Forced induction is gaining popularity as a way to increase performance while meeting tightening emissions rules. Now Yamaha is joining Kawasaki, Suzuki and Honda, who all have turbo or supercharged bike projects underway.
Recent patent applications from Yamaha show a boosted derivative of the MT-09. The six engineers cited as the applications’ authors include members of the original MT-09 development team, and it appears that the work was started as long ago as 2015.
While the silhouette is clearly identical to the MT-09, and the engine is derived from that bike’s 847cc triple, it’s actually a parallel twin – presumably with a capacity of around 565cc. That puts it in the same bracket as the Suzuki Recursion concept bike, a 588cc turbocharged twin shown back in 2013. Since then, Suzuki has continued to develop the idea, although there’s still no definite production date.
Yamaha’s turbo would easily replace the performance lost by lopping off one cylinder and a third of the MT-09’s capacity. Two versions of the bike are shown in the patent applications, with slight changes to the position of the turbo.
While a patent application doesn’t confirm the technology is going to reach production, it reveals Yamaha has top engineers working on the idea. We love it!
