2026 Yamaha Tricity 300 gets new headline safety feature

Yamaha is set to debut a headline safety feature on its updated Yamaha Tricity 300 scooter three-wheeler this year.

The 2026 edition of the bike that sits at the top of the Tricity range, above the 125 variant, is set to come with an airbag. It’s something that by now is standard in cars, of course, but less so on motorcycles – for fairly obvious reasons. (That said, you can find one on a Honda Gold Wing.)

The Tricity 300, being effectively a three-wheeled scooter, is much smaller than a Gold Wing, and its airbag is downsized as a result. It sits just in front of the rider and beneath the handlebar assembly. 

Of course, the rider isn’t guaranteed to stay on the thing in the event of a crash of any kind, but should they hit something fairly square on the nose this should prevent them from hitting their chest on all the various quite-hard bits that tend to furnish a motorcycle cockpit.

Deployment of the airbag means a phone call to the Yamaha dealer to get it repaired and refitted.

The 2026 Tricity 300 is also available in a model without an airbag, and, notably, Yamaha mentions that specifically the non-airbag variant “is fitted with a front central storage compartment that is a convenient place for carrying various smaller items.” So, buyer’s choice: airbag, or somewhere to put your supermarket meal deal. Under the seat of both models are 45 litres of storage which Yamaha says enough to carry the full-face helmets of both rider and passenger.

2026 Yamaha Tricity 300: Airbag aside

So the new version of the Tricity 300 comes with an airbag (if you choose), but what else?

Well, there’s updated styling that Yamaha calls “dynamic”. The most obvious change over the previous version is the cut-out at the front of the bodywork that gives it a marginally more aggressive look, plus a new headlight arrangement with a triple-stack in the centre – LED, too, as is all the lighting.

In the cockpit (which Yamaha rather depressingly describes as “inspired by the feel of an SUV), the rider gets to look not only at the road ahead but also at two screens: one, a 4.2-inch full colour TFT display; the second, a 2.8-inch LCD readout that allows for phone connectivity. When the rider connects their phone, they will have access to Garmin navigation via the company’s StreetCross app.

The whole thing rolls on Yamaha’s LMW (Leaning Multi-Wheel) chassis and is powered by the familiar 292cc engine that is updated for this year for Euro5+ regulations. That means a new silencer on the tailpipe with a new catalytic converter. Emissions-based engine updates are usually pretty dull, but this new catalytic converter weighs 800g less than the old one, so it’s not a horror. Power is transmitted from the engine to the sole rear wheel through a CVT automatic transmission.

A whole load of electronics are included to make braking intuitive. The headline here is the new cornering ABS, which itself features a brake control system. This “constantly analyses data from an IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) to inhibit wheel lock and moderate chassis behaviour, especially during emergency braking while the machine is leaning in a corner,” Yamaha says.

ABS is paired with UBS (thankfully not IBS), or Unified Braking System, to mean that – when the rider brakes with either the rear brake alone or with both the front and rear brakes together – the braking force applied is split between the front and rear wheels.

When the braking force applied is substantial enough to bring the Tricity 300 to a stop, the bike has a parking brake to keep it safe while you go and buy that supermarket meal deal.

Yamaha says the 2026 Tricity 300 is set to arrive in dealerships in Q2 of this year.

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