Yamaha Tesseract and Other Cool Concepts

Years ago things were simple — bikes leaned while ATVs slid when it came to cornering. Then the line began to blur several years back when road-going three-wheelers began appearing with geometry and configurations that allowed them to lean over like a bike without sacrificing the stability of self-balance.

Yamaha has had a concept called the Tesseract kicking around since 2007. Designed (as indicated by the DOT rubber) for road and track use primarily … though they don’t rule out the possibility of completely revolutionizing some dirt road exploration.

Obviously your ATV Connection editors are investing many hours imagining what a full off-road version of a leaning four-wheeler would be like, and hope someone at Yamaha starts doing some serious experimentation soon. If and when someone slaps some knobbies on one of these things, expect full coverage.

That brings us to our next exercise in physics: Yamaha may be testing out concept vehicles with extra wheels for the world. Bombardier (that’s Can-Am to you and I), has been showing off a one-wheeler concept since the early 2000s that would also promise a revolution to the way we pilot our vehicles.

Hydrogen fuel cell-powered, gyroscopically balanced and for one or more passengers, the Embryo concept may never see production, but you can be sure if it does, we’re going to be wondering what would happen if someone ditched that road slick for something in an ITP Holeshot.

Bombardier has another pretty interesting concept in the works called the Exit. The logic here? What if you took the stability and off-road capabilities of an ATV, and combined them with the snappy handling and trick-friendliness of a BMX bike?

For once we don’t have to strain our imaginations picturing what it would look like with off-road-ready rubber, but we’re digging the tricycle-inspired rear foot platform for extra wheelie potential.