting the bike and you could just wear it concealed as you shop, refuel, etc. Maybe not such a hare-brained idea after all? I think I read too much.

fnord77 5y ago

At least one of their recent motorcycles don't look too different. Looking forward to an electric powerplant though https://www.motorcycle.com/manufacturer/yamaha/2022-yamaha-yzf-r7-review-first-ride.html https://www.motorcycle.com/manufacturer/yamaha/2022-yamaha-y...

101001001001 5y ago

That would be cool to build a bike that can navigate paved trails autonomously and take it out at night when nobody is around.

riffraff 5y ago

somewhat reminded me of the '90s Honda Cub[0] :) [0] https://barnfinds.com/barn-find-dirt-bike-1991-honda-cub-ez90/ https://barnfinds.com/barn-find-dirt-bike-1991-honda-cub-ez9...

IgorPartola 5y ago

This looks very different. What I like: bold design, articulating rear, battery compartment actually looks good. What I am curious about is how it actually rides. The photos and demos all look like they are out of a Boston Dynamics demo, less like they are for a bike you actually get on. What I don’t like: this thing will be ugly as sin once you make it street legal. Also lack of fenders (which is how you avoid getting mud all over your legs and back). As a cruiser fan, I can appreciate fast nimble sport bikes, but also can’t wait for someone to come up with an electric equivalent to the R18 or the Honda Rune.

the_biot 5y ago

Yet another "concept" vehicle, concept meaning "will never be manufactured". This is just marketing bullshit. Why do people take this seriously?

gabrielblack 5y ago

Mother of God, Yamaha take my money, please !

ur-whale 5y ago

Beautiful thang, straight out of Akira.

eddyg 5y ago

This needs a [2017] added to the title. https://global.yamaha-motor.com/showroom/event/tokyo-motorshow-2017/exhibitionmodels/motoroid/ https://global.yamaha-motor.com/showroom/event/tokyo-motorsh...

skohan 5y ago

Very eye-catching - reminds me of Akira. I assume those silver cylinders are battery cells? It would be interesting to see lithium ion cells being exposed like this as a design choice, like muscle cars sometimes expose part of the internal combustion engine as a way to center the power of the vehicle. Also based on the scope of this project, I assume that must be a known cell form-factor, but I had assumed most applications were using commodity 18650's unless otherwise constrained.

javajosh 5y ago
The batteries (I assume) caught my eye too, mainly because they seem exposed in the event of a crash. If the two thick yellow cables going to the rear axle are any indication, the motor is tiny and in the axle - so, not much to see there. :)

jcims 5y ago

Lots of pearl clutching in here lol.

goldenchrome 5y ago
No kidding, but does it surprise you that nerds don't like loud sounds?

14 5y ago

My friend bought a Zero electric motorcycle. A lot of fun and definitely has zip. Very quiet and makes almost no noise. He can hit a top speed of about 140km/hr but can not stay at that speed a long time due to battery overheat. It has a range of about 90km but their are bigger battery packs available for a price. The charging is slow and takes about 10hrs but again for a price you can pick up a fast charger which cuts down charge time greatly. Yes it is a fun bike but ultimately the range and speed ability plays a factor in usefulness of the bike. When I ride with him I constantly have to make sure I don't take off ahead or lose him. Also with a range of 90km you really can't go far. A trip out to the lake 30km away becomes sketchy if there is no power source out there to charge. For me a good electric bike would have a range of at least 200km and include any fast charging with the base model.

nailer 5y ago

Has anyone read Daemon / Freedom by Suarez? There's a part where a compound filled with armed guards are assaulted by driverless motorbikes wielding swords.

leon_sbt 5y ago

Really interesting concept. I like the general lines of the bike. Looks really well thought out/clean sheet mechanical design. Two points of contention: 1) After putting over 40k+ miles on various bikes, I never once wished there was a self balancing feature to make it stand up on its own. At a stop light; I put my foot down; at a really long stop light, I put the kickstand down. If the self balancing feature can function as form of driver aid. Meaning you declarivity tell the bike "I want this line with this apex"; then the bike will follow through with it's active systems. That would be wild. 2) The device right behind the rider gives me goosebumps. In a crash; seems like a great way to break your back and be pinned in the bike. Background data:MechE background. Owned and crashed high CC several motorcycles. I'm doing totally fine healthwise; just really lucky.

