October 2117: Archaeologists excavating a former Yamaha assembly plant have uncovered a sealed vault containing 5,000 rear wheels and what are apparently the remains of an inventory control official.
Maybe, maybe in red.
In black it sorta looks like a mobile Rorschach test.
I can't imagine Yamaha will actually make this. Too big, too heavy, and too expensive. While I like the Paggio MP3 500, I don't think they are too popular with the general populous.
There's a lot of trikes out there, but most are tippy because of the 2 rear wheels making the trike inherently unstable.
Then Spyder changed it to 2 wheels in the front followed by a bunch of motorcycle based 3 wheelers like the Polaris Slingshot. The 2 wheels up front eliminated the inherent instability of the rear 2 wheel designs, but none of them actually look like a motorcycle. They just look like goofy cross cars. But everyone that owns one will tell you they're an absolute blast to ride.
The Yamaha is the first to actually look like a motorcycle and I think there's a market for that. There's a LOT of trikes cruising around where I live. They're very popular, but most people don't like the way the current ones look.
Then there's the whole age and disability thing. A lot of people want to continue to ride, but can't climb onto a 750 pound bike due to pain, balance problems, or disability. That's why many transition to existing trikes. If that Yamaha would sit still and upright while they slowly and painfully climb on board, they'd be all over it. The aging Baby Boomer demographic has huge purchasing power and is a market you'd be foolish to ignore.
I'm sure there's also a whole lot of disabled vets from the sandbox that can't wait for the Yamaha to be released to dealers.
I'd rather have them happy on 3 wheels than unhappy and relegated to a cage with 4.