2018 YAMAHA MT-07
FIRST TEST
P88
has been a stroke of genius for
Yamaha, highlighting the weird
and wacky Tokyo underworld and
allowing the engineers to infuse
some of that persona into the bike
itself.
The MT-07 has been around in
the U.S. at least for three years,
which isn't a great deal of time be-
tween updates. Gone are the days
when bikes more than two years
old were entirely replaced—de-
velopment dollars need to stretch
further as budgets conversely get
smaller—so it helps if you knock
one out of the park the ttfirst time
out so as not to have to reinvent
the wheel in a few years' time.
This year, the MT-07 gets a few
ergonomics changes as well as
stiffer suspension front and back
swiped from the XSR700, itself just
an MT-07 in drag. The fork now
houses a six percent stiffer spring
with 16 percent faster rebound
damping (which remains unad-
justable), while the shock gets
rebound damping adjustment, an
11 percent stiffer spring, 27 percent
increase in high-speed rebound
damping and 40 percent more
high-speed compression damping,
the latter also unadjustable.
To the naked eye, the ergonom-
ic changes are small at best but
they make a big difference in rid-
ing. The seat height is unchanged
at 31.7 inches, but the tank is now
10mm shorter front-to-back and
the rider and passenger seats
have been expanded. For the rider
at least, the seat is beefier all at-
tround with a claimed 30 percent
more real estate, giving them more
room to move front and back al-
though, truth be told, there wasn't
much wrong with the old seat.
As far as looks go, the '18 MT
gets a repositioned headlight,
a new one-piece front fender, a
new radiator cover, redesigned
tank cover and a brake light taken
from the MT-09. Overall, the 2018
Yamaha MT-07 is pretty close to
the bike that came out three years
ago, which is a good thing. Trust
me.
To confirm this theory, we head-
ed to the stunning holiday resort of
Malaga, one of the southernmost