Abishek_Muthian 5y ago
>After putting over 40k+ miles on various bikes, I never once wished there was a self balancing feature to make it stand up on its own. At a stop light; I put my foot down; at a really long stop light, I put the kickstand down. As someone with 138cm height, All I ever wanted on a normal sized motor-bike is self-balancing. So far my options to ride a normal size bike is to convert it to three-wheeler with after-market attachments(I'm not confident about the safety, Quality of such work), Going for a 3-wheel scooter like Peugeot Metropolis(Not really a bike). Self-balancing bikes would make the dream come true for many like me.
- leon_sbt 5y ago
  You have a very valid point. I'm 5'11" so getting my foot down at stop lights has never been an issue; unless I'm dealing with a 450cc dirt bike. My GF is about 5'2 and stopping a motorcycle in traffic is actually a pretty big deal. She isn't tall enough to put her foot down, without awkwardly angling the bike. The only bike should could ride of mine is a 250cc ninja. The 400cc+ supermoto was way to awkward/tall for her to comfortably ride. I'm totally open to the self-balancing idea now.
  - Abishek_Muthian 5y ago

djtriptych 5y ago

As a former daily rider, I'm incredibly excited about this vision. I do wonder immediately about safety. In crashes, separation from the bike is almost always good for the rider. Being strapped in via the hip harness sounds incredibly dangerous. I wouldn't ride that faster than a SLOW walking speed in it's current iteration. I don't care how good the AI is. No surprise there are no demos of anyone riding this at speed.

gooseyard 5y ago

I feel like I'd get speared in the kidneys by the weird tail shroud thing in a rear-ender, although it probably wouldn't happen since I don't think I could wedge my bulk into that space to begin with :)

JustSomeNobody 5y ago

Why would one want to be pinned into the seat that way? Seems very dangerous during an accident, however, I must admit I'm not a rider so, I could be wrong.

codezero 5y ago

I’m waiting for my logicoma

system16 5y ago

This looks really cool and I can't wait for electric bikes to become more mainstream in North America. Although I can't see the weekend outlaw-cosplay Harley crowd warming up to them.

Technomaniacz 5y ago

And they thought about this in 2017! Damn, Yamaha is working on some pretty interesting Electricals. This would be one costly bike to crash tho!

weatherlight 5y ago

I was secretly hoping this was a new FM synthesizer.

slver 5y ago

It looks like one of the reject prototypes from Robocop. And by this I mean it looks super-cool and it'll probably kill you.

LargoLasskhyfv 5y ago

Hmm. Self-balancing, image recognition... That bike looks like straight out of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daemon_(novel_series)#Daemon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daemon_(novel_series)#Daemon Or the right tool for some 'Hiro Protagonist' to deliver Pizza through the snow of nuclear winter without crashing. Anyways, I APPROVE! Edit: What are the 2 banks of 3 cylinders where the ICE-motorblock would be? Supercapacitors?

romanr 5y ago

If it can balance, it can self-drive! Westworld bike.

