YAMAHA MT-03 (2006 - 2016) Review

Version: 2008

Year: 2007

Although I only gave it 3 stars I would recommend this bike, but only as a commuter or for small back lane blasts. I've had it for 5 years and its been pretty reliable only needing some shocks due to pitting (don't buy unofficial Yamaha ones they rust quickly) and serviceable items. They handle well up to medium speed bends and have wide bars for easy riding around in town traffic. The engine is pretty rubbish in todays age. It's slow after about 50mph and doesn't have a lot of character apart from single cylinder traits, vibey, bangy and lumpy at times. I went out the other week with some friends on triumph 675 Daytona's and could generally keep up until we got to longish straights and then they were much much quicker, but if you're relatively fast around corners you can keep with them on country lanes or at least not fall too far behind. I had litre bike before this and I've noticed I definitely spend a lot more of the time going the right speed, but still having the same amount of fun, so that's good. I keep mine outside under a cover and lots of stuff has gone a bit rusty, but its an old bike now. It always starts even after 4 months of winter, first time. I have rode back to Essex from Bristol a few times and it will do it but you're not exactly feeling fresh after a 2.5hr stint on the m4/m25/m11 and the seat is uncomfortable after around an hour. looking back now I probably would have thrown another grand in the pot and got a vtwin or 3 cylinder bike but I guess you have to draw the cash line somewhere.

Buying experience: Private

Year: 2018

Great fun, simple, basic bike that when you wind it up goes really well and is really fast through the twisties. I bought this bike as a town runaround, as my GS is too big and heavy in town. Now it is the first set of keys I pick up for anything less than full-on touring. The bike sometimes throws false neutrals when changing gear with the throttle closed.

Version: 660 cc single

Year: 2010

Great little runner. Owned one for a year now, all year round driving, doesnt let me down. Great acceleration up to 80 mph, bike can go faster but really doesn't like it (topped it out at 110 with some revs remaning, but really doenst feel good). Highway trips are possible but just cruise at 75. Vibrations are really not that bad. I would recommend the Kev 0² mod and an aftermarket exhaust: the stock form of the bike is somewhat agricultural. Keep in mind that the aftermarket cans are very expensive for this bike, so if you come across one on a secondhand site that is equipped with one, that can be a massive bonus. I commute on it, but the bike begs to be taken out to a twisty road, where it really lives. (So I try to do that as much as I can :) )

Buying experience: The bike is quite rare in my country (Belgium) because it was way to overpriced when it came out. The Duke 690 is probably better overall (except maybe reliability?) but now the bike is perfect for the A2 license ! Paid 1800 euro for mine (1600 pounds) with takeover of my old XR125L. The bike had 17 000 kms ( 10500 miles).

Year: 2007

Annual servicing cost: £200

Extremely reliable engine & a torque curve to make you grin all day!

Buying experience: Bought mine from a dealer second hand.

Year: 2016

Definitely! 😄😄😄😄😄😄

Buying experience: Skellerns Worcester - what an amazing service by all present. The best that I've ever experienced.

Year: 2016

Annual servicing cost: £177

Best; small, light, good handling, fast enough, looks cool, nice noise. Not so good; no wind protection, a little cramped. Would definitely recommend this bike.

Buying experience: Bought from an excellent dealer - friendly and efficient. Interested in the bike.

Year: 2007

Relatively low horsepower makes it a great first "big" bike to learn on without getting into trouble. Punchy and satisfying blatting around on twisty country roads. Slow on motorways. Engine cuts out occasionally at low rpms

Here is the youtube video I'v posted: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xziygupgT7o MT-03 is a Fun City Bike that brings a smile to your face :)

