AROUND THE TRACK
Bitter-sweet, that’s probably the best way to describe the MT’s antics on track. Let’s start off with the best bit; the motor. That thing is a brute, packing more punch than a gaggle of heavyweight boxers, and probably more attitude too. If you’re familiar with the MT concept, this won’t be news to you, but you’ll nod in appreciation of how mind-warping its torque deliverance is. It never gets boring and I can’t think of another naked that offers the get-go of the Yammy, but I can think of plenty that have better table manners. For the MT-10, power is everything, which is great when you’re blasting out of wide, sweeping corners, but the initial legs can be too full-on – like one of Boothy’s chat-up lines – when you’re firing the thing out of a tighter, slower twist of tarmac. You’ve got two choices: dumb the throttle map down, or train your hand to be less greedy. The latter made more sense to me, and by being compassionate with the power stakes the Yamaha became far more wieldy, and far less ‘brown stains in your pants’. But, short of riding the thing with oversized boxing gloves, you’ll struggle to stop the thing from hooking fat wheelies in first, second and even third. It loves a good loft-up, and with none of that anti-wheelie nonsense to keep the motor caged, wheelies just become part and parcel of the experience… as does an overly eager ABS. If the motor seems daunting, the prospect of riding flat out towards a corner and feeling the lever lose all hope of gripping is far more pressing – believe me! I had a few scares, and might have said a few swear words. Because the ABS is non-switchable, short of doing Boothy’s wheelie trick, the only way around the hang-up is to progressively build in your braking pressure, and never squeeze excessively hard. That’s a bit weak on a bike this new, and packing so much potential. It’s one thing having a fast bike, but if you can’t stop the bloody thing, well, that’s not a lot of good.
In the corners the MT-10 was half-decent. The general feel of the package was plush and usable, but the weight of it would see you plough so deep past an apex that anyone would swear it was Frodo riding. I had to learn to rein the mass back in advance, so I could make my corner entries neatly and concentrate on a solid exit. That’s where the Yamaha would make up its ground, with a few slides and wallows thrown in for good measure. The suspension’s maybe a little too underdamped to show off the excellent R1 chassis bracing the MT-10, but that’s not to say this thing’s useless. Far from it. It’s just big, cumbersome and deserves respect… and lots of it.
PACKING MORE PUNCH THAN A GAGGLE OF HEAVYWEIGHT BOXERS