All Tests – First test Yamaha MT-07: well done for you! – Technical point: everything about the Yamaha MT-07

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First test Yamaha MT-07: right for you !

All Tests - First test Yamaha MT-07: well done for you! - Technical point: everything about the Yamaha MT-07

At only 5,699 euros, can a motorcycle really be dynamically efficient, mechanically fun and aesthetically rewarding? Yamaha proves yes with its new roadster as fun as it is accessible: the MT-07. Try a future bestseller !

Technical point: everything about the Yamaha MT-07

Engine: a well-matched torque

Cubing 689 cc, the new inline twin inaugurated by Yamaha on the MT-07 has dimensions of 80 mm bore and 68.7 mm of stroke. Compressed to 11.5: 1, this eight-valve block produces reasonable power (74.8 hp) and 68 Nm of torque. A tidy value, especially since it is obtained at 6500 rev / min, or 4000 revolutions from the ignition failure !

As on the last generations of cross-plane R1, this engine – called CP2 – was created with the main objective of offering the best possible usability. Yamaha assures us: the search for ideal power control has prevailed over that for short-term power.

To achieve this, the engine manufacturers have used a crankshaft setting at 270 ° (the pistons go up and down with an offset of 90 °, or 360-270). This solution offers two advantages for Yamaha.

First of all, a better "natural" balance since when one of the two pistons reaches its maximum linear speed, the other reaches its top dead center. On a parallel twin wedged at 180 ° like the one on the Kawasaki ER-6, for example, when one piston is at top dead center, the other comes down. The rotation of the crankshaft is therefore slightly slowed down, which can affect the feeling. But this type of engine offers in return a "roughness" which is sometimes lacking in 270 ° twins, more "smooth" in temperament….

Second reason why Yamaha uses this type of setting: it perpetuates a "house" mechanical tradition started in 1995 on the "two-line" of the TRX 850, then on the TDM (850 and 900) and the Super Tenere 1200. Intended to be compact and light (7 kg less than the 4-cylinder of the XJ6), the engine of the MT-07 notably uses forged pistons, a single-shaft balance and hat-type rods produced by fracturing to achieve this goal.

Power is supplied through a twelve-hole injector, while the exhaust gases are discharged through nicely curved manifolds that feed a short muffler, inspired by that of the "cousin" MT-09 (itself visually close to that of the R6!). The assembly is obviously depolluted to Euro 3 standards via a catalyst with three-way honeycomb structure.

We salute the efforts made by Yamaha to develop an exhaust system that is rather pleasing to the eye and geometrical relevant, since the most important masses are close to the center of gravity. Finally, given its vocation for the general public – even "young public" -, the MT-07 will be available in an A2 license version limited to 35 kW..

According to our information collected from Yamaha, the clamping takes place at the intake and a wedge blocks the opening of the injection throttle.

Part-cycle: lightness and dynamism

Built around a tubular steel frame of good quality, the MT-07 offers equipment in line with its status as an accessible motorcycle: a non-adjustable fork of 41 mm in diameter and 137 mm of travel and a mono-shock absorber of 130 mm of travel, of which only the preload can be adjusted. Mounted horizontally directly on the crankcase, this shock absorber therefore does not require rods, without this significantly impacting its progressiveness.

Braking is effected via 282 mm discs at the front, which are clamped by four-piston monobloc calipers. At the rear, a simple 245 mm disc slows down the crew. Thanks to the use of "petal" discs, the whole has a rather pleasant sporty visual aspect. An ABS (not combined) is offered as an option for 500 euros, while the distance of the right lever can be adjusted to five positions.

Very light (179 kg all full, according to Yamaha), the MT-07 uses a geometry that betrays a desire to transform "handlebars in hand" the promise of dynamism made by this contained weight.

Its wheelbase, for example, is set at 1400 mm (40 mm less than an XJ6), its caster angle is quite closed (24 °, or 1 degree less than on an ER-6n), and its arm oscillating is only 530mm long. Result: the bike is as compact visually as it is dynamically lively !

Too bad, however, that Yamaha gave in to the sirens of marketing by opting for a 180 mm wide rear tire: a 160 would probably have been enough to pass the 75 hp on the ground and it would have been less expensive to replace, a not insignificant detail on this type of "economical" motorcycles…

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