Skython's Yamaha MT-07

[Skython]

Introduction​

When I first decided to get into bikes, I wanted a Kawasaki. I didn't really care what Kawasaki, there was just something about the green machines that I liked. First I wanted a Ninja 250, then I wanted a Ninja 300. Then when I owned a Yamaha Scorpio, I wanted my next bike to be a Ninja 650. No matter what, I kept on wanting a green Japanese bike... And then I rode some Yamahas.

I test rode a brand new Yamaha R3, and MT-07 in September last year, and I said to hell with that, and decided that I wanted an MT-07. So I started saving, my initial plan was to earn the entire $11,000 price tag and buy brand new, completely outright. The reason I had this idea, I'm not sure. But it proved to be a bad idea, because at the time I made that decision, I didn't even have a job. I sort of estimated that if I did well, I could get working again, and have the bike by mid-late 2016.

However things changed on my birthday, I was in the bike shop because my dad was buying me some riding boots as a Christmas gift (yeah, my dad's Birthday gift was buying me my Christmas gift. ), and we joked to the shop owner about buying the demo bike I rode, and he actually said it was for sale. The new ABS models were coming in soon, and they were getting a replacement demo bike, so he was selling the current demo for $9500 ($1500 off brand new). So we talked about it a bit, and suddenly I found myself leaving with a gigantic smile on my face. And then a few days later...

The Bike​

So welcome to my 2015 Yamaha MT-07. There was just 483KM on the clock when I rode it home. They would have been a hard 483KM, but that's not so important. The speed on the first day was blinding for me, because I was just used to riding a Scorpio. I felt like a man who I don't know. A man who was told he was getting thrown in a room with a killing machine, only to find that they forgot to put in any batteries.

I was really holding out on having a shave. But the bike excitement was too much for me to care, I spent most of my work day thinking "today is the day! Today is the day!"

That is my old Scorpio with the MT-07. Later that week we put her up for sale, and we sold her off at the end of December. I made $2000 from it, which is a $900 profit as we initially paid $1100. I was sort of sad to see the bike leave, I've done very weird things on that bike... No, no! Nothing like that, get your mind out of the gutter. I just took it off-roading a couple of times.

Now that I've had the MT-07 for a month, I can't really point out any issues because my only base for comparison was a lazily assembled, wobbly Scorpio. Occasionally when I stop the gear display gets confused and can't tell which gear it is in, the first time I found that issue, I spent 10 seconds holding up traffic at a roundabout. And the bike's gigantic radiator has no guard.

Future Plans​

My first plan for parts is to get a radiator guard, which will probably be around $100. And then a windscreen, as there are quite a few options. I've been looking at this MRA screen. And I also still haven't gotten around to getting some cleaner for the bike, because I have to give it special treatment because of the matte finish. Well, in other words, car shampoo without wax. But yeah, I may keep this thread updated with what I do with the bike, who knows?

And finally, congratulations to anyone that managed to read even half of this giant OP.

 

[W3H5]

I'm so jealous. That's a lovely machine you've got there. Congrats.

I've owned a ton of Japanese bikes but never a Kawasaki (except for a KX80 which wasn't street legal), I think you've made the right decision going with the Yamaha, although the ER6 would be the direct competition, would it not?

 

[Carlos]

Nice bike! What a cool day that must have been getting it the way you got it

 

[Skython]

I'm so jealous. That's a lovely machine you've got there. Congrats.

I've owned a ton of Japanese bikes but never a Kawasaki (except for a KX80 which wasn't street legal), I think you've made the right decision going with the Yamaha, although the ER6 would be the direct competition, would it not?

Thanks. And exactly, the Ninja 650 I mentioned in the OP is essentially an ER6N but with a fairing. I also forgot to mention, and this is a biggie. The bike isn't the full 689cc, because in Australia and New Zealand, we have a slightly smaller version to comply with our learner bike scheme. My bike is actually just 655cc.

 

[FoRiZon]

Change the exhaust like my friend just did XD

Yoshimura for him.

 

[Skython]

Change the exhaust like my friend just did XD

Yoshimura for him.

I was looking at a Yoshimura exhaust the other day, but then again I was also looking at Akropovic. It will be awhile before I have the money to get a new exhaust, and quite a few things take priority. Like cleaning products, and the radiator guard.

Cleaning stuff I just bought half an hour ago from Supercheap Auto. I got Meguiars car wash (without wax because of the matte coloured plastics), and Meguiars Leather and Vinyl cleaner, because my seats have been a bit dirty ever since I got the bike. So that's one/two things down.