Animats 5y ago

It's neat to have all those powered degrees of freedom, but what problem does it solve? The BPG transforming bike [1] was a more promising direction. It could transform from a self-balancing Segway form for indoor and sidewalk use to a motorcycle form for roads. It looks like something from Transformers or the RideBack anime, but they got a prototype on the road. Now that had real potential. BPG never got that to to work well enough, and pivoted to another product, an off-road thing that runs on dual caterpillar tracks. Yamaha could probably make the BPG concept work. That would be a boon to delivery drivers everywhere. The proposed animal-like haptic interface is interesting. But what do you do with it on a two-wheeler? On a horse trained for it, you can do quite a few useful moves - turn on the forehand, turn on the hindquarters, full pass (sideways), half pass (moving partly sideways while facing forward). I've owned several horses, all of whom could do those things. One was an ex-police horse who had all that manuverability and more, and could work in tight spaces when necessary. Now, that's just listening to the rider. Cutting cows out of a herd (which I don't do) has the horse doing much of the driving. Watch [2]. The rider is in control in the early stages, getting the desired cow partially separated from the herd. But watch the part where the cow is trying to get past the horse. The horse is clearly in charge then. That cooperative giving control back and forth is common in riding. It takes quite a bit of training and practice for both horse and rider. Miscommunication can result in injuries. It's possible to build all that into a vehicle; the control system for the F-15 fighter-bomber is notable for doing quite a bit by itself, with the pilot indicating what they want to happen and the control system figuring out how to do it, using the aircraft's many control surfaces. That takes a lot of pilot training to use properly. Maybe if both wheels of the bike were steerable, it could do more. The new electric Hummer has four-wheel steering and can crab at low speeds. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odI4WaYEcCU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odI4WaYEcCU [2] https://youtu.be/nCRzUjn4I7I https://youtu.be/nCRzUjn4I7I

salmo 5y ago
I think it's wonderful to see "pure R&D" these days. The days of Bell Labs, Xerox PARC, etc. are gone. Even NASA is so much more restrained. Focus on practicality leads to incremental change. But free research and aspirational (maybe impractical) goals are what brought us the revolutionary technology we rely on today. This is as kooky as Doug Englebart's team's work was at the time, and similar in the focus on the human/machine interface. Some aspect or later interpretation may stick just like Augment's ripples through the industry. Startups can't do it. It takes large organizations to maintain the resources for long-term benefit like this. So I commend Yamaha for putting the cash into an impractical effort. I hope they keep it going. My kids may get something revolutionary out of it.

patrickcteng 5y ago

I want one.

bamboozled 5y ago

This is what makes Tesla kick ass, they sell their “concept cars”. They make them available. This is just fluff. “When MOTOROiD was revealed at the Tokyo Motor Show, it drew massive attention and was a prime topic of the show, but it also triggered something rather strange, especially since it is a concept model. People were already searching the internet to see how much it would cost; people were not just asking Yamaha directly, but internet forums had topics with users speculating over what the MOTOROiD’s price would be. Show visitors were also saying things like, “I don’t even have a license yet, but I’d definitely want to ride something like this,””

bmitc 5y ago
Other companies, especially one like Yamaha, actually care about quality, and they can't rely on meme levels of overhype and government subsidies in their production. If Tesla's quality reputation says anything, then indeed they do sell their concept cars. Yamaha makes excellent motorcycles and puts out some rather wild ones, for example the H2 models.

kemitchell 5y ago

I was really hoping this was going to be Yamaha announcing the first affordable, full-size e-bike, the Tesla 3 of two-wheelers. I guess we're still in the high performance slash high tech phase.

gregors 5y ago

There is a huge resurgence of motorcycling. People aren't calling e-bikes - motorcycles - but that's exactly what they are. Looking forward to many more EV bikes

rapjr9 5y ago

Don't these head down designs for motorcycles kill peoples necks? Having to keep your head tilted up means the bike is only useful for short drives. Ride it across several USA states and your neck will be frozen, especially with the neck muscles having to fight both gravity (with added weight of helmet) and bumps to keep the head level. Head down lowers air resistance in racing, but seems useless for a vehicle you actually intend to use for transportation. If they really want an advanced design lay the rider completely flat, face down, and invent an optical/camera system that gives them the same visibility that having the head vertical would.