I’ve had my 58 plate MT for about a month now, so posting my thoughts as I found some of the other reviews on here helpful, but there were a couple of things about the bike I've noticed weren't mentioned. Firstly, as others say, this bike isn't best suited for the motorway. It'll do it, but the lack of fairing, relatively lightweight chassis and low gearing mean that motorway riding is not its forte. My daily commute is all London-based, so this was not a major issue for me. Whilst the MT is best suited for town riding, don't, however, expect smooth filtering like you’d get with a straight four. The characteristics of its big single cylinder engine push you to drive it hard, hammering around the outside of traffic and slamming on the brakes at the lights! In fact, driving the MT smoothly at slow speeds is nigh-on impossible as it surges quite noticeably when doing less than 30mph – a characteristic that, from browsing multiple forums, appears to affect all bikes that this injected big single is used in and for which there is no conclusive fix. Handling is good, but, because of the surging, low speed cornering takes some getting used to, with extra clutch control needed. There's no ABS option though and, with all of the weight at the front of the bike, the rear wheel locks up VERY easily. Think this is made slightly more prominent as the brake pedal is a bit of stretch if you have big feet, which probably means I’m stamping on it a little harder than I would normally. However, if you need to stop in a hurry, I’d advise using the front brake for about 95% of your efforts! Economy wise, I’ve been getting around 50mpg from town driving, but insurance is a bit more expensive than other group 10-11 mid-range bikes. Not having a fuel gauge is a bit annoying, but there is a low fuel light + a couple of trips so, once you know how much you can get out of a tank, it's easy to monitor roughly how many miles you've got left until you need to fill up. Discounting the above idiosyncrasies, this bike has so far actually been a lot of fun to ride. It looks good, feels solid and the raucous stock exhaust is load enough for other motorists to notice you and get out the way (although a louder aftermarket Mivv system is on my wish list). Whilst a bit clonky, the gear change is solid too – I liken it in feel to a big Tonka toy – and a lot better than the ratchety one on a 59 plate XJ6 I did my DAS on where you practically had to sprain your leg to get from 1st to 2nd! Although, on paper, this bike’s short on bhp, the low gearing coupled with decent torque make its power very accessible. With a redline of around the 8k mark, 1st gear is slightly short, but acceleration is still good up to about 70mph. Overall, this is a great bike if you’re planning on fast town and A/B road driving. If you’re more of a slow speed filterer or do lots of motorway driving, I’d recommend going for something with a straight four cylinder engine.

Had my 33BHP restricted MT-03 for a few months now. One of the most beautiful bikes I have ever seen. It's fantastic around town. Loads of torque and is almost as agile as the DR125 I was riding before. Wide bars are both a blessing and a curse making the bike nimble at low speed but a little too wide to filter sometimes. Looks and sounds amazing. Out on the A-roads the bike handles well in the bends but will not be powerful enough to satisfy anyone who likes to ride quickly. My only other problem with the bike is that the throttle can be quite snatchy. Not had any problems with build quality, just a touch of rust on the exhaust manifold. Fantastic bike, just know that its about low down grunt for cities and twisting roads and not about power and top speed. A great bike for restricting as it still has bags of torque. Will max out at 85MPH on the flat when restricted, solo or two up.

I got my MT03 1 1/2 years ago. Done 5000 miles on it and indeed is a great "little" bike. The good things: 1. Looks .. Yeah I find its looks amazing. 2. Riding position. Excellent for me... 3. Handling ... Like most said very very good handling. 4. Did I say looks ;) 5. Comfy .. Very comfy 6. Give it bends and traffic and it will smoke it. With a big smile. 7. Engine very reliable. 8. Low revs fun. Bad things: 1. Lets face it, its gutless. Sometimes you have scooters over takes you when you are full throttle. I do 30 miles a day on it and 20 miles are on M4... Prior hitting the highway I am king of the road. Hit the highway and you better move on the left lane ... It goes up to 80 - 90 "easily" but it is tiring 2. It is not make for 2 up .. Very small seat at the back not comfy.. 3. Gear box very very flaky. Gears don't go in correctly have to release clutch few times to engage gear on some occasions. Out of the bad things only one is really bad and that is the performance. I would highly recommend it if you are a city rider . The highway is barebable if you do it every now and then not every day. Will I swap it for anything else? When I bought it, the XJ6 (naked) wasnt out so maybe I would have gone for that but still the looks of the MT03 is something that did it for me and still does.

