Bicycles

Yamaha presents ebikes with 2WD and ... power steering?

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Yamaha has been working on powering both wheels of its motorcycles for 25 years, and now it's trialling 2WD on ebikes with a new concept adventure tourer
Yamaha
Yamaha has been working on powering both wheels of its motorcycles for 25 years, and now it's trialling 2WD on ebikes with a new concept adventure tourer
Yamaha
The Yamaha Y-01W AWD adventure eBike is certainly non-conventional but all the background on AWD technology for two-wheelers suggests an even greater advantage in traction and performance than AWD offers with four wheelers
Yamaha
The Y-01W AWD: a gravel-based adventure tourer with electric 2WD
Yamaha
Small and svelte, the front hub motor ain't
Yamaha
The Y-01W AWD adventure eBike rocks drop bars with an aero bar for touring
Yamaha
The Yamaha Y-01W AWD adventure eBike sports top-of-the-range KYB front suspension with plenty of lighting built in for night-time riding
Yamaha
Just what lurks within those housings behind the dual batteries ... we do not know. Suggestions gratefully received in the comments
Yamaha
One of the many AWD motorcycle concepts shown by Yamaha over the last three decades was on display in 2015 at the 44th Tokyo Motor Show. The PES Electric Road Sports bike was so radical with its augmented reality (AR) in-helmet display system that the AWD system powering both wheels was almost invisible.
Yamaha
Yamaha's Y-00Z MTB concept uses a split drive unit and power steering. If you've got any idea why, please enlighten us in the comments!
Yamaha
Power assisted steering... On a bike?
Yamaha
A power steering system for a bicycle. Who the what now?
Yamaha
The Y-00Z MTB places its mid-drive electric motor above the crank, rather than behind it
Yamaha
Yamaha's Y-00Z MTB Concept with Electric Power Steering (EPS) will be shown at the Japan Mobility Show 2023 which opens in Tokyo on 25 October 2023
Yamaha
Our favourite Yamaha concept bike of all time appeared at the Tokyo Motor Show in 2005 as the Yamaha Deinonychus: an electric bike with hub motors on both wheels and motors within the frame that enabled the bike's architecture to be fully adjustable. Not just the wheelbase, rake and trail, but the seat height and footpeg positioning. It is an insane concept that we're hopeful will be further explored by Yamaha in the future. Once more, the concept was so wild that the AWD was missed. We love Yamaha's ability to think waaaay outside the box.
Yamaha
The Yamaha Deinonychus, stretched out in full cruiser mode
Yamaha
Yamaha's WR450F 2-trac experiment had its sweetest moment in the 2004 Dakar rally when Yamaha France rider David Frétigné won the 450 class, won three stages outright and finished seventh overall ahead of a battalion of much larger machines. Further validating the credentials of the bike, Frétigné was a Dakar rookie.
Yamaha
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Yamaha's 2WD systems produced absolutely wild results in both dirt and street motorcycles, according to riders – but they never broke through commercially. Now it's taking 2WD to the ebike world, along with ... electric power steering for bicycles?

It's absolutely astonishing what an accomplished dirt rider can do with a single driven wheel, but it's equally astonishing that the AWD concept has never caught on in the motorcycle world, when it's all but mandatory in 4-wheel off-roading. When traction is limited, there's a huge benefit in sending some drive through the front wheel as well. 2WD bikes go faster and they offer better traction.

No major manufacturer knows this as well as Yamaha. In the early 90s, Yamaha was the majority owner of Ohlins suspension, and the two companies teamed up to develop a motorcycle 2WD system. The front wheel was driven hydraulically by a high-speed pump above the gearbox.

The system made it into very limited production in 2004, aboard 250 WR450 2-Trac dirt bikes – at the time, our publisher Mike Hanlon proclaimed it "one of the most significant moves in motorcycle history." But costs were high on such a short run, and Yamaha never homologated the system for the road, so it wasn't a commercial success.

Yamaha's WR450F 2-trac experiment had its sweetest moment in the 2004 Dakar rally when Yamaha France rider David Frétigné won the 450 class, won three stages outright and finished seventh overall ahead of a battalion of much larger machines. Further validating the credentials of the bike, Frétigné was a Dakar rookie.
Yamaha

But those who got to ride them universally noticed how much cornering stability and agility the system added – indeed, the main complaints from gun riders were that they couldn't throw the back wheel out sideways as easily, and that it didn't feel as fast or exciting because the back wheel was gripping instead of spinning up and throwing big rooster tails of dirt out the back.

But it was fast; Yamaha claimed a 10% advantage in off-road cornering speed, and found an extremely potent and high-profile way to demonstrate its prowess. Rookie David Frétigné rode a WR450 2-Trac in the 2004 Dakar Rally, dominated the 450cc class and finished 7th overall, behind several much more powerful bikes – an incredible achievement.

