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Yamaha To Build Moto2 Bike?
Submitted by Kropotkin on Tue, 2009-02-24 00:36.
in Yamaha Moto2
Fascinating news from Italy. According to a post on the Oberdan Bezzi's blog, Yamaha are building a Moto2 bike, ready to compete when the series replaces the 250 class, either in 2010 or 2011. Bezzi, an Italian motorcycle designer, has a stunning mockup of what the bike would look like, named, appropriately enough, the YZR 600 M2.

According to Bezzi, Yamaha has decided that the new Moto2 class could offer a good return on investment, as a way of providing production racing motorcycles to buying customers at an affordable price. In line with this thought, the bikes would be sold in Yamaha's traditional red and white production livery, much as the old TZ bikes were back in the 1980s. The bikes would be offered for sale, and not provided on a lease basis, as the bikes in MotoGP are.

Should the story be true, and Yamaha be genuinely interested in producing equipment for the Moto2 class, it would mark a turning point for the series. So far, the entries have been almost entirely from chassis specialists such as Moriwaki, Suter and BQR, building prototype chassis around production engines - mostly Honda's popular CBR600RR powerplant. But a manufacturer producing bikes would change the game significantly. What's more, Yamaha producing limited run racing motorcycles for sale would not violate the terms of the contract which the Flammini brothers have with the FIM for production-based motorcycle racing. Although the powerplant would undoubtedly be similar to Yamaha's R6 engine, changes would have to be made for it to comply with the current set of rules. The R6 is already close to the rev limit enforced under the Moto2 regulations, and the engine would likely be modified for torque, rather than power.

Once one manufacturer crosses the bridge that leads to Moto2, more could follow. The surprise exception could well be Honda, though. Paddock and fan gossip puts the naissance of the new class down to Big Red's malign influence, part of their witchhunt against two strokes. But so far, Honda have not expressed any interest in the new class, and there have even been some statements which would seem to imply that the Japanese giant will not build a bike for the new class. Perhaps it was not Honda pushing for the four strokes after all, but another Japanese conglomerate. One which makes musical instruments, perhaps?