the fink
In lieu of…
Bikers Corner
Bike Torque – a series of chats
on the motorcycle world by
Gavin Foster
When I developed my passion for motorcycles as a kid a 50cc buzz-bike was a moped, a 180 or 250cc twin-cylinder
machine was a BIG bike and a 500 or 650cc motorcycle was like heaven, even if it did break down in a puddle of oil
every 100km.
In those days
50 horsepower would
get you to the magic ton
- 160 km/h - and when
Honda’s 67hp discbraked 750 Four arrived
on the scene, flaunting
its electric-starter, its
200 km/h top speed, its
four exhausts and its oiltight crankcases, bikers
huddled together in oily
groups saying things
like “All those moving
parts – it’ll never last!”
and “Who in their right
mind is going to pay
R1 200 for a motorbike!”
and “Nobody can
hang onto a bike with
that much power!”
Then they all went out
and proved themselves wrong by going
out and buying Honda Fours.
And so it continued until today, when
fashion dictates that you should ride
at the very least a 1000cc superbike
with between 180+ horsepower and
a top speed approaching 300km/h.
The fact that no mortal on this planet
can regularly ride such a beast on a
public road as hard as it’s meant to be
ridden is considered irrelevant.
I was struck by a sense of Déjà vu
this week when I picked up Yamaha’s
latest model, the very naked MT-07.
The first remarkable thing about it was
its diminutive size – it looked and felt
like a tiddler to sit on – and firing it up
did nothing to dispel that impression
MT-07, but their souls were
identical.
The Yamaha MT-07 is very
short – the wheelbase is just
1,4 metres - and the ABS
version I rode weighs in at
182 kg fully fuelled, so it’s
no heavyweight. I thought
all this might make it prove
a bit nervous – twitchy - on
long, fast bends but not so.
Handling is impeccable on
tight, winding roads and
long fast sweepers posed
no obvious threat to my
aging hide, despite the short
wheelbase and relatively
low-tech suspension
adjustable for preload only.
because the exhaust note was so quiet.
That all changed when I squirted the
little bike through the six speed gearbox
- though despite being blessed with
only two cylinders displacing 689cc and
producing a relatively meagre 75hp,
the Yamaha took off like a Comrade in
Thokoza who’s just got word of a tender
going for grabs in Thembisa. That’s when
the déjà vu set in. Exactly 40 years ago,
when I got out of the army, I bought a
brand-new Yamaha RD350 and the first
time I nailed it to the red line after running
it in, it felt just the same – tiny, light,
startlingly quick, and ready to wheelie at
the drop of a hat. The Yamaha RD’s 350cc
two-stroke engine was good for just
39 horsepower, meaning it was half the
capacity and offered half the power of the
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For me, the best thing
about the MT-07 is that
parallel-twin engine. Although the power
and torque peak at 9 000 and 6500 rpm
respectively, both are plentiful at low revs,
giving the twin the ability to pull away
from most middleweight four-cylinder
machinery in top-gear roll-ons from
moderate speeds.
When caned the bike’s no slouch either
– from a standing start it’ll cover the
standing-start quarter mile in around
12 seconds or maybe a little less, and
it’s reached 100 km/h in under four
seconds in formal tests. You won’t find
a car that can do that for less than 10 or
15 times the R94 950 asking price of the
Yamaha. Top speed is a genuine 200 –
210 km/h.
Like it? I love it!
august 2014