Had mine for a year now from new. Paid £3999 over 3yrs interest free - they're nearly £7000 now!!!. Totaly reliable (covered 11,000 inner-city miles without a glitch). Pretty good build quality (apart from some flaky paint on the oil sump). Huge fun because of its super agility, wonderful noise (akras a must), and good low to mid-range punch. But it's not meant to be a high speed bike and it is not intended for anything but the shortest of motorway hops.Overal, I would recommend the Mt-03 to anyone looking for an involving, well built and rare-to-see (on the roads of London anyway) bike. But buy a well kept 2008 bike with akras already fitted and save a fortune.

Great little handling bike, but I wish I'd been able to take it on some faster roads when I test drove it. I traded my CBR600 in for the MT-03 as I wanted something with more low down torque for traffic but once I got used to it I found it severely lacking. I have no idea how mcn gave the engine 4 stars. The MT-03 is great from 0-30 but from 40-90 it's stupidly slow. I would open it up on bigger more open roads and accelerating cars could still overtake me, very embarrassing. I also had nothing but problems with the MT-03, especially electrics. Bought it for 3k in Oct 2008, and by Oct 2009 I had spent just under 1.5k on repairs (my fault for going to official yamaha garage). Went through three batteries at £150 a time from due to the rectifier/regulator keep blowing (£75) on a monthly basis (was covered under warranty subsequent times, but it spent ages in the garage). It constantly stalled on me, and I never got this fixed I just had to live with it apparently it's a single thing, but I suspect the electrics as it always improved after getting the wiring loom replaced (3 times). Although not quite as bad, it's also has very dodgy fueling from the on board computer which makes it surge/hunt between 3-4k rpm. Apparently there's nothing yamaha can do about this, but it makes it very annoying to drive at 30mph in the right gear as it's constantly changing speed. The last most annoying thing was overtaking on the MT-03. with the red line at 7.5k rpm you will more often than not have to change up a gear while overtaking. I constantly had to abort overtakes as the gear change would slow me down too much. Admittedly that's a side effect of my ex dispatch riding, but it's still annoying and forces you to drive likes it's sunday all the time. When you're riding it, it sounds great. But I realised when riding behind another MT-03 one day it actually sounds like a ball bearing in a tin can to everyone else. A lot of complaints here, but if you don't mind the total lack of power (new rider) and you get one without reliability problems (or have warranty) then you could be very happy with the MT-03.

Full report reads... warranty replaced items list :- front wheel + bearings(x2), left fork leg, left caliper, front brake disks & pads, headlight unit, odometer, left & right handlebar switches, battery(x2), wiring loom (x2 or 3), rectifier, all locks & keys, engine rebuild including new barrel, piston, etc, rear wheel + bearings(x3), silencer, tail light unit (x2), pillion footpegs (x2). Off the road for 12 wks in 26 months & 32k miles of ownership. At the end I was just waiting for the next thing to go wrong & had no faith whatsoever in the bike being able to get me to my destination... still great handling tho'. I was left high-&-dry by Yamaha UK, net result I will never buy a Yamaha again. Shame really, I liked it when it ran.

Full report reads... warranty replaced items list :- front wheel + bearings(x2), left fork leg, left caliper, front brake disks & pads, headlight unit, odometer, left & right handlebar switches, battery(x2), wiring loom (x2 or 3), rectifier, all locks & keys, engine rebuild including new barrel, piston, etc, rear wheel + bearings(x3), silencer, tail light unit (x2), pillion footpegs (x2). Off the road for 12 wks in 26 months & 32k miles of ownership. At the end I was just waiting for the next thing to go wrong & had no faith whatsoever in the bike being able to get me to my destination... still great handling tho'. I was left high-&-dry by Yamaha UK, net result I will never buy a Yamaha again. Shame really, I liked it when it ran.

