Table of contents:
We know that motorcycle brands play games of confusion as soon as they have in hand a new model to bring to the market. And is that with new technologies, keeping a secret seems increasingly difficult. However, there are tricks and strategies, as well as the dear repossessions, to avoid exposing it prematurely.
Today we are not sure that such a product makes sense in our market, but thanks to the trademark application for a new model for the European Union, we know that a variant could reach Yamaha. low-displacement sports car called Yamaha R2.
A 200cc mechanic for Europe in 2022?
As we said in the entry, motorcycle brands know how to play very well at being distracted when it comes to hiding the new models to arrive to the market. However, journalists always have aces up our sleeves to be able to bring you the juiciest news, or at least, to be able to inform you of the rumors that sound the most with evidence.
Today we have received the information that Yamaha registered as trademarks in the European Union the initials R2 and R9. Some acronyms that, coincidentally, were registered at the same time as those of R7. A model that came out in June to fill the gap left by the R6 and that has an engine ready for Euro 5 with 74.3 horsepower.
The arrival of a Yamaha R9 is almost a no-brainer knowing that the Japanese brand itself already has in its range an MT-09 model from which it could start to create the sports car. In fact, the use of a Deltabox chassis in the latter gives us a fairly specific clue as to where the shots are going to go. This R9 would fill the gap between the R7 with 73 hp and the YZF-R1 with 200, counting on a power that would be around 120 CV. But is a 200cc R2 model really necessary for our market?
Considering the current range of Yamaha we would say no, since with the complete renovation that the Yamaha R3 underwent in 2019 this gap should be more than result. Nevertheless, a 200cc model Yes, it would seem more consistent in the Asian market where this type of low displacement has a large number of followers and where it would replace the YZF-R25.
So what is Yamaha looking for including those acronyms in Europe? We can only think of two explanations. One, who wants to cover his back with that commercial name in case one day he takes out a model of these characteristics in our territory; or two, that is about to arrive a model that changes the paradigm between the relation of its cylinder capacity and its initials.
In any case, we hope get out of doubt at the next EICMA from Milan, where Yamaha has already confirmed its presence and where it should present its latest news to the world.
