TRIKE ISSUE 44
Yamaha has become the latest big name to launch a trike on to the market. As you can read on page 6, the all-new Yamaha Niken is effectively a bike with twin wheels at the front. ‘Niken’ means ‘two swords’ in Japanese – the idea being that you can carve through corners with your twin-blade front end. I have to say the Niken looks like it should be a lot of fun, bringing a true motorbike experience to the trike market: it looks like a bike, sounds like a bike and leans into corners like a bike. And you get on to it like a bike (unlike the step-in, scooter-based Piaggio MP3). Since the distance between the front wheels is only 410mm, you need a bike licence to ride one. While the…