Down sized from a ZZR600 due to not being able to safley exploit engine performance on public roads! I'm not boring, I just value my licence!!! Bought the Mt-03 1 1/2 years ago and have covered 10,000 miles. Apart from replace the cush drive at 4000 miles she has been no problem. Survived a 5 day 2600 mile trip around Scotland carrying all required kit + camping gear! Yes it is compromised due to lack of fairing and only having 1 lung and if you bought one of these for high speed cruising then you would be sorley disappointed.....but that's not the point. If you want something that's a little quirky and stands out from the crowd and have been there and done that with the speed thing and are more into 'riding' motorcycles, then you'd probably enjoy the MT-03. Handling is spot on, engine performance pokey, cruises at 75-80mph all day and gives you a commanding view of the road ahead. No better bike for blasting around the Dales (or Scotland!). A very soulful (for a Jap bike!!!) motorcycle.

... a string of major faults have continued to leave this bike off the road for longer periods of time (8wks in 18 months of ownership)... I haven't rode it yet this year because it's in having warranty work done. A letter to Yamaha reveals that they are not unaccustomed to bikes being off the road for this period of time & are unwilling to do anything about replacement transport. My advice holds.. do not buy a Yamaha if you need your bike as reliable transport. Full report will follow.

... this bike has proved itself not to be the all-rounder that it's made out to be (unless you do 4000 miles a year)... constant problems... wheel bearings, 2 wiring looms, new clocks, battery, & a chain made of elastic. The overall build quality is appalling... this bike is not up to all year use. On the plus side you won't find a better handling bike & the engine is spot on & faultless.

Great fun around the lanes and town. I had hoped to commute on it but felt vulnerable on the motorway.Big problem with engine cutting out when hot and filtering in traffic, told by local dealer this was 'an unresolvable problem with this single'. Very jerky at constant speed, engine constantly 'hunting' up and down the revs. I could't live with this but its the first injected single I've had. Just swapped it for the ZX9

A very good beginger or back to bike Very easy , very funny, ride as Supermotard or sports bikes. And good for your driving license. You do not loose to much points with this one. Good equipment, good breakes, engine a bit low HP. Fast on corners. the price is a bit to high.

I have just spent an hour and a half on one of these blasting round the lanes and A roads in Kent. Top fun all round. The MT-03 has plenty of go and even with my huge bulk could top 98 with enough of a run up and me sitting bolt upright. There would have been a bit more but I didn't want to get down to it.. seemed a bit futile on this kind of bike. I was easily able to keep up with motorway traffic. 80 is easy, 85 is a bit vibey but perfectly possible. The handling was very light and stable even though I was on and off the power. There is tons of leverage available through the wide slightly turned out bars and their position plus the fact that there is very little of the bike in front of you gives you a feeling of flying through the countryside. (Think Leo & Kate in that scene in Titanic but with a motorcycle soundtrack instead of Celene Dion + lots of squashed flies on your teeth and you won't go far wrong) The sound is another thing. Surely Yamaha must be slipping the type approval people a bung for the noise this thing makes. The twin silencers give out a lovely throaty bop bop and you get the full benefit overtaking or riding through roads with walls or built up areas. Coming off the power and shifting down they even pop on the overrun. Brake and running gear is excellent. The front brakes can easily lock the front wheel but feel sensitive and progressive. They are floating rotors so you would expect them to be good. There is plenty of rubber up front and the rear can be slid perfectly under control super-moto stylie. Tubeless tyres on pretty alloys complete the set. The instrumentation is spartan but the tacho is prominent to keep the motor in its sweet spot. I didn't look at the speedo much but its clear and easy to read albeit a bit small. Everything glows red at night. Build quality seems very good indeed and the whole package hangs together very well indeed. You can also trick it out with Akra's and lots of hi-tech goodies to customise yours from the official Yamaha catalogue. I am told the service intervals are 6000 miles apart so running costs should be minimal with only one of everything to service (except tyres of course) I recommend everyone rides one as soon as possible. I liked it so much I have just bought one on the UK 0% over 30 months deal and have traded in my much faster, more in yer naked sports bike. I may regret not having both but the MT-03 is a stonking bike that I can ride just as fast 90% of the time and saves me money on tyres, insurance and running costs all the while. The other 10% I was breaking the law anyway and it was getting hard to hold on to the triple and my licence! Now I have had mine for about a month. I agree it could do with a bit more top end speed but everything else is a total hoot. Chicken strips disappeared whilst running it in!

