[visordown.com] - Longterm test Yamaha MT07 review

[Ninjette Newsbot]

Everyone wants to know about the MT-07


Visordown's Tom Higham pops a cheeky wheelie at the MT-07 press launch in Lanzarote


The tool kit on the riders' seat is the SV's. The one on the pillion seat is the MT's.


IN October I bought a new Suzuki SV650S because it seemed the best value motorcycle on the market by about a mile.

Some people said I should get a second-hand one, but new ones are so cheap they actually seem better value. You can spend £2,000 on a 10-year-old one or get a new one for £4,600 on the road. That’s what mine cost, anyway, pre-registered with 12 miles on the clock. Nothing on the market came close.

I didn’t know then that Yamaha was about to launch an instant classic, for £5,200.

I picked up my MT-07 long-term test bike a week ago, and got as far as the first set of lights before wondering whether I perhaps shouldn’t have bought the SV. The lights turned green, the MT-07 did a torque wheelie and the seed of doubt was sown

I don’t remember a bike offering a higher ratio of fun to pound sterling. The last one might have been a two-stroke 250. I’m probably not the first to say it but that’s why, in many ways, the MT-07 feels like the natural descendent of the RD350LC.

It’s compact and uncomplicated. It’s accessible to young riders looking for a step-up from a 125, especially as Yamaha is throwing in restrictor kits for A2 licence holders.

But also, it captures some of the attitude of 1980s two-strokes that appealed so much to me as a teenager. It feels subversive. That’s something I haven’t thought about a Japanese bike for a while.

It wants to wheelie. In first gear, just open the throttle, lean back a tad, and up pops the front. The difficult part is resisting the urge to do it all the time. It feels naughtier than a wheelie on a super nakeds because the MT is half the price.

When non-motorcyclists see a wheelie, they don’t think the rider is cool. They think he’s a tool. As a 42-year-old riding an MT-07, this occurs to me regularly. It’s like walking in on yourself.

I’ve been trying to keep them low so it looks like it could be an accident. Then it becomes the perfect crime, like a silent fart in a packed lift.

In contrast, the SV doesn’t do anything to warrant a lift fart analogy. I have to acknowledge I’ve been having more fun riding the MT.

It helps that wherever it goes it attracts attention. At traffic lights, other riders ask me what it is. On my way to pick it up, I stopped for a coffee at a burger bar and the staff asked me to come back and show it to them.

A lad collecting trolleys in a supermarket car park wanted to know all about it. He had a 125 and looked about 17, and his enthusiasm reminded me of how I hankered after a 350LC as a teenager. He went away trying to work out where to find five grand.

Credit is due to Yamaha for building a machine which can make motorcycling seem as exciting and accessible to his generation as it was to mine, despite today’s of quagmire licence rules.

That’s not to say I’m entirely convinced I’ve made the wrong choice in the SV. In some ways it feels like a better all-rounder and a more complete motorcycle than the MT. It’s more pillion-friendly, with a grab rail. The seats are more padded, with a bigger storage compartment underneath. It’s got a fairing and two helmet locks. Look at the toolkits: the SV’s is like a mobile workshop while the MT’s consists of two screwdrivers and two Allen keys. The SV was also about £800 cheaper on-the-road.

In short, it’s more sensible but lacks the MT’s subversive spirit.

So I don’t know whether I bought the wrong bike. What do you think?

I’ve got plenty of time to reach a conclusion. I’m borrowing the MT for two months – more of a mid-term loan than a long-term one – after which I’ll replace it with a bike from another manufacturer.

Later this week I’ll be riding it at Silverstone with the California Superbike School. Read about that in my next update.

Model tested: Yamaha MT-07

Price: £5,199 (£5,499 with ABS)

Power: 75hp

Torque: 50lbft

Wet weight: 179kg (182kg with ABS)

Colours: grey, white, blue, red, purple

Availability: end of February 2014

Read our Yamaha MT-07 first-ride review

Read our Yamaha MT-09 first-ride review




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