Yamaha Niken leaning three-wheeler priced at $15,999

Yamaha surprised us last October with the
announcement that it intended to put a leaning three-wheeled motorcycle into production. And now we know what the Niken will cost when it goes on sale this September: $15,999.

Besides the high-tech parallelogram linkage that connects the two independently sprung front wheels, the Niken’s basic guts are borrowed from the Yamaha MT-09. The two bikes share an 847cc three-cylinder engine that produces 113 horsepower, but all that extra hardware at the front of the Niken means it’s a heavyweight at 580 pounds, which undoubtedly has an impact on the bike’s performance and intent.

The traditional two-wheeled MT-09 costs $8,999. Naturally, it will be up to each individual buyer to decide if the Niken’s extra contact patch is worth a $7,000 surcharge, but since Yamaha says the 2019 Niken will have “very limited availability” anyway, that probably doesn’t matter much.

If you want to get yourself a reserved spot in the Niken line,
click here for Yamaha’s dedicated reservation page. But if the Niken just isn’t your cup of tea, you might want to hold out — our friends at
Asphalt & Rubber believe that
Yamaha has a few more leaning multi-wheeled models in the pipeline.

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