Is improving the concentration of mass a new design concept?
No, It has long been one of our basic design and engineering ideals. At Yamaha, our basic design and engineering approach is to look at the entire machine, including the engine, chassis and all the components, as a single unit and design it with the aim of achieving a ride that provides the ultimate sense of rider-machine unity. And, to achieve this sense of unity with the machine, concentration of mass is an important key. We have tested mid-ship mufflers on our MotoGP race machines and our European models YZF-R6 and FZ1 have mid-ship mufflers, the engineers told us. Looking at a mid-ship muffler, however, you might think that it has limited capacity and, thus, limited exhaust performance. And as everyone knows, limited exhaust performance means limited engine performance. We asked the Yamaha engineers to tell us more about the product concepts and the development aims. The YZF R15 and FZ16 were developed with the aim of going beyond the conventional commuter bike and to achieve true