 

[Skython]

Yesterday, I cleaned the bike for the first time since I bought it (I procrastinated so much in buying cleaning stuff). And took a couple of photos afterwards because, well why not? The lighting was fairly nice at the time, fairly neutral and sat well with the bike.

And this morning I went and picked up a radiator guard today. I thought I'd support the bike shop I got the bike from, and he ordered one in.. Ended up being $200! Double the price of what I would have gotten online. He said he could send it back, but it looked good, and he'd gone through the effort to get one in. Fortunately for me, my dad was there and decided we'd go halves on it. It was my mistake to be honest, I asked to bring one in, but I forgot to ask how much it was going to cost. Though you live and learn, and that's something to sit in my mind to stop me making the mistake again.

But anyway, fitting the radiator guard was really easy. Just remove the plastics on the side of the radiator, loosely screw in the guard on one side, screw the plastics in on the other side. Remove the loose screw, and then put the plastics back on.

I was intending on going with something that looks a bit more like mesh, and not so bold and sort of chunky looking. But now I've seen it on the bike in the flesh, it actually looks pretty good. And I'd imagine it would do a really good job as a radiator guard because it's far more solid.

 

[wfooshee]

The problem with a radiator guard like that is that by being more "solid," it may also be more restrictive, and if you have a cooling system issue such as low coolant, it only gets worse with less airflow.

I'm not sure what the big deal is about radiator guards anyway. If it's for appearance, fine, but keep an eye on the cooling system. If it's for protection, I'll just say that in 96,000 miles, I've never punched the radiator on my FJR. In 43 years of driving cars, I've never punched a radiator in any of those, either. This thing is a solution for a nonexistent problem, sold by guys telling you how bad a problem it is.

 

[Skython]

The problem with a radiator guard like that is that by being more "solid," it may also be more restrictive, and if you have a cooling system issue such as low coolant, it only gets worse with less airflow.

I'm not sure what the big deal is about radiator guards anyway. If it's for appearance, fine, but keep an eye on the cooling system. If it's for protection, I'll just say that in 96,000 miles, I've never punched the radiator on my FJR. In 43 years of driving cars, I've never punched a radiator in any of those, either. This thing is a solution for a nonexistent problem, sold by guys telling you how bad a problem it is.

I'll keep an eye out for it causing cooling problems. It was something I thought about when looking at them online.

You're probably right about it being sold by guys just saying it's a problem. I got one mostly as a just in case, I mean you could just be unlucky one day and something smacks into your radiator, like a sizable stone on an unfinished road, and you're paying a load of money to replace it. My decision to get one stemmed from my Uncle mentioned getting one, then I was riding home and found an unfinished road, and had some big clangs from kicking up stones. I then got all paranoid and stopped afterwards to make sure nothing got hit too hard (of course ignoring the fact that a few stones can't really do any damage).

 

[Skython]

Took the bike for a long distance ride today (well, my definition of long distance, which is around 200KM) with my dad. I've been wanting to ride over the nearby mountain pass called the Rimutaka Hill (route). It's a great riding road, only issue is that it's actually a State Highway, so it's always packed full of traffic. And yes, our State Highway has a mountain pass with hairpins, tight turns and a big cliff... I mean, it has a barrier before it, but it's most definitely there.

On our way over we had only a couple of cars in the way, and they were all great. They pulled over when they could. And I can really respect someone who does that, it's so easy to do, yet so many people don't. The MT-07 dealt with the twisties really nicely, the torque really lets you keep the revs down in the turns, and still blast out the other end of the turn in the small straights there are. I was taking it fairly easy though because it was my first time on the road.

I did do some silly things though, they weren't really silly, but I know I shouldn't be doing them. I occasionally braked very late for turns because I wasn't looking far enough ahead. Only just stopping for the turn. But the good thing is that I'm a fairly slow rider anyway, I've found whenever I have an emergency situation (usually no fault of my own), I easily delve into ability I don't really know I have.

Then we headed onto a lot of straight country roads. And I realized why people buy cruisers. My butt was so sore by the end that I decided to stand up just to ease the discomfort. And I realized that I really do need a windscreen if I want to do long distance riding again. The wind noise is okay if you go for a 20 second blast, but for an hour? Not so much. We eventually arrived at a beach, and that was... Lovely but sort of boring. I'm not really one for sitting around getting sun burn, or flailing my limbs in some water that can pull me away into what seems like an abyss of death (I'm not comfortable with the sea, can you tell?). It was then that I noticed just how many bugs were being slaughtered all over me and my bike (I felt bad when I was finding bits of splattered white moths on my jacket).

