MT promise?

Has Yamaha’s MT range finally come of age with the R1-powered MT-10? Or is it all too much? We thrash one round the mean streets of London for a day to find out…

What’s in a name? Nowadays, companies spend years, and millions, to get the moniker spot-on for a new product. The Ford Mondeo was meant to sound worldly, for the firm’s first big global motor. The iPhone stumbled into the i-brand pioneered by the globular neon-coloured iMac of the previous decade. And bike names have long been the sort of alphanumeric soup beloved by the moto-geek within us all, but meaningless bollocks to the rest of the planet. S1000RR? ZZR1400? CTX1300? WTF?

Of course, some bikes have been awarded killer names that sum them up. Fireblade, Hayabusa, Ninja: noms-de-guerre that tickle our fancy, turns us from damp commuters on the A3 to Tarmac Warriors, doing battle with the forces of traffic chaos…

Today’s bike is deserving of such a title. But, sadly, Yamaha’s seen fit to give this beast a code not a name – the MT-10. The MT range began in relative ignominy more than a decade ago, with the MT-01 of 2005: a weird mishmash of short-wheelbased sportsbike, laden down with a donkey-spec 1,670cc V-twin powerplant stolen from the firm’s cruiser range. It stank, to put it bluntly, and the follow-up MT-03 wasn’t a lot better: a novice-friendly 660cc single, in an upright roadster chassis.

But the brand was rescued a few years back, first by the MT-09, an utterly corking 847cc triple, which had torque-a-plenty, in an adequate-if-bouncy chassis, and sold at a budget price. Its smiles-per-pound rating exceeded everything else on the market by a fair margin, and pretty much saved Yamaha’s reputation. The MT-07 did the same thing for the middleweight novice-twin segment, and with Tracer adventure versions of both bikes filling out the range, Yamaha could have been excused for sitting on their laurels for a while.
But no. We’re greedy folks, and what we really wanted was a full-fat, no-compromise MT. And with the massive success of the latest R1 buoying them up, Yamaha’s engineers did the obvious thing, and converted the litre-class monster into a hyper-naked roadster – the MT-10. Unveiled at the shows as a 2016 model, it looked utterly crackers, ticked all the spec boxes, and was perhaps the most anticipated model of this year.

And here we are, slinging a leg over one, outside Metropolis Motorcycles in Vauxhall. We’ve borrowed the beastie from the good folks there for the day, and we’re heading out across the City and out east for a good old-fashioned blast, to see how she goes.

Like all modern full-beans bikes these days, it takes a few moments to get your head round the dash, and the controls, before you give it an ‘andful. To be fair, these things are getting easier, and Yamaha’s done a decent job. I’m able to select from the three power maps (‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘Standard’) with the flick of the ‘Mode’ switch, and can also cycle through the traction control settings easily enough. I’m following my mate Chris Spinks from Metropolis, who’s our wing man for the day, on his Deauville, so select standard power, minimal traction, and we set off.

I’m a tiny bit bike-rusty: I’ve not been on my Suzuki GSX-S1000 for a few weeks, work trips and family duties keeping me out of the saddle. But I’m soon at home on the big Yamaha. The riding position is upright and easy: there’s a hint of top-heaviness, but I soon adapt. What’s clear straight away is how much of a monster this thing is. Litre-class hyper-nakeds are serious pieces of work of course, and I quickly re-tune my reflexes to the coiled-spring reactions of the big Yam. The motor is a bit rattley and rough when cold, but by the first set of red lights, the idle had dropped, and the tappety tapping had softened. Chris anticipates the lights perfectly, and the Deauville roars off into the traffic. I give the MT a big handful, and am catapulted into the future, front wheel sailing skywards, the rear Bridgestone S20 gripping hard despite its cold state. I barrel past a line of traffic, following the Honda, feverishly modulating the throttle, and catch my breath, before changing up through the box and making progress in a more sedate fashion…

We’re heading out to Surrey Quays and beyond, in the shadow of Canary Wharf. The roads out here are a strange mix: from nadgery little backstreets and courtyards, to wide-open A-roads, and mega-structure urban dual carriageways. The MT dispatches them all like a pro: the steering is light and easy, and the 210kg wet mass is well-disguised. The brakes are stonking, as you’d expect from its R1 roots, and the Bridgestone rubber copes brilliantly, even when we run into a bit of rain. The traction and ABS lights don’t flicker without serious provocation, giving you extra confidence to push harder, and the skinny profile makes cutting through traffic a breeze.

