The 2025 MT07 and the MT 09 Shift are here…
“Come and grab the bikes guys.” That was the call from the Yamaha team when the two new bikes from Yamaha had finally been registered, homologated and run in.
Yee Ha! A bit of a change from the cruisers and tourers that we have managed to procure in the recent past, something small, nimble and light – and oh yes, some brand new tech on the 900.
“Sean. You do know where you’re going right?”
That Was the question as we somewhat nervously skirted the interesting suburbs of Yeoville, Hillbrow and Braamfontein in uptown JHB. He admits that he actually had no clue now, but at the time just gave us a steely eyed stare and beckoned us to follow…
Had it been later in the day we’d probably have avoided some of the “hoods” that we visited, but on this day we had a complete blast. Parkhurst, Hillbrow Yeoville, Observatory, Sylvias pass and back around on the freeways to get the bikes returned on time.
The MT 07 – four generations of fun.
Globally, the MT07 is Yamaha’s best selling motorcycle – and when you get to ride one, you’ll understand why that is.
First launched in 2014, it has always been one of our favourites. It’s small, light and nimble with a gorgeously perky parallel twin fuel injected engine. For 2025, Yamaha has included a whole host of electronics, some styling and ergonomic updates and upside down forks. Cool! The bike didn’t really need it in our opinion, but we love the end result.
For’25 the bike even gets a new chassis. Yamaha tells us that just about every part is new.
It boasts a new swingarm, new 41mm upside down KYB pre-load adjustable front forks and an updated rear shock.
Also new are the radial calipers by ADVICS and a slipper clutch.
The bike comes with Ride By Wire and a new 5” TFT dash five way joystick controller on the left hand bar. You can connect your phone and hook in to maps if you like.
In terms of ergonomics, the seat height is still a sensible 805mm’s with the footpegs moved down a bit. The overall feel is narrower than the previous edition, we do like it.
There’s nothing new about the tried and tested 690cc twin cylinder CP2 engine. It’s been around for a while now and still delivers tons of performance, easily matching the newer engines on the market, a perfect powerplant for a bike like this.
Yamaha has redesigned the airbox and you’ll find some holes in the tank cover that deliver a bit of induction noise.
Cool!
Séan says….
The more I ride these Mid sized Nakeds, the more I understand and like them, especially as the 2 metre tall, 115kg lump that I am.
Yes, I know I harp on about my physical size versus motorcycles a lot, but let me tell you why. On a recent holiday down the South Coast I made mates with a gent of similar proportions to me, who has avoided motorcycles altogether believing that bikes in his price bracket, (essentially the 700cc parallel twins), will just be way too small and uncomfortable for him. After many hours of chatting and showing him different articles we have done on the smaller, and he is now looking more seriously at this market.
Swinging a leg over the MT-07 and dropping into the saddle – yes, you sit in this bike more than on it, which is a good thing – it feels light and nimble. The ergo’s are spot on with a great rider triangle, even for my height, a nice comfortable bend in the knee with a relaxed shoulder and elbow position when reaching for the bars. The seat is not wide, but I don’t have a big ass so it is nice and comfy. The advantage of having a narrower seat is that the shorter riders can get their feet to the ground much easier. The seat also felt to have the correct amount of firmness to stop the strider sitting through it onto the hard base plate, with the right amount of cushiness not to wear your bum out on long trips.
The cockpit is elegantly simple with everything exactly where you would naturally expect to find it. The clutch is oft and easy to operate. I really do like the new TFT display and all the tech it offers with its full Bluetooth connectivity and everything that it has to offer – you name it, it is available and very easy to understand and use. The party piece in the cockpit for me, as with the MT09 are the fancy vent slots on the fuel tank that allow the engine noise to come through to the rider without having to have an obnoxiously loud exhaust pipe, just the correct amount of sound for the enhanced rider experience.
That is all good and well though, where this bike really shines is in the handling and performance department. That CP2 parallel twin motor is such a little gem, revvy as heck with seriously good low down grunt and an incredibly good throttle response. The motor is plenty powerful enough to have a world of fun without being intimidating. Couple that with the new upside down forks, excellent suspension and chassis geometry and really good brakes and you have a machine that is a huge giggle scything through traffic at guffaw inducing speeds.
It’s equally as good trundling through suburban and inner city roads as we peered down side roads to try and work out where the heck we were.
My one regret is that I didn’t swap back onto this bike when we were playing on the ridiculously twisty pass.
My honest to goodness take away from this ride on the MT07 is that I would be extremely happy if this was my only day to day ride commuting between cities or carving up our local breakfast run routes. I would love to spend a day on the track on this bike, especially if it had a quickshifter fitted to it.
Glenn Says:
Yup. Love it! Simple, small, powerful enough to be a lot of fun – and importantly, I’ve always liked the looks. The upgrades have made an already fantastic bike even more fun to ride. It’s easy to understand why this bike sells so well all around the globe.
I’d fit a quickshifter, maybe a louder pipe and gladly ride this bike every day.
Shift over: The MT09 Shift…
We have to refer to Honda in this feature. They were the ones who pioneered and perfected the DCT box on some of their machines – and we often asked why other manufacturers did not follow suit.
Well, guess what?
