VOL. 55 ISSUE 10 MARCH 13, 2018 P87
Here's a question for you: What
do you think the top selling Yamaha
motorcycle in the U.S is? YZ450F?
YZF-R1? The PW50? Any of these
would be a fair answer, but none
would be correct.
The bike that brings home the
bacon for the Tuning Fork com-
pany is none other than the little
FZ-07, now branded the MT-07,
which is what the bike was known
as everywhere else but in the U.S.
since its release in 2014 (2015 in
the U.S.).
In the 2017 model year, Yamaha
saw 24,358 MT-07s roll into new
garages across the globe, with
3891 of those in the U.S. The 07
accounts for over half of all Ya-
maha MT sales, with nearly four
times as many MT-07s finding new
homes as the big daddy MT-10.
This is more than the little bike
that could. It's the little bike that
does; it's proven a brilliant tool for
everything from daily commuting to
customizing to racing—it really is a
jack of all trades.
Part of the reason the MT has
been so successful is its simplic-
ity. Take a good engine, put it in a
light chassis, and price it competi-
tively. It's the same theory Yamaha
used to excellent effect when they
released the RD350 in the '80s, a
bike still credited as kick-starting a
generation of new riders.
The MT-07 also benefits from a
brilliant marketing campaign. The
"Dark Side of Japan" campaign
PUNCHING
ABOVE
ITS WEIGHT
A few years back, Yamaha released the MT-07. No one,
not even Yamaha, could predict how important the little bike
would become. We headed to Spain to ride version 2.0
BY RENNIE SCAYSBROOK
PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY YAMAHA
