Is A Yamaha R2 In The Works? The Answer is Yes According To This Trademark Filing

Good news for Yamaha fans who also enjoy digging things up in intellectual property databases around the world! Just in time for the holidays, I've got a shiny new wordmark filing for your delectation, and if you're also a small-displacement sportbike fan, then I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that you're extra in luck.

Why? It seems that Yamaha filed paperwork on a new entry in its long-running YZF-R family. Now, as you're likely aware, most members of this family tend to have odd numbers (R1, R3, R7, R9). Sure, the R6 is a much-loved middleweight member of the family, but it's really been doing all the hard work of holding it down in the even numbers department. 

Now, though, it's about to be a little less lonely. Maybe. Possibly. It's at this point that I must offer the usual caution about patents and trademarks: That sometimes, companies frequently file to protect their intellectual property whether they actually bring those things to fruition or not.

So while Yamaha has indeed filed paperwork on a YZF-R2 in India, that's not necessarily a guarantee that we'll see this bike come to light in the near-future (or even at all). We might, but then again, we also might not. 

Still, given the market involved, any YZF-R2 we might see will likely have more in common with the R25 or the R15 than it will with, say, the R1. In other words, it's much more likely to be a small-displacement sportbike, probably in or around the 200cc realm, than it is to be anywhere close to a liter bike. 

If you know my tastes at all, then you know I'll be over here cheering it on from afar. I love that the R25 and R15 exist, and that they bring such joy to riders in Southeast Asia and other markets that appreciate them, even if I never end up getting to ride one. It'll be cool to see a little R2 if and when it comes to market, even if it's not my market.