Patents Surface
There were rumors of a Yamaha turbo bike coming soon, but now there are some patent filings that were spotted by Motociclismo. These patents show a three-cylinder 847cc engine that’s turbocharged.
What that means is that there could be a turbocharged MT-09 coming soon. The MT-Turbo has a smaller bore and longer stroke, according to the Italian publication. This bike’s bore shrinks to 73mm but the stroke increases to 67.5mm. Yamaha did this to extract more torque at the low end of the rev range, likely to help balance the boost of power from the turbo.
According to the report, the turbo will increase peak power to 180 hp at 8,500 rpm. So, plenty of torque is needed on the low end, too. Reports indicated that this bike will make 176.17 Nm of torque (roughly 130 lb-ft of torque).
This new engine will also use variable valve timing on both the intake and exhaust as well as direct fuel injection. These will not only help the engine make plenty of power, but they will help Yamaha get the emissions right for the current and future standards.
A lot of this has already been done in the automotive space, so motorcycles are really just catching up. However, Yamaha will be the first to my knowledge to have such an engine. It will be interesting to see when this patent comes to fruition.