Yamaha Teases New Supersport Reveal for Nov. 3 + Video

Yamaha fans expecting to hear big news from the Tuning Fork brand at Intermot may be a bit disappointed the Cologne show only brought us a refreshed XJR1300, the MT-07 Moto Cage stunt variant and a futuristic three-wheeled concept model. The first two aren’t likely to come to North America and the third might never see production.

But fear not, as while most of the motorcycle world was focused on Intermot, Yamaha released a video teasing a “new era” supersport announcement for Nov. 3, just ahead of the EICMA show in Milan.

The description on the video’s YouTube page reads:

“A track revolution is coming. A project that forced us to create a new internal development scale, never used before: Development Level Z.

A bike engineered to respond to its rider’s urge in a new way. A bike that will change the way riders think, and feel.

This new state of the art motorcycle will be released on 3rd November 2014. Stay Tuned!”

The video notes it is just episode 1 of Yamaha’s teaser campaign, so we should expect more in the coming weeks ahead of Nov. 3.

But what should we expect to see? The only thing we can be sure of is that it’s a sportbike, as the track footage in the video as well as the sketches and photos in the video suggest. In the top right corner of the screen at about the 0:09 mark, we can make out some text including what looks like the phrase “M1 relationship”, suggesting ties to Yamaha’s MotoGP racer.

It’s important to note that Yamaha has yet to announce its 2015 YZF-R1 or YZF-R6, so they are the likeliest candidates for the big reveal. Digging further, Yamaha also recently trademarked the name “YZF-R1M” in Europe, while filing similar trademarks in the U.S. for “R1M” and “R1S”, suggesting it’s the literbike that’s getting a major update and possibly a couple of variants.

Still, we do have several questions, including exactly what does “development level Z” mean?

We’ll learn more soon but for now, here are some screenshots of some key scenes in the video. Pull out your magnifying glass and start looking for more clues to Yamaha’s big announcement.