I have just spent an hour and a half on one of these blasting round the lanes and A roads in Kent. Top fun all round. The MT-03 has plenty of go and even with my huge bulk could top 98 with enough of a run up and me sitting bolt upright. There would have been a bit more but I didn't want to get down to it.. seemed a bit futile on this kind of bike. I was easily able to keep up with motorway traffic. 80 is easy, 85 is a bit vibey but perfectly possible. The handling was very light and stable even though I was on and off the power. There is tons of leverage available through the wide slightly turned out bars and their position plus the fact that there is very little of the bike in front of you gives you a feeling of flying through the countryside. (Think Leo & Kate in that scene in Titanic but with a motorcycle soundtrack instead of Celene Dion + lots of squashed flies on your teeth and you won't go far wrong) The sound is another thing. Surely Yamaha must be slipping the type approval people a bung for the noise this thing makes. The twin silencers give out a lovely throaty bop bop and you get the full benefit overtaking or riding through roads with walls or built up areas. Coming off the power and shifting down they even pop on the overrun. Brake and running gear is excellent. The front brakes can easily lock the front wheel but feel sensitive and progressive. They are floating rotors so you would expect them to be good. There is plenty of rubber up front and the rear can be slid perfectly under control super-moto stylie. Tubeless tyres on pretty alloys complete the set. The instrumentation is spartan but the tacho is prominent to keep the motor in its sweet spot. I didn't look at the speedo much but its clear and easy to read albeit a bit small. Everything glows red at night. Build quality seems very good indeed and the whole package hangs together very well indeed. You can also trick it out with Akra's and lots of hi-tech goodies to customise yours from the official Yamaha catalogue. I am told the service intervals are 6000 miles apart so running costs should be minimal with only one of everything to service (except tyres of course) I recommend everyone rides one as soon as possible. I liked it so much I have just bought one on the UK 0% over 30 months deal and have traded in my much faster, more in yer naked sports bike. I may regret not having both but the MT-03 is a stonking bike that I can ride just as fast 90% of the time and saves me money on tyres, insurance and running costs all the while. The other 10% I was breaking the law anyway and it was getting hard to hold on to the triple and my licence! Now I have had mine for about a month. I agree it could do with a bit more top end speed but everything else is a total hoot. Chicken strips disappeared whilst running it in!

I moved from larger bikes in search of something different & I found it in the MT. Great handling, solid engine, but no good on m-ways. Made for tight bends & less than perfect roads... a good real world bike.

Nice to be back on a bike again, despite mild state of tune pulls well & on our crowed London streets is more than enough. Brings a smile to my face on every ride, however accessories are way over priced, £87.99 for a fly screen, tut tut Yamaha! Strengths: Light clutch, manouvreable, great low speed balance, adequate power & great looks. Loves corners too. Weaknesses: Fuel injection not brilliant, wide bars can be a pain whilst filtering, mirrors not to good either.

Love sports bikes? Fed up of looking out for speed cameras? Want a laugh, just like when u first learnt to ride? Take one for a test ride. Re-tune your brain. Nail it round your town/city centre, or down a back lane. Just smile. Strengths: Nimble steering. Grunty motor and still looks kind of cool. Weaknesses: You wont want to go to far to fast (saves your licence).