VOLUME 58 ISSUE 44 NOVEMBER 2, 2021 P79
to be a sales success.
The Japanese have done
the first part right, pricing
the SP at $10,999 MSRP.
That's a $1600 premium
over the base model, but
with the upgraded suspen-
sion fitted, it represents a
decent value add.
One area I've always
struggled with the MT in
previous years has been a
somewhat vague front-end
feel, which is annoyingly
still there on the SP—just
reduced. Just looking at the
bike from a distance you
can see it's relatively high
in the front and lower in the
rear, which doesn't translate
well into lower-speed stabil-
ity when you're not heaving
on the brakes and causing
the front to dive and load up.
This is an issue that gets
better the faster you go,
mainly because the higher
speeds and thus braking
loads help the front end
track better through the
corner than if you just relied
on tire grip alone.
The KYB front end miti-
gates this issue to a degree,
but the high front/low back
characteristic of the MT-09
remains in SP form. This
is despite the new frame,
which Yamaha claims of-
fers a 50 percent increase
in lateral rigidity for better
straight-line stability. It's a
feature of the chassis and
ride position architecture,
whereby the higher tank and
handlebar setup over some
of the SP's class rivals con-
tribute to the problem.
That being said, the SP
does have exceptional
cornering agility, which
has always been one of
the MT-09's trademarks.
Snappy side-to-side direc-
tion changes are a piece of
cake on the SP, and once
you learn to trust the feeling
coming from the front and
know that 99 percent of the
time the Bridgestone S22
Bridgestone's
excellent S22 rubber is
standard on the SP.