When you think about it, the sea is bloody gigantic!

My bike is comparatively... Quite small next to my dad's KTM 990.

The way back was fairly samey oldey. Straight roads, sore butt, splattered bugs. Though there was a fuel station which appeared to double as a TARDIS, because when I stood inside the store, it was notably bigger than it appeared from the outside. But they had ice cream, so I didn't question. Then we came back over the Rimutaka Hill, and we found a traffic jam. We were crawling at about 15-20 KM/H for about 8KM. If you do the maths, that equals surreal boredom when you are expecting to have as much fun as you did the first time. But hey, clutch control practice. It was a good day, though she needs a wash.

Yeah, I edited out my number plate, I really am that paranoid. I'm aware that no one here would do anything, but this is the internet. People can get pretty crazy. And yes, I still haven't gotten around to getting my restricted license.

 

[wfooshee]

Earplugs.

Protect your hearing. Even with a windscreen, the wind noise of a helmet for hour after hour at a time, over the years of riding, will take your hearing from you. You can still hear what's going on around you, the traffic, other vehicles, and you can hear people speaking. They might need to speak up a little, and you want to be conscious of yelling at them while the things are in your ears.

Some people have custom-made plugs, some folks even have earbuds for music (or 2-way radio or Bluetooth,) some guys use those squishable foam earplugs, but I prefer the plastic kind you get at the power tools counter.

As for windscreens, some time back I rode an FZ-09 at one of those Yamaha tours, where they take the trucks around the country and you can ride any of the bikes they bring around. I was really enjoying the thing until we got onto the highway stretch of our route, and with the upright position, the wind blast at 60+ mph was unbearable. I could never spend any time on the road on that thing! The FJ-09 has the windscreen (and saddle bags) but wasn't out yet when the truck was in town.

 

[Skython]

Earplugs.

Protect your hearing. Even with a windscreen, the wind noise of a helmet for hour after hour at a time, over the years of riding, will take your hearing from you. You can still hear what's going on around you, the traffic, other vehicles, and you can hear people speaking. They might need to speak up a little, and you want to be conscious of yelling at them while the things are in your ears.

Some people have custom-made plugs, some folks even have earbuds for music (or 2-way radio or Bluetooth,) some guys use those squishable foam earplugs, but I prefer the plastic kind you get at the power tools counter.

As for windscreens, some time back I rode an FZ-09 at one of those Yamaha tours, where they take the trucks around the country and you can ride any of the bikes they bring around. I was really enjoying the thing until we got onto the highway stretch of our route, and with the upright position, the wind blast at 60+ mph was unbearable. I could never spend any time on the road on that thing! The FJ-09 has the windscreen (and saddle bags) but wasn't out yet when the truck was in town.

Mmmm, I'll look into that. Because being someone who also plays music, I quite like having my hearing. I'm pretty sure my dad has a whole heap of squishable ones in the garage somewhere, so next time I'm out I'll give them a go.

 

[Skython]

So Winter is sporadically departing as Spring slowly puts a foot forward without being sure, which means I'm starting to ride more often again. Being in the Wellington region is both a curse and a blessing, while there aren't many good dirt riding places here, there sure are plenty of good twisties around the place. This was another reason I chose a naked bike over a sports bike, while sports bikes are good fun at speed, you can't beat a good naked bike when you get to the really tight stuff. If I left my house right now, I could be at any one of five decent riding roads within 5 minutes or so.

So today I found a road that was unique compared to the others, as it was more suited to sports bikes with lots of faster corners. The road did have an issue, but that was something unrelated to the road itself. I came across at least 10 dead possums on the road, they were just everywhere. I think someone went on a killing spree the previous night because they all didn't look to have been there very long, so that was something to keep in mind every single crest (be ready to avoid a lump of possum). I found I was in 5th and 6th gear most of the time, changing down to 4th and 3rd a little bit near the end. So it was a pretty fast road, but once again I didn't need to be revving the nuts out of the bike thanks to the torque, so I could get away with not shifting down so much. I must say though, that I feel like I'm better riding through faster sections than mid-lower speed sections. Though that's probably normal because at speed you tend to just flow through the corners.

