Yamaha music and bike designers swap roles

Yamaha is primarily a company of two halves, one side automotive, the other musical, so what happens when you let them switch roles, and give them free reign to design whatever they want? You get the most radical MT-07 you’re likely to see, and a drum kit and marimba that’ll amuse the most animal of bikers.

Dubbed Project AH A MAY, this free thinking metal art is all for the ‘Ninth Edition of the Biennale Internationale Design Saint-Etienne 2015’. The goal of the of the project being for the designers to stimulate each other’s imaginations and seek to create products that embodied their shared image of Yamaha.

The MT-07 based street bike envisions the ‘rider as part of the passing scenery. The form was created to flow from the seat to the fuel tank and was inspired by a horse motif that aims to give a sense of unity among people, nature, and the vehicle.’

There’s also an electric-power assisted bicycle that is recharged by the rider using it as a turbo trainer. The bike can then be taken out of the stand and the electricity generated shared with the family and used to power musical instruments and other electric appliances.

The drum kit resembles a globe and allows performers to let their imaginations run wild on an assortment of different kinds of drums, while the marimba is designed for two performers and allows them to add and multiply their energy. The seating of the performers are both based on motorcycle seats. 

It seems rather unlikely that any of these design studies will make it into production, but it’d certainly be the bravest looking MT-07 in the range if it did.