Yamaha teases new CP3 engine to be revealed at EICMA
Yamaha has released a teaser image for a new CP3 engine, but what exactly is it going to land in?
A teaser image has been released by Yamaha, which points to a new CP3 engine, that is set to be revealed at EICMA later this year.
While it is not known what bike the engine will land in, the image, which simply shows a tachograph depicting the bike’s firing order, might point to an incoming CP3 adventure.
The current CP3 has an even firing interval of 240 degrees between each cylinder's power stroke, equating to 240°-240°-240°. The image shared by Yamaha, which you can see at the top of the page, features the first two power strokes closer to each other, with a larger gap to the final power stroke.
That off-beat firing order is eerily reminiscent of the firing order found on the T-plane-powered Tiger 900s and Tiger 1200s, as you can see from the image below. While it’s not identical, it’s worth noting that both these images are visualisations of the bike’s firing order, meaning we have to squint a bit and use some imagination to draw the comparison.
Triumph’s T-plane engine, announced in 2019, features the crankpins at 0°, 90°, and 180°. This configuration, combined with Triumph’s 1,3,2, firing order, gives the bikes an uneven delivery, with two short gaps between the first two firing pulses and then a long gap before the third arrives.
The firing order of the T-plane engine, added to the position of the crank pins, gives the engines a kind of two-configurations-in-one-package feel, in that they feel like a V-twin lower in the revs, and more like a traditional triple as you climb higher up the rev range.
The real reason Triumph opted for the design, though, was to improve both the Tiger 900 and Tiger 1200s off-road ability.
Triumph’s old Tiger 800s were great bikes, but the smooth revving and free-spinning triple wasn’t to everyone’s taste when ridden off-road in deep dirt and mud.
The T-plane concept was effectively devised to help create an engine that would allow the tyre to dig into the dirt and push the bike forward while riding in just those kinds of conditions.
So the big question is: why would Yamaha intentionally create a new ‘lumpy’ triple and then drop it into a sports bike or naked?
The simple answer is, they wouldn’t.
If Yamaha is bringing a new triple out, with the crank pins positioned as per the T-plane engine, it seems possible that it could be heading for some kind of new adventure bike.
And the teaser image seems to back that theory up.
The wording accompanying the image reads “REDEFINE THE STANDARD”. If we take ‘the standard’ as being Yamaha’s Tenere, then the ‘redefining’ part could be a new CP3-powered Tenere or even Super Tenere.
Whether or not we find out what bike this engine is landing in at EICMA, or simply more details about its configuration and design, is the next big question.
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Simon (AKA Toad) has been working within the motorcycle industry for more than twelve years, and a member of the motorcyclist family since birth. Growing up around British-built single and twins, it was inevitable that a life on two wheels was on the cards, from a very early age!
