Yesterday afternoon I went to Moores of Apsley and took out an MT07 Tracer for a 40 minutes test ride. I took it up the A41 for a few miles and then took the Chesham road and back to the shop via Bovingdon. So a mixture of roads with some nice sweeping bends and wotnot. First impression was this bike is so light, I'd have no trouble picking it up on my own should it be dropped. The seat is wide and plush and an improvement on the MT09 Tracer. Rider position is comfortable, at least for my frame, with nice wide bars. It felt just right, maybe the bars could be a tad higher, but that's all. The foot pegs are more forward than the MT09 Tracer and it felt more relaxed, more similar to the TDM. I wasn't that keen on the digital instrument panel though, I couldn't read the tacho very well at all. And the hooter button is far too close to the indicator switch. I was bibbing everyone up for the first 5 minutes until I got used to it.
On the move it feels so agile and responds to every little input, more sports bike than tourer in that respect. Front brakes are nice and strong and give good feel, but the back brake is a bit vague. Once I got on the A41 I opened it up and hit 80 mph sharpish. The engine is another peach, so punchy and the pick up is instant, really impressive. Being a 270 crank twin, it was very familiar in feel of course. I was thinking though it hasn't quite got the guts of the 9er, it doesn't feel that it falls that far short of it and I wasn't disappointed at all. There's more than enough there to overtake with confidence, which was my main concern.
It's so responsive and with the PR4s (nice touch from Yamaha) it really gave me a lot of confidence on bends. I can imagine being a bit cheeky on this bike. Maybe, as with the MT09 Tracer, it's because the front end feels nearer and I felt more in control. The main downfall, as with the bigger Tracer, is that it doesn't soak up the bumps very well. Any rut or bump in the road and you feel it. It's a bit of bone rattler. I don't know why that is, maybe there's just less flex built into the bike overall and the shocks are low spec. I plan to try out the Honda CB500X and the NC750 in the next few weeks to compare. I'm not sure if that would piss me off in the long run.
Like the bigger Tracer, this bike will take a few years off you. It was a lot of fun to ride. But unlike the bigger Tracer, which was fairly vibey, I never felt anything like engine vibes coming through at all. Sat at 80 mph on the A41 it was fine and the screen, though not perfect, was good enough. An old boy in his 70s who I met in the shop who'd just bought one (first bike since a BSA Gold Star he said:) ) had got an aftermarket screen because he thought there was too much wind on his nut, so others might find it a problem. It really didn't bother me though. I think it'd make a better tourer than the MT09 Tracer for a solo rider, but compared to the TDM it doesn't feel as planted and sedate at fast cruising speeds.
So to sum it up, it's a brilliant bike it really is. Better looking than the MT09 Tracer, especially the black one, at least to me. I liked it a lot, but I got back on my 9er and thought I'm not ready to part ways just yet. So, though it was a very good bike, it didn't make me feel that I've got to have it now, no X factor. It's one for the future though, especially as it feels so light and manageable and from reports on Fuelly it'll do 70 mpg. I'm now thinking though that with that engine planted in an XTZ setup, with better shocks, we might finally have a bike that, if not a replacement, is a worthy successor to the TDM and maybe we can find a spot on the Carpe for it. So I may hold out and see what Yamaha do in the next couple of years.
This is the blue one I took out.
Really nice in black, or it a dark grey.
Edited by muddy, 13 August 2016 - 07:33 pm.
