Yamaha MT-07 Long Term Test Report

The Yamaha MT-07 is hard to fault.

Hard? Yes, but not impossible. While the perky twin is undoubtedly brilliant value for money, it does lack a little in the handling department. Get a bit jiggy with it down the back roads and it can all get out of shape pretty quickly.

It’s fine on smooth roads or on a track but when the going gets bouncy, you can be thrown out of the seat pretty aggressively. So I set about finding a shock that would do the job without breaking the bank.

I went for the cheapest option – a £393 Nitron NTR Sport unit. It’s adjustable for compression and rebound at the same time. The difference was noticeable immediately – and it normally takes something pretty monumental for me to register any real change. Wooden wheels would probably just about be something I’d pick up.

But the Nitron shock made the bike feel assured, planted and pliable. To make sure it wasn’t just me being an idiot, I called on the services of MCN Senior Road Tester Michael Neeves, who rode the MT-07 at the launch and has tested it many times since. 

We took a standard MT-07 and my bike out for an hour of back-road riding and he was as impressed as I was. I ended up with the rebound/compression on the sixth hardest setting (there are 20 clicks in total) and I wound out most of the sag with the preload adjustment.

What was already a very good bike is now a great one. Of all the mods I’ve made, this is the one I