One of the many AWD motorcycle concepts shown by Yamaha over the last three decades was on display in 2015 at the 44th Tokyo Motor Show. The PES Electric Road Sports bike was so radical with its augmented reality (AR) in-helmet display system that the AWD system powering both wheels was almost invisible.
Yamaha

On tarmac-based superbikes, the results were reportedly even more astounding. Ohlins R&D manager of Future Projects Lars Jansson told MCN in 2009 that a Yamaha R1 fitted with hydraulic two-wheel-drive was a full five seconds faster around the Kelskoga racetrack in Sweden than a standard R1 in the wet. And despite the 8-kg (18-lb) weight penalty, it was a full two seconds faster in the dry as well. The closer you rode to the limits of traction, the greater the benefit was, preventing understeer and pulling a bike toward the apex of corners on the throttle.

Jansson thought the system offered significant performance benefits to nearly all categories of motorcycle, all the way up to MotoGP racers, and Ohlins fitted 2WD demonstration systems to tourers, sportsbikes, adventure bikes and dirt squirters from four different manufacturers from Japan and Europe. None of them chose to take it forward.

It's clearly remained an idea close to Yamaha's heart, though, as 2WD systems have popped up on several notable concept bikes over the years, including the PES Electric Road Sports Bike above, and the barking mad "Deinonychus" concept below, which also had fully electrically adjustable geometry and ergonomics.

Our favourite Yamaha concept bike of all time appeared at the Tokyo Motor Show in 2005 as the Yamaha Deinonychus: an electric bike with hub motors on both wheels and motors within the frame that enabled the bike's architecture to be fully adjustable. Not just the wheelbase, rake and trail, but the seat height and footpeg positioning. It is an insane concept that we're hopeful will be further explored by Yamaha in the future. Once more, the concept was so wild that the AWD was missed. We love Yamaha's ability to think waaaay outside the box.
Yamaha

All of which is to say that 2WD systems in Yamaha motorcycles are one of the great "what could've been" stories in the two-wheeled world.

But the company isn't giving up altogether. As well as pianos and R1s, Yamaha has been getting into the ebike business in recent years. And at next weekend's Japanese Mobility Show expo, it's presenting a pair of interesting electric bicycles.

The Y-01W AWD: a gravel-based adventure tourer with electric 2WD
Yamaha

One is the Y-01W AWD, which Yamaha describes as an "adventure eBike." It's a bit of an odd duck to look at; a hard-tail gravel tourer with a rear rack, semi-fat tires, drop bars and an aero bar at the front with forearm rests. It's fitted with dual batteries for long-range riding, as well as four serious-looking headlights, and has a mysterious black plastic triangle under the crossbar.

It also has a pair of electric motors, the main a mid-drive for the rear wheel, and the other a chunky-looking hub motor for the front wheel. Yamaha claims it offers "excellent off-road performance," but naturally enough, it's a "concept model that points to the many potential spheres of riding open to ebikes" and will probably never make it to production.

Yamaha's Y-00Z MTB concept uses a split drive unit and power steering. If you've got any idea why, please enlighten us in the comments!
Yamaha

We say this with a certain degree of confidence, because it's presented alongside an idea so nutty it had us checking the press release date for April 1 references. The Y-00Z MTB is a version of the YDX-Moro dual suspension enduro ebike, using an electric motor that sits up separate from the pedal crank, and an electric power steering kit up front. That's right, a wide-handlebar electric off-road bicycle with power steering.

Yamaha is brilliant at what it does, with a stellar reputation in most of the many and varied fields it operates in. But it's certainly not afraid to throw time and money at some real head-scratchers – witness the bizarre, twisting Motoroid 2 self-riding motorcyle it's got prototyped and running.

For those of us hoping to experience the fruits of Yamaha's 2WD expertise one day, it's a little sad to see the system sitting next to a flat-out weirdo idea like powered bicycle steering.

But even if Yamaha never gets the idea back onto the market, there's always boutique Philadelphia manufacturer Christini, which has been selling AWD dirt bikes for many years now, albeit at eye-watering prices. It's also opened an ebike division, using a similar bevel-gear front wheel drive system to what the motorcycles use.

Source: Yamaha

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4 comments
Dzynrs
Steering kickback is significant when going downhill on rough surfaces, maybe if the electric element acted as a damper as well so the wheel would only go where you want and not where the trail surface wants?
guzmanchinky
Been riding HARD off road for 44 years. I will say that there are often times where I'm climbing something really rocky or loose, maybe some snow or mud involved, where it would be AMAZING to have just a 10 second punch from the front wheel as well to prevent the dreaded "rear tire digging a hole on a steep slope". My idea would be a small electric hub motor in the front that only engages when the sensor sees a difference in wheel speeds. Imagine what the hard enduro/romaniacs riders could do with this!
Claudio
maybe it's a "electric power-generating steering"
;-)
fen
It looks to me like its aimed at Europe. With it now full law that e-bikes are bikes, can use bike paths, dont need insurance, helmets, or to pay tax, and with countries putting in more and more cycle paths, a bike like this makes sense on paper.

You want the person to feel like they can commute to work on it and pick up some stuff in the shop, so put on a luggage rack. They will be in traffic, so build the lights in, they might want to race along on the weekends, so put on the drop bars, and aero bars, but they might want to take on a mountain too, so add in more lights and suspension.