Patent images reveal that Kawasaki is working on a leaning trike as such vehicles are gaining popularity overseas.
The fact that the Yamaha Niken, Tricity 125 and Piaggio MP3 have all been accepted and make commercial feasibility, might have led Kawasaki to come up with a trike as well.
However, as Kawasaki leaning trike patent images show, the Japanese brand has not come up with some very complex system to address the challenge of adding another wheel to the front of a motorcycle.
Instead, the system seems to be simple and could possibly be fitted to conventional motorcycles pretty easily.
It takes the current bike design and marries it with 3-wheeled tech and thus, the conventional USD forks are mounted in a traditonal way to the front end of the trike.
But, look below and the leaning system becomes apparent. Designed to keep both front wheels in contact with the road at all times, even during hard leaning, the system uses 2 parallel bars that pivot around a central point.
This would allow the front wheels to adjust their angle but, theoretically, the fork legs remain at a similar point to the fork’s stroke. If there is a drawback to this tech, that would be that the motorcycle’s front end would be quite heavy.
On a positive note, this design would potentially allow Kawasaki to bolt the system on to any motorcycle with a conventional headstock arrangement. So, it could make it into production in the near future.
From the Kawasaki leaning trike patent images, it is evident that the disc brakes upfront, unlike in the Yamaha Niken, are mounted inside, and the engine too looks to be that of a small capacity unit from the manufacturer’s kitty.
