Right now, there are over 7-million flex-fuel vehicles on US roads, most of them are fleet cars or trucks that can switch between gasoline and E85 (85% ethanol, 15% gasoline). But there are 0 motorcycles that can run on E85. Yamaha has just filed a patent that may change that.

There is still very little information out about the patent, and Yamaha is far from creating a production flex-bike just yet. But their patent means they at least have something in the works. The patent drawing is of a single cylinder bike, which would probably make this bike fairly inexpensive. It has a normal sized fuel tank presumably for conventional fuel, and a smaller second tank tucked away behind the cylinder below the fuel injector. The second tank is most likely meant to hold the E85. Why it would need two separate tanks is anyone’s guess. I would think, just like flex-fuel cars, the engine sensors would be able to detect the different fuels and alter itself accordingly.

Either way, we won’t know exactly what to make of this Yamaha flex-fuel patent until they at least start some form of production. We’ll see.

(via MCN)