At last the trend seems to be catching on and this is Yamaha’s answer. Welcome to Y-AMT, or Yamaha Automated Manual Transmission
This is the big news for this feature and the question we all had to ask:
Has the automatic system spoiled one of the most fun to ride bikes on the planet? We’ll tell you a bit later on.
Yamaha’s aim was to replicate a rider when pulling sedately away from a red light – as well as a rider on a mission to get somewhere in a hurry.
Shift yourself:
You quickly get used to the fact that there is no clutch or shift lever. That function is taken by your left index finger and thumb. Shifting up with your finger, down with your thumb. It’s all pretty easy.
Start the bike, hold the brake in, select first, release the brake, open the throttle.
The manual mode is great! The shifter changes gears seamlessly every time. Quickshifting aggressively up or down is a great feeling – the bike rewards you with a little pop as she shifts and roars along.
Truth be told, there were a few times in JHB traffic that our lot instinctively tried to gear down the traditional way. That didn’t work out.
Go Full Auto:
A little selector on the right handlebar allows you to select full auto, D Mode – and all you have to do is open the throttle – the bike does the rest. Even slowing down and coming to a stop, the bike automatically gears down so you can use engine braking to slow before you stop.
It’s perhaps a bit on the conservative, responsible side. Perfect for day to day riding, but we reckon that you’ll live in sports and shift modes.
Sports mode: You also get D+ Mode when you are in a hurry, a slightly sportier shift pattern that holds onto the revs higher and changes a bit later. Much like sports mode on an automatic car.
It’s a simple, efficient, and effective setup. Too lekker!
The Y-AMT has just enhanced all of that by a whole lot.
Sean:
When you have built a triple motor so near to perfection and bolted it into a chassis and suspension set-up equally near in perfection as the MT 09 is, how do you improve on it? I’m buggered if I know, in my humble opinion, the CP3 triple and the MT 09 platform is one of the best I have ever ridden, especially when fitted with a quickshifter. That triple cylinder mill is just so lekker to ride, the way it makes and delivers its power, the primal growl it gives at full thrash and the concussion from the exhaust as you bang it through its gears on a quick shifter are very difficult not to love.
So, what has changed from the MT 09 we rode a little while ago?
Well not too much really, they have just removed the gear and clutch lever….. Which excited the hell out of me! I have always been a fan of the DCT set up much to the scorn of my peers on many occasions, but man once you understand it and learn how to apply it properly it is such a fun bit of kit.
I swapped onto the MT 09 Shift just before we got into the twisty stuff, and when I say twisty -I mean look up your own exhaust pipe and check valve clearances twisty…. All on at least a 30 degree slope. 1st – 2nd – 3rd – 2nd -1st -2nd -3rd -2nd -1st stuff, had this been a traditional gearbox, even with a quickshifter I would have been a lot slower and would have been so much harder. However, and I do think this was the perfect test for this new autobox from Yamaha, the Y-AMT took care of all that hard work for me so that I could concentrate on my lines and braking points/accelerating points. I have ridden this little stretch of road on many other bikes and even though I had huge fun I was buggered within half an hour, on the MT09 Shift I had to be dragged off the mountain kicking and screaming.
Once you set the modes up to your riding style and get a feel for the Y-AMT it becomes second nature, whipping up and down these very tight twisty lanes, pushing as hard as I dared on Yamahas demo, the system changed gears every few seconds a hell of a lot faster than I could ever dream of and was always in the correct gear as I tilted in on the brakes, changing up quickly as I powered out of the apex barely hooking the top of second bottom of third before flicking over in the opposite direction hard on the brakes and tilting into the next contortionist bend with the Y-AMT frantically shifting down again in the blink of an eye.
It’s pretty darn impressive!
Hooking back onto the freeway I had a nice open section where I could really get on the gas a bit before catching up with traffic again. In normal “D” mode the changes are a bit more on the conservative side, but a quick touch of the ‘Mode’ button instantly puts it into “D+” which gives you longer legs between shifts. Flicking on the up or down shift button becomes second nature with the toggles easy to find and operate. Then there is still the option to switch to manual transmission on the toggles and that operates like a normal hand activated quickshifter with varying degrees of fun as you flick between the rider modes.
Shifting between first and second and back again, the shift is quite positive with it becoming smoother with the traditional quickshift percussion note from the exhaust as you shift up from 2nd to third all the way to sixth and a lekker burble from the auto blip as it gears down.
It really is a lot of fun!
Glenn says:
It’s interesting that Yamaha would fit the new Shift to a sporty bike like this, but – we are bloody glad that they did! It’s intuitive and a lot of fun to play with.
Look at the opening question of this feature.
Has the automatic system spoiled one of the most fun to ride bikes on the planet.
The answer is a resounding no!
So that’s it.
The MT’s have always been a great option in the Yamaha stable – and the upgrades to these two have made them even better. The bikes are completely at home in the urban setting that included some of the dodgier neighbourhoods of JHB and surrounds and on the freeways, you’ll easily beat the manic traffic.
Those twisties are where these bikes truly shine. Naked sportsbikes… Man we do like them.
We’ll pop a video of our little adventure on these nakeds soon and pop it right in to this feature. watch this space.
The latest MT 07 is at R179 950
The MT 09 Shift will set you back R259950.00
