ANTOINE CLEMONT

YAMAHA PRODUCT MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT

Antoine’s the guy tasked with working out what we want and how to produce it. He’s pretty chuffed with the MT-07 and gave us more insight into the model’s evolution…

We needed to better the package

We had a lot of feedback from studies with customers that told us how they thought we could make the MT-07 better. There weren’t many criticisms with the old model, but suspension was the most common thing. People wanted the handling capabilities of the bike to be better, so that’s where the focus of our efforts went. The challenge was to improve the suspension without adding a lot of cost to the package. For instance, if we’d have fitted USD forks, that would have seen costs increase by another £300 per MT. Were such units necessary? We didn’t think so. We managed to improve the bike’s main criticism without causing financial concern. The aesthetics have also moved on, and we’re really happy with the complete bike.

We considered much more tech

Of course, we could have kitted the bike out with traction control, rider modes and all those kinds of things, but the problem is cost. People weren’t crying out for such additions, so we thought why change something just for the sake of it? If someone wants more power or more technology, we’d steer them towards the MT-09, and then there’s the MT-10 for those who really want the very best hypernaked on the market. The MT family has been carefully considered to deliver to every kind of rider at every age and level. We’re happy with that approach; it’s working.

An SP version’s not in the pipeline

It could be a future possibility, but we don’t see the target audience being too demanding for top-end suspension and the glitz of a typical SP version. That’s not to say we won’t produce an SP version in the future, but I think budget will always be at the forefront of any MT-07 plans. We don’t want to compromise the success and fulfilment offered by this relatively affordable and satisfactory motorcycle. People like what we’re doing, and that reflects in the sales figures.