Yamaha MT-09 Review
This is the brand new 2024 Yamaha MT-09. And if you’re even half thinking about buying one, you should probably go and do it. For this, my friends, it’s an excellent motorcycle. we’ll go through my 7 favorite things about it.
1. CP 3 Triple
Now, number one has to be this CP3 inline triple engine, which is one of the best engines on the entire motorcycle market. It’s an absolute pitch.
So what makes it so good? Well, I think if you compare it to one of the key competitors for this bike, which has to be the Triumph Street triple, that bike uses an inline triple as well, and it’s 765 cc That makes more power.
I think it’s 128 horsepower peak at 12,000 RPM in the RS spec, and it makes 80 newton meters of peak torque at at 9,500 RPM.
But this one, you see, is 890, so quite a bit more displacement.
And while it is down, like I say, on power, this makes 117 peak, everything’s just shifted, lower in the rev range, and it makes more peak torque, so 93 Newton meters at 7,000 RPM. Yamaha MT-09 Review
It’s just got this massive mid-range, which makes this bike so addictive to ride under acceleration.
And really, it’s absolutely brilliant at road speeds. I mean, the street triple has those extra the revs, which obviously you can use on the track.
2. SOUND
Now, a big part of the entertainment is the soundtrack. And for me, personally, I absolutely love a triple.
And from In the previous Gen, you still get this stereo exit, N-can, which admittedly isn’t much of a looker, but it does give you this nice balanced audio on both sides.
The thing is, though, exhaust systems are becoming more and more restrictive, owing to stricter emissions regulations. Yamaha MT-09 Review
But Yamaha have decided to combat that with what they call Acoustic Amplifier Grills.
This is a feature that was first seen on the MT-10 when it was updated a couple of years back.
And basically, you’ve got two grills in the top of the tank, and the idea is that they resonate and give you more induction sound right in the cockpit where you’re going to hear it the most as the rider.
Now look, out on the road, these aren’t exactly blasting absolutely loads of noise into your face.
It more so just gives you a bit more of a satisfying sound when you get on the gas.
And personally, I just think it’s a smart little feature.
It gives you just a little bit more of that angry triple sound without having to fit a potentially quite expensive and loud exhaust system.
Although I’d say this bike could probably sound pretty fantastic if you did.
3. Quick shifter
Look, you’ve got that beefy mid-range from this sweet triple engine, and also you’re getting the sound piped right into your face. Yamaha MT-09 Review
So what could possibly make this bike better under acceleration? Well, I’d argue a quick shifter.
And the good news for 2024 is that this bike actually gets one fitted as standard, which is pretty impressive, considering quite an aggressive price point.
Now, this is the third generation of this quick shifter, so it’s gone through a few changes.
There are two modes for it, actually. So one only lets you do up shifts when you’re accelerating and down shifts when you’re decelerating.
Mode two lets you go either way, no matter whether you’re accelerating or decelerating.
And also it disables itself in, you know, undesirable scenarios for a quick shifter, EG, super low revs or super high revs, or when you’ve got a neutral throttle.
Now it is really nice and slick and definitely adds to the riding experience for all the scenarios in which it works. Yamaha MT-09 Review
And I think it’s probably only a few edge cases where you’ll find you’ll get that little indicator on the dash that shows that it’s not currently enabled.
Maybe it feels a bit strange because most manufacturers are looking to make their quick shifters work even better no matter what the scenario, so it could feel like this is a little bit of a cop-out, but it is standard fit on a 10 grand bike, and so you can’t really complain at that.
Now, I feel like this bike is actually looking quite beefy nowadays, but it remains pretty slim.
It’s 193 kilograms wet, which I think is really quite impressive, and it’s something that Yamaha generally do quite well. Yamaha MT-09 Review
Last year, I remember riding all of the MT’s back to back, the MT7, the MT9, the MT10.
I actually preferred this bike to the bigger MT10 just for that extra agility and nimbleness.
So in my opinion, it was already a really nice handling bike, but for 2024, they’ve just made some little tweaks to make it that bit sharper.
