Fully loaded
With a pillion
This isn’t a particularly pillion-friendly bike as the MT-10’S passenger provision resembles that of a sportsbike. Sure, the bench seat may be fairly wide and the little separating pad does a reasonable job of dividing the rider and pillion, but the peg position is so stupidly high that for a pillion it feels like their knees are almost touching their ears. Plus, there’s no grab handle, meaning the passenger has no option but to hold on to the rider.
Though the SP’S suspension is electronically adjustable this only manages the rebound and compression damping rates in the forks and shock. To optimise for a bike loaded with passenger and luggage you would have to adjust the preload settings manually, which on the rear shock requires a traditional C-spanner, or an open-ended spanner on the forks.
Luggage and load
The MT-10 SP comes with a small sports-shaped rear seat that can happily accommodate a tailpack. There are two bungee points on the rear footrests, and tailpack Velcro can be routed under the seat for security. If your plucky pillion is taking up the tailpack space on the rear seat, you’ll be pleased to know that Yamaha have a range of luggage accessories designed to fit the MT-10 range. This includes two different sizes of topbox and semi-rigid panniers.
“Passengers have no option but to hold on to the rider”