Kenichi Kuroyama to Lead Three TY-E 2.2 Entries in Trial World Championship’s TrialGP of Japan

May 13, 2023—Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. is pleased to announce that for Round 1 of the 2024 Hertz FIM Trial World Championship, the Taisei Rotec TrialGP of Japan at Mobility Resort Motegi in Tochigi Prefecture on May 18-19, three electric TYE 2.2 electric trials bikes will compete in the Trial2 World Championship.

The three riders will be regular All Japan IA Super competitors Kenichi Kuroyama riding for the Yamaha Factory Racing Team, Masaya Ujikawa riding for the bLU cRU Victory team and Fumitaka Nozaki riding for Team Nozaki Yamalube Yamaha.

The TY-E 2.2 has been under development since 2023, when it first competed in Round 5 of the All Japan Trial Championship in Hokkaido. The goal for participating in this year’s TrialGP of Japan is to allow riders and engineers to confirm the potential of the TY-E 2.2 at the world level and to identify issues in making the next step in the evolution of the TY-E.

The trio will also be looking to prepare themselves for Round 3 of the All Japan Trial Championship that will be held at Mobility Resort Motegi on June 2 this year. Their goal is to improve on the 4th place that Kuroyama earned on Day 2 of last year's TrialGP of Japan by securing a podium finish.

Yamaha’s TY-E electric trials bike was first developed in 2018 with the goal of addressing issues often faced in EV development: designing components with high electric output that are also compact and lightweight, and building in an ease-of-use allowing the bike to respond exactly as the rider intends. Toward those goals, Kuroyama first competed in the TrialE Cup, which was held in conjunction with the Trial World Championship until 2019, where he took second place overall two years in a row.

In 2023, Kuroyama contested the full All Japan IA Super season riding the updated TY-E 2.1, aiming to win the title with an electric bike and to acquire technology toward developing electric motorcycles that have performance and fun surpassing that of motorcycles with conventional internal combustion engines. Midway through the season, the bike progressed into the TY-E 2.2 and the team achieved 3rd place overall.

For the 2024 season, three TY-E 2.2 machines are contesting in the All Japan series with the twin aims of accelerating development of the TY-E platform and taking the TY-E’s first win and title. So far after two rounds, Kuroyama has taken two 2nd place finishes and is 2nd overall in the standings.