Rather disappointingly I didn't bring a camera, as at the end of the road was similar to the beach I was at last time, but close enough to see the South Island, and I could see the snow capped mountain ranges. I also met a couple who were having a very posh lunch on little chairs, they had all these exotic cheeses that they were putting on flash breads, and some wine (?), though rather out of character, they were eating it at the back of their car, which was an HSV Clubsport VE (which is what caught my attention in the first place).

And also next to it, what are the chances; another MT-07. Which had a Maidstone Yamaha sticker on the front fender, so it had been bought from the same place as mine. Unfortunately I didn't find the owner to do what I've been wanting to do for ages (which is to tell them that they have amazing taste in bikes, while sitting on mine). But oh well, maybe next time.

 

[Skython]

So since my last post in here, I haven't ridden quite as much as I would like to, I often find it hard to motivate myself even to do things I enjoy... Though it's also because it's a pain in the butt getting the bike out as it's in the back of a shed full of random crap. I don't have too many stories worth noting, but I'll post a couple (not at once obviously. That would be text overkill! And I'd never do that, no. Never.).

In March last year my dad and me went on a group ride in Masterton, it was technically a gravel group ride, but there was quite a bit of road riding first, so I tagged along. First we rode up there which meant a morning run on the Rimutaka hill (a great road when you can get a gap in the traffic), my riding was a bit bad because I forgot to clean my visor, and it was really foggy. Mix that with the morning sun and all sorts of sun strike ensues.

Then we got to the meeting point for the ride, where it was very weird being this one guy on a road bike amongst a sea of adventure bikes. My dad, me and a distant family member (who told us about the ride) were chatting, he was essentially saying "it's just a bit of fun, no one's here to race. Those that do you tend to end up arse first off the road." My dad joked that it definitely is a race, to which he sort of groaned with his eyes. So then we went on the actual ride, and when we got to the gravel we were well over 100KM (62 miles) from home, so I turned around to ride back home.

Yay, a bad picture on an even worse phone camera!

Being 100KM from home, it's very strange seeing a sign with Mangaroa written on it, seeing as that's where I live... I later found out that was the street name. So the ride back home was very relaxing, I often like just riding on my own, because when I'm with other people I tend to feel like I'm not going fast enough for their liking, or something else an overthinker would think. Though I did annoy some driver due to a simply awkward moment on a passing lane.

You know when you walk towards something and you both move over the same way at the same time a few times before finally negotiating the other? It was that, but with passing lanes. Two slow cars in front, I was passing them both, I went into the passing lane as soon as it started, but the second car waited a little bit, and then suddenly started changing lane. So I backed off, and it repeated. And so when I finally passed him (giving him a polite apology wave), I could see him yelling and being angry. I've stopped caring about such events since then, because I've come to the conclusion that most drivers are selfish impatient grouchy bastards.

When I got home only my sister was at home, and she was all panicked and asked, "where the 🤬 have you been?" Turns out my dad had a crash and my mum and brother were currently on their way up there. He was passing another bike on gravel and looked to see what the bike was, but he hadn't analysed the road up ahead, where it actually had a bit of a kink. He was going too fast for it, and had forgotten to turn off his ABS, so in the gravel he essentially had no brakes. There was a big hole for a culvert he could have crashed into, but what he did was aim for a nearby rock to at least get enough air to get himself over the fence. He bloody almost made it too, but his leg caught in the top wire and slammed him down to the ground, breaking his shoulder. At least now I can say I'm the responsible one.

This sort of made me step back and not ride so much for awhile, seeing the struggle that it put on the family. I don't want to be the center of that scene. Though seeing as this post has had very few images, and I don't have any other pictures of my bike from that period of time, have some ducks which decided to come to my window and be my friends.

 

[photonrider]

@Skython -

What a helluva anti-climax, buddy.

Here I was thoroughly enjoying your antics and - bam! - next thing is your dad's shrugging off that it's not a race and then busting his shoulder.
Hopefully everything will heal just right and it's not going to affect your riding together again - father and son bikers riding together is not your everyday combo and I'm sure you guys must have enjoyed many a trip together.

As for the feelings about green Kawas - I know exactly what you mean - and I haven't lost those feelings yet. Never owned one yet - my first bike was a Suzy GT125 (2-stroke twin) and for some reason ended up with Suzies after that and never got around to getting the green KL I longed for.
Obviously motorbike tech has changed so much that we don't feel the same way about the choices we had before . . . and yet . . . not having ridden (any sort of trip apart from taking the occasional bike of a friend around a parking lot) for decades now after having ridden over a hundred thousand clicks in motorcycle years I still get a rush from just being near any bike. I remember putting over 60,000 kms on a DR250 I owned for around five years - I used to live on that bike in my early twenties.
Given the choice now I'd go for a Cagiva Raptor 650 . . . but then again I'd be secretly riding a Suzy, wouldn't I?

