A real owners review of a Yamaha Niken.
Retirement is cool? This ain’t a motorcycle blog. Except it is. Buying the Niken was part of my retirement, it was a treat to myself, it was part of a story. I know, I know, you wanna know about the Niken, not me so scroll down past “the story” and there’ll be a decent review lower down, ok?
Anyway, in 2022, I was riding an old black VFR800. I liked that bike, didn’t love it but it was growing on me, then it started going wrong, overheating and stuff. Very un Honda like. Spent some money on it, didn’t sort it. At the same time my 60th birthday was coming up so I thought “you know what? I’m gonna treat myself to a bike, fuck it!” I also decided I’d do this new fangled PCP as I knew how much I wanted to pay each month and I could just give the bike back after 3-4 years. By the way, I’ve always owned my bikes, never even had HP on one.
Next came what bike to get. I fancied a naked bike as I figured it would help keep my speed down thereby increasing my chances of seeing my 61st birthday and staying out of prison (I’ve owned a ZZR 1400). I also think they look better. I started looking and I was adamant that they had to give me a minimum of £1000 for mine as the deposit, non negotiable. I started visiting dealers,
I hate dealers, well most of them anyway. Why do they insist on treating everyone like a stupid idiot? I could walk in the average dealers, tell them I have my own bike dealership and I’ve been a mechanic 700 years and they’d still treat me like a fuckwit! Honda, Kawasaki, Triumph, Yamaha, all the same. I’ll need to look at yours, how much do you want for it? I’ll have to speak to my manager, I can only give you… You know what? If I’d said I want £10 for it they’d have said ” I’ve spoken to my manager and £7.50’s as far we can go… Which was a pity, sort of because I quite fancied either a Triumph or a Royal Enfield. In fact I test rode an Interceptor and a classic 350. Liked them both but loved the 350. It’s like some magical bike, seriously it’s the most fun two hours I’ve had on a bike. Ever. And I couldn’t even get it to do 70. On the motorway! That’s a story to be continued.. Anyway, the dealers couldn’t deal so I moved on. Then i saw the Niken. What…the..Heck(or words to that effect)! I saw one in Chorley, Lancashire.
The Niken just did it for me. It was a pre registered bike, in grey, with a small fly screen, so effectively a naked. It was metallic grey with blue wheels. To me it looked absolutely brilliant, like a transformer meets a scorpion. I wanted a test ride. They could give me one for whatever reason and also couldn’t deal on my bike anyway. When I asked what it was like to ride they brought out one of the mechanics who raced and had taken it round a track on a works day out. He raved about it and said he’d got in trouble through scraping the foot pegs too many times! They suggested I go to Wigan, a sister dealers who had more stock and a demonstrator. Well, not much chance of a deal if it was the same chain but I wanted a ride on this thing. Wigan was a place whose I liked dealers I liked.
Yes they had a demonstrator and I arranged a ride. To be honest in the time I had it it just rode like a big bike. There was a lot of of bike ahead of the bars but other than that nothing to report. But… and this is the biggy if you’re interested in a Niken. You buy this bike (or rather motorcycle because a bike has two wheels) because you like the way it looks.
Do not buy it because it has 3 wheels, you’re inexperienced or lack mobility for any reason, it will not stand up without the stand down. It will fall over and will be hard to pick up. It’s 265kgs.
It is weird looking but if if you get past that or can embrace that it is a cracking bike.
I’m 6 foot tall 32inch inside leg and I can put my feet down but it is quite tall.
It’s wide. But not that wide. When I looked, it was narrower than a GS and they filter and I did too. On motorways however, there was something different; whilst the front wheel obviously straddled the white lines, the rear would naturally bounce over them so you had ride slightly to one side. Splitting hairs though.
Riding. Brilliant! This thing has the best ride of any bike I’ve ridden, everything is super well damped. No jarring, everything super smooth. Even if you own or have owned a gold wing you’ll be impressed.
Handling. Turns like it’s on rails, nine times out of ten, better than a sports bike. Disagree? On a dry track or a road you know is dry and well surfaced, sports bike wins all day long. Then we wake up. Wet roads,poorly surfaced roads, white lines, leaves, manhole covers, dust. mud etc. You won’t lose a Niken. It just grips. It went round corners as fast as I’ve ever wanted to on the road. On one of the many occasions another biker came to chat I, a sport bike rider I said ” you know how fast you think you ride on your bike? well that’s how fast I can ride this thing. Put it this way, I ride an MT10 now 50kg lighter and with 50 more bhp with all the bells and whistles to keep you safe, but you’re still constantly aware of the road surfaces and adjust you speed accordingly as we all should. On the Niken I was the same but the more I rode, the more I realised it was less upset by the road surfaces than other bikes. I never got near its limits but the “testers” complained that the back would lose traction before the front. Who are these guys? Oh and it “only” leans 45 degrees… If 45 degrees is an “only” to you on the road, I hope you’ll be ok when you come off!
Engine. CP3 triple. Brilliant even in a big bike like this. Apparently it’s been altered to have more torque to suit the extra weight. All I know is it was plenty powerful enough for me, it revved out easily and would pull from low down.
Riding position. Upright and comfy, little screen does a better job than you’d think. Oh and it was a thing I noticed when I took across Europe and in super windy, horizontal rain conditions the bike never budged, even in a gust. Again in real world real weather conditions things like this matter. I did put a Puig touring screen on it and that increased by cruising speed by a good 20 mph though.
So why did I sell it? Because that’s what I do. I went into this with my eyes open, knowing it would be hard to sell when the time came hence my going for PCP which took that problem off me knowing the dealer would have to have it back when the time came.
Overall, if you forget, or embrace, or love the twin wheel front end technology, this is a great handling big bike, very capable and very fun.
But whatever you do, you can’t ignore that front end. The Niken stops people in their tracks, cars slow down on the motorway to take pics, people want to talk to you about it. I’m good with that. Bikers I found out, are not all the free thinking individualist they purport to be “how’s the tricycle” was one of a number of negative comments and someone from the biggest bike clothing store in the UK told his younger colleague with some authority that “it wasn’t a motorcycle, you can ride it on a car licence”…
So there you have it, it’s a concept that made it to the streets people say it’s the answer to a question that was never asked but I disagree. The question was and always been how do we get more grip and therefore safer, faster cornering and therefore more all round performance. Well the Niken has nearly succeeded, only the weight of the mechanical technology blunts the performance. Compare this with the digital solutions; 6 way IMU, lean sensitive ABS, different power maps blah blah. Has it moved the game forward? In my opinion, No. What they do is make sure you don’t lose control of your bike by exceeding the limitsnof your tyres under power and braking. Notice how “testers” like to switch of the electronics asap. Why? Because their good enough riders to know when the limits of the tyres has been reached, that’s why.
Oh and know this, if you love it, keep it or accept you’ll let it go for a fraction of what you bought it for.