MARKED improvement
It might look like it’s only had a minor change here and there, but the 2018 version of the MT-07 really has been dipped in Yamaha’s ‘improve’ glue.
When it first appeared four years ago, the Yamaha MT-07 caught a lot of the motorcycle market napping. Here was a bike that really could tick the ‘all things to all riders’ box and do so with a comparatively cheap price tag.
In an age of hyper bikes, the
MT-07 reminded a biking world that you don’t need launch control or mid-corner ABS to have a good time on two wheels. A brilliant chassis and eager engine, combined with a sort-of prone/sort-of upright riding position and minimal motorcycling fuss. What on earth was not to love about that original 2014 MT-07?
The suspension. That’s what. It was okay for the package that it was in, but it was only okay. Built to a budget, the MT-07 was too soft on the front and rear. Which is fine and dandy if you want to commute and toddle off to the shops – but when you wanted to have some fun, the bouncy bits could get a bit annoying.
Step forward, friendly engineers of Yamaha for the second iteration of the MT-07 and take a bow. Subtle but serious suspension fiddling has solved the problem. The bike still feels very similar to the old bike in 90% of your riding life, but in the 10% of smiles wide things have become a lot better.
With 130mm of travel at either end the bike is now more settled at pace and more compliant over things like speed humps and potholes.
The bike’s front forks are 41mm KYB (Kayaba) units, boasting a 6% increase in spring rate and a 16% increase in rebound damping.
The rear shock is a familiar KYB (Kayaba) item that has rebound adjustability with a more accessible spring preload adjuster. Yamaha says that the back end of the bike now has 11% increased spring rate with 27% more high speed rebound damping and 40% more high speed compression damping. That’s a lot of percentage increases on the front and back springers – and you can instantly tell the improvement on the move. The whole bike feels more secure in what it’s doing. You can lead the MT-07 easily but the bike will take care of things all by itself as you up the pace too.
This is a grown-up Yamaha – don’t let the smaller capacity fool you.
We’ll get to the cosmetic changes in a minute, but before that the only other ‘real’ change to bike over what went before is with the seat.
While there’s no real change in the actual 805mm seat height over the old model, the new bike’s rider and pillion perches have come in for some real re-design.
A big part of how different sitting on the bike feels (largely, more roomy) is down to the rear of the petrol tank being moved 10mm further forward. Both rider and pillion seats have been extended backwards too and the rider seat is actually more angular towards its front which means that it feels narrower near the back of the petrol tank, this is so that you can get your feet on the floor much more easily. Yamaha calls this ‘stand over height’ – it’s a measurement taken from the bottom of one foot, up and over the front part of the rider’s seat and down to the sole of the other foot. If the seat front is narrowed then it’s easier for your leg(s) to get to the floor.
It’s a clever bit of engineering.