Kodo is the Japanese word for pulse or soulbeat. But its true essence is best felt by Japan's legendary Kodo drum music, an earthtrembling expression of awesome latent power produced by a bass drum so massive that its intense beat resonates in your heart and in your soul.

Live to the beat of the drum - The Kodo beat gets inside you, takes you over, makes you feel sensations you've never felt before. The MT-01 is the same -- a vital, pure, primal power, like a heartbeat. It's the Torque Sports Roadster, a new kind of sports motorcycle that delivers massive low-rpm engine performance united with a sports chassis for a whole new style of sports riding.

The heart of the MT-01 is its engine - a massive, air-cooled 1,670 cc V-twin drumming out its own kind of heartbeat that will reverberate through motorcycling history. This is iconic sports performance like nothing else on the street, unleashing mega torque and a throbbing exhaust note from its long-stroke crankshaft, forged pistons, ultra-efficient pent roof combustion chambers and ceramic composite-plated cylinders.

This monumental V-twin has been tuned for Torque Sports -- a new kind of sports performance that unleashes breathtaking acceleration whatever revs you're riding at. At low rpm the massive pulsing torque output delivers an instant rush of thrust. And at increased revs -- peak torque arrives at 3,750 rpm -- that thrust grows and swells to produce astonishing sports performance. Everything about the MT-01 engine has been designed to emphasise and intensify these unique torque sports characteristics.

The low-mass crankshaft encourages easy-revving performance, while the tall-ratio gearbox allows you to use the incomparable torque output to maximum effect. In other words, the MT-01 makes revs pretty much irrelevant. Doesn't matter if you're wanting remarkable thrust from a standstill or stunning propulsion out of a corner, the MT-01's torque does it for you.

It's a unique type of righthere, right-now performance that transforms the riding experience, taking your mind off engine revs and gear shifts, focusing it instead on the road opening out in front of you to every pulsating beat of the motorcycle's heart. With a bike like the MT-01 the engine has got to be the centre of attention, so when we came to designing the frame we wanted it to be minimal, to allow the engine to rule, and yet great to look at.