We park up on the wrong side of Tower Bridge, and take a breather. The MT looks properly nuts sat on its sidestand, the insectoid headlight fairing and beady headlamp eyes looking exactly like a Transformer CGI. It’s an obvious comparison, and a few bikes in the past have adopted the Manga look, but the MT-10 really does look like something from one of those ropey Michael Bay films. Is it a Decepticon? Or an Autobot? I’m not sure of the exact terminology – but it certainly looks properly nuts. Away from the front fairing, there are a few other standout wackinesses. There’s a flimsy little aero-wing out on the tail unit, which looks ripe to be snapped off by a tail pack or a careless boot swung over. And the seat itself has a hilarious little noblet stuck on between the rider and pillion spaces. It’s a proper afterthought – the seat strap doesn’t sit properly over it, the lump itself is a bit wobbly, and when you sit on the pillion seat (as I did later for some picks), it gets right in the wrong place…

Scenic stop over, we jump back on, and head further out of the City. And the MT’s wacky styling is forgotten again, as the immense performance takes over the experience again. That motor just gives and gives, with the perfect mix of off-idle attack, and bountiful midrange. Gear selection is never a deal-breaker: simply twist and go wherever you are in the speed and rev ranges. Care is definitely still required though: an ill-thought-out handful can overtake your intentions, and you can find yourself arriving at a corner a little quicker than you expected, or hoisting a big old wheelie in just the wrong spot. This is not a machine for novices, especially in the full-aggression power mode. Indeed, the sharper riding modes ‘A’ and ‘B’ are fierce even for an experienced hand, and round town, for pootling, the standard power map is probably best.

Our quick spin on the MT-10 is over for the day sadly, and as the June drizzle descended, we headed back to Metropolis for a cuppa and a chinwag. The sales guys in the showroom tell me the MT-10 has been a big hit with the customers, and they sold their first allocation of three bikes almost straight away. That success shows that if a firm gets the tech and the style right, the name’s really not all that important…

The thinks of Spinks
Chris Spinks is the boss of the training department at Metropolis, so he’s recognised by new riders all over London. He’s been riding bikes for about 75 years, and has done his time as a courier and trainer, putting in mega-miles over the years. He’s no stranger to a nice old wheelie, nor a speedy lap of Brands Hatch either. He’s spent quite a few miles on the MT-10, both on the road, and at Silverstone for a track day last month. As well as being our photographic stunt cock for the day, he gave us his impressions of the MT.

“The first thing I did was to ride it on the road – and compared with the Fazer 600 and old Fazer 1000 and FZ1, it’s finally the bike that we really wanted – an R1-powered super naked. I spend a lot of time on MT-07 training bikes, and it’s just like having an MT-07 with an R1 engine in there.

“In second gear, if you keep it pinned it will rotate round the rear sprocket, If you induce it with the clutch you get a couple of twitches from the TC, but then it works out what you want to do, and it gets on with it. Keep it pinned in second, then change it into third with a little click, and if the front wheel does come down, you can pick it straight back up again. And if you give it a big handful in fourth, it’ll wheelie off the clutch in that as well, which is a bit of a first for me…

“It’s nice and comfy, and you don’t feel the weight at all. There’s a good riding position, the switchgear looks huge but when you’re riding it all makes sense and falls to hand, including the cruise control that works over 60kph. Handling is fantastic, brakes are good, the ABS if you set it too soft I found it a bit intrusive, but overall it’s all very efficient.

“At Stowe circuit I was out riding with John Hopkins on a Yamaha track day, and just did the whole lap in third gear. There’s a load of torque, 80ft-lbs, and it just pulls you out of the corners really well, much like my 657 Daytona.

“One thing you can do is turn it into a Tracer, just about. There’s an official Yamaha tall screen, rack, and hard luggage, and you can make an MT-10 Tracer to go touring on with the missus.”

2016 MT-10 SPECS
Engine: l/c, inline-four, DOHC, 16v, 998cc

Bore x stroke: 79.0 mm x 50.9 mm

Compression ratio: 12 : 1

Maximum power: 160bhp@11,500 rpm

Maximum torque: 111.0 Nm (11.3 kg-m)@9,000 rpm

Fuel system: ride-by wire fuel Injection

Transmission: wet slipper clutch, six-speed gearbox, chain final drive

Frame: aluminium Deltabox

Front suspension: USD 43mm front forks, fully adjustable, 120mm travel

Rear suspension: Fully-adjustable monoshock

Brakes: dual 320mm discs, four-piston radial calipers (front), single 220mm disc (rear)

Wheels/tyres: cast aluminium/Bridgestone S20, 120/70 ZR17 (front), 190/55 ZR17 (rear)

Rake/Trail: 24 degrees/102mm

Seat height: 825 mm

Wheelbase: 1,400 mm

Wet weight: 210 kg

Fuel tank capacity: 17 litres

*Thanks to Chris and Metropolis Motorcycles in Vauxhall for the loan of the MT-10