Motobot has an affair

Recently Stamperija has issued 2 blocks from Central African Republic (see Newsletter 116), on which amongst others "Motobot" is depicted.

Motobot on the utmost left stamp

Motobot has been developed by Yamaha Motor Corporation and was shown for the first time at the Tokyo Motor Show in 2015. The name "Motobot", a contraction of the words "motorcycle" and "robot", already indicates what it is: a robot that is able to ride a motorcycle. The idea is that in the future it can be employed to test and develop motorcycles without any influence of human factors.

Motobot in action on a Yamaha R1

At this moment Motobot can drive straight on, slalom and corner with speeds up to 100 km/hr. In 2017 he must be able to ride along a circuit on its own, with speeds up to 200 km/hr. Yamaha racing driver Valentino Rossi already challenged Motobot for a race, see alo the video on Youtube:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dUb5T7DU-Q.
Yamaha expects that from 2020 on Motobot will already deliver usable development results.

Valentino Rossi challenges Motobot

Motobot has a human shape, and can operate the motorcycle with its hands and feet. This makes that he can in principle ride on every motorcycle. The only required adaptation is that the motorcycle must have folding out supports or side-wheels for start and stop, obviously Motobot can not (yet?) keep the motorcycle upright with his own legs.

The left "hand" of Motobot

Logically such an interesting development will also appear on a stamp! But when looking somewhat more in detail there seems to be something strange on the issue of CAR.
On the internet there are many pictures and movies of Motobot, always on a Yamaha R1. There are some pictures where he is sitting on a Honda Fireblade, but if you look carefully it appears that this is not the real Motobot, but a human in a Motobot suit.

Motobot imitator on a Fireblade

On the stamps however Motobot is not sitting on a R1, and not even on a Yamaha! On the block with 1 stamp this is obvious, as next to the motorcycle is written "Aprilia FV2 1200". A bit of Googling learns that this is a concept model of Aprilia, introduced on the motorcycle fair of Milan in 2007.

Aprilia FV2 1200 conceptmotorcycle

Hans saw a link between this Aprilia and Yamaha, as the engine had possibly been developed by Yamaha. But we could not find this again, all sources on the internet write that the engine is an own development of Aprilia, based on the engine of the Dorsoduro 1200. And indeed the engine is a speaking likeness to that.
On the stamp in the strip of 4 the only indication is Yamaha Motobot, no brand and type of the motorcycle:

The shape of the fairing and the single-sided swingarm (never used by Yamaha, not even on the GTS1000 with single-sided front suspension) don't resemble any Yamaha model. But what it is? The fairing reminds me of a Ducati Panigale, but differs in details.
Al together I think that this is artistic freedom of the artist, who has just put Motobot on motorcycles of his own choice. Or does Motobot earn something extra in his spare time at other motorcycle manufacturers?

Paul Essens

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