4. HANDLING
Things like there are new suspension settings, so although it’s largely the same fork, there are firmer springs to give it a bit more support.
And also the rake is steepened up a little bit. And again, that’s going to contribute to that feeling of quick turning.
Now, I wouldn’t say out on the road it’s super aggressive or twitchy.
The nice thing about this bike is it’s just a great all-rounder, and so it’s light and quick and sporty, but it doesn’t get weary or too much. Yamaha MT-09 Review
And for me, ideally, that’s what a naked bike is, a really good balance. Now, the suspension is fully adjustable, so you can tweak it to your liking.
But if you do want a little more just in terms of quality and also in terms of support, then you can pay 1,700 quid more for the SP version of this bike, which gets a diamond-like coating on the fork.
It gets the Ohlin shock with a firmer spring again, along with a few other nice upgrades like Keyless Ignition and Brembo Stylema break calipers.
5. BRAKES
Honestly, the brakes are already pretty decent, though, on this standard bike, you’ve got the four piston, radially mounted Advex calipers.
They’re not quite as bling as the Brembos, but there’s more than enough power, and they certainly do the job.
Plus, as a neat little upgrade on this 2024 bike, you now get this Brembos radial master cylinder.
The idea with the radial master cylinder is that it gives you a little more crispness and feel at the lever.
And I think the break in is easily up to spec for the majority of riders on this bike. Like I say, plenty powerful. Yamaha MT-09 Review
This is a nice little upgrade It gives you that extra feel of quality.
And it’s really only those people who are extremely dialed into the break-in, or perhaps someone who’s really taking their potentially track day seriously, that I think is really going to find it necessary to upgrade to the SP purely for the break-in.
Now, I Really, really did like the previous gen of this bike already.
But the one thing that would have potentially stopped me from immediately hard recommending it to somebody is the riding position. The bars sit really quite tall on these quite long rises.
6. RIDING POSITION
it does give you this practicality and versatility of a very upright riding position, it just didn’t feel that sporty, which didn’t necessarily suit the rest of the bike with all that capability and performance. Yamaha MT-09 Review
it’s great news that they’ve addressed that with this particular update.
The bars are 34.4 millimeter lower and 1.5 millimeter back, and the footpegs are 30.6 millimeters further up and 9.5 millimeters back.
So with the same seat height, I think it’s 825 mill. Effectively, the rider is just pivoted on this point, slightly forward, and to me, it feels much more engaging when you’re riding it quicker.
It’s really quite neutral now. It’s more typical of other naked bikes, and I think that’s the right thing. Yamaha MT-09 Review
It’s got to be that nice balance. It’s not so set up. You can’t get stuck into it when you’re riding through corners and stuff.
But also it’s not so low and far forward that it’s going to feel uncomfortable after a few hours in the saddle.
7. TECH
Now, from a technology perspective, perspective of course, it’s got all the bells and whistles. It’s got an inertial measurement unit to give you lean sensitive rider aids.
It’s got a whole bunch of rider modes. It’s got wheelie control and MSR and things like that.
But the thing is with press bikes, more often than not, I find a combination that I like, that feels natural to me out on the road, and then I don’t really change it that much.
What’s great about this bike for 2024, though, is it feels like they’ve made some little techy tweaks with features and gadgets that I think you’re going to use on a more frequent basis. Yamaha MT-09 Review
We’ve already talked about the quick shifter. There’s self-canceling indicators as well now, which I think are a really important safety feature.
I’m surprised you don’t get them on that many more bikes because it’s not a particularly complex feature.
But if you’re riding in busy urban traffic and you leave an indicator on, it does leave you open to potentially a bit of a misunderstanding and potentially an off. There’s cruise control as well.
Again, I’d like to see it on more bikes as standard, so it’s brilliant to see it here, and they’ve really done a neat job of redesigning the switch gear, so it’s nice and easy to use.
You can nudge it up and down by a mile per hour at a time, so it’s a really good system.
And also you’ve got a USB-C port located under the saddle, so you can either charge stuff by running the cable under there up to your bag or maybe stashing your phone under there, or you could run a longer cable up to the bar to power accessories or things like the Quad Lock wireless charging head.