Best scooter for NYC?
This is your bike. It parks anywhere, costs next to nothing to run, and the twin front wheels take the sting out of the potholes and steel plates you ride over every morning.
Made for Austin · Los Angeles · Miami Beach / Miami
2016–2021 · Scooter · Buyer's Guide
Tricity 155 (MY2016)
Three Wheels, Zero Drama
The Machine's Character
The Tricity 155 is a scooter built around one clever idea: two front wheels on a telescopic fork, each sprung on its own, that lean into a corner together like a normal scooter. That's Yamaha's Leaning Multi-Wheel layout, and it gives this bike its whole identity. Behind it sits a liquid-cooled 155 cc Blue Core single making 15 hp and 10 lb-ft, driving through a CVT and a belt final drive. ABS and an LED headlight come standard. You won't find the usual Yamaha Dark Side attitude here. The fun comes from how calm that front end stays when the city throws broken pavement, potholes and manhole covers at it.
Day to day it rides like any small scooter: twist and go, a 30.7 in (780 mm) seat, and light, easy steering at city speeds. The suspension is set up soft, which suits commuting on bad streets. It's a good fit for new riders, for anyone who has never trusted two small wheels on a wet morning, and for people who ride every day and want running costs close to zero. There are real limits. At 364 lb (165 kg) it's heavy for its class, and neither the fork nor the shock adjusts. The tank holds only 1.9 gal (7.2 L), and there's no USB port.
Hard Numbers
Spec sheets don't ride bikes, but they set the baseline.
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| Power | 15 hp (11 kW) @ 8,000 rpm |
|---|---|
| Torque | 10 lb-ft (14 Nm) @ 6,000 rpm |
| Displacement | 155 cc |
| Engine | Single-cylinder |
| Cooling | Liquid-cooled |
| Final drive | Belt |
| Fork | Telescopic |
| Front brake | 220 mm |
| Front tire | 90/80-14 |
| Rear tire | 130/70-13 |
| Wheelbase | 53.1 in (1349 mm) |
| Seat height | 30.7 in (780 mm) |
| Wet weight | 364 lb (165 kg) |
| Fuel capacity | 1.9 gal (7.2 L) |
Equipment check
Lighting
- LED Headlight Standard
Safety
- ABS Standard
The Truth on the Street
What follows comes from years of listening: paddock talk, owner chats at club nights, and the messages riders send me directly. On the Tricity 155 the picture is consistent. Riders trust its front end above everything else, and the complaints are smaller, scattered everyday niggles.
The confidence owners keep describing
Stability is the praise that keeps coming back. Owners say the twin front wheels give them real confidence in corners and over rough road, and that they handle both without much thought. Some add that the linked brakes stop the scooter strongly and with control. Others say the CVT feeds in power without a jerk in stop-and-go traffic.
Where the small gripes pile up
The complaints are spread thin. Some owners say the front suspension is comfortable most of the time but still jars sharply on broken pavement. Taller riders find the space between seat and footboard tight enough to bother their knees on longer rides. Others mention real effort moving it by hand when parking and lifting it onto the optional center stand. They also point out that the front wheels won't lock upright at a stop, so you still need a stand. One rider finds the bright green Eco light distracting after dark.
The Expert Benchmark
Where this Yamaha Tricity 155 pulls ahead of — or falls behind — its rivals on the numbers, and the typical bike in its class on character.
What kind of bike this is — character vs. the class
Head-to-head: Yamaha Tricity 155 vs. its rivals
Power
Torque
Displacement
Wet weight
Seat height
The 'Should I Buy It?' Score
Forget spec-sheet bragging. Here's who the Tricity 155 is actually built for.
Best motorcycle for Bay Area?
For the weekday run across the city, the leaning three-wheeler is a smart, eye-catching choice. For Skyline on the weekend, 15 hp won't be enough, so keep a bigger bike for that.
Made for Bay Area Ridge Roads · San Francisco / Bay Area · Skyline Boulevard / Alice's Restaurant
Alternatives to the Yamaha Tricity 155
If this one isn't quite the fit, these are the bikes worth riding back-to-back against it.
Any price note compares both bikes at the same age — the youngest age both have on the used market — against this Yamaha Tricity 155. “cheaper/pricier” is what that bike costs second-hand, not how worn it is.