Well, I thought I drop a note to my crazy musical buddy from GTPlanet who is lucky enough to live in the motorcycle heaven on Earth (my bucket list includes a coastal trip all around NZ - preferably in the company of a bunch of laid-back Kiwis) so there you go.
Keep on writing - some of us are 'silent' readers in here.
And, yes, pics!


H.

 

[Skython]

@Skython -

What a helluva anti-climax, buddy.

Here I was thoroughly enjoying your antics and - bam! - next thing is your dad's shrugging off that it's not a race and then busting his shoulder.
Hopefully everything will heal just right and it's not going to affect your riding together again - father and son bikers riding together is not your everyday combo and I'm sure you guys must have enjoyed many a trip together.

As for the feelings about green Kawas - I know exactly what you mean - and I haven't lost those feelings yet. Never owned one yet - my first bike was a Suzy GT125 (2-stroke twin) and for some reason ended up with Suzies after that and never got around to getting the green KL I longed for.
Obviously motorbike tech has changed so much that we don't feel the same way about the choices we had before . . . and yet . . . not having ridden (any sort of trip apart from taking the occasional bike of a friend around a parking lot) for decades now after having ridden over a hundred thousand clicks in motorcycle years I still get a rush from just being near any bike. I remember putting over 60,000 kms on a DR250 I owned for around five years - I used to live on that bike in my early twenties.
Given the choice now I'd go for a Cagiva Raptor 650 . . . but then again I'd be secretly riding a Suzy, wouldn't I?

Well, I thought I drop a note to my crazy musical buddy from GTPlanet who is lucky enough to live in the motorcycle heaven on Earth (my bucket list includes a coastal trip all around NZ - preferably in the company of a bunch of laid-back Kiwis) so there you go.
Keep on writing - some of us are 'silent' readers in here.
And, yes, pics!


H.

Yeah, he's recovered pretty well, it's actually really been a good lesson for him, his approach to many things has gotten a lot more sensible since then. He even managed to get back on the bike just in time for a big adventure ride with KTM in November. KTM released a video of it awhile back on Youtube, so if you want inspiration to make a trip over here, this could help. My old man even makes an appearance at 11:00.

​

I had a DR250 for awhile, though I didn't put as many KM on mine as you did yours, I sold it to help pay for my car. I'd imagine the one I had was a little bit newer than what you would have had.

Maybe you should get a bike and start riding again, because even just the odd small ride on the weekend is a nice release. I don't know much about Cagiva, I always thought they seemed a bit budget, or something. But that's possibly through simple naivety.

----

I went for a ride in the Wairarapa with my cousin last weekend, turns out his new (not actually new, it's from 1991) Kawasaki ZXR400 is slightly faster than my MT-07, but not as much grip it would seem. I could hear his rear tires screeching on corner entry/exit. I haven't ridden over the Rimutaka hill since the day my dad crashed. My riding has improved a heck of a lot since then, even though I haven't ridden so much. Did quite a bit of trailbraking, and only had a few corners I wasn't really happy with regarding line choice. We stopped on the other side of the hill in Featherston to get a drink, where I found my first touch screen only EFTPOS machine, which confused me far longer than it should have. I didn't even know there were touchscreen ones, let alone touchscreen only ones! After having a drink we went on a quest for a bin and a toilet, because we couldn't see either anywhere. I tried to use my new windscreen as a bottle holder, and to sum up how that went: I don't know how, I don't know where. But on a road somewhere is an empty bottle of orange juice, and if anyone finds it, I know exactly where you can put it! We found both right next to eachother, along with one lone man riding on one of those miniature trains. I should have taken a picture to capture the comical sadness that provided, but I'm lazy. Maybe I should get a Gopro, because then everything's already recorded. All I have to do is exist. We rode out of Featherston and eventually just out of Martinborough before seeing rain in the distance and turning around, not without taking cool generic photos of our bikes in the middle of the road first.

This road was absolutely empty until I tried to take this picture. Four vehicles showed up over the space of a minute, it was great because you'd see a vehicle show up and think, "meh, I have time." As usual, the Rimutaka hill was a horrible traffic jam on the return journey, but I returned home feeling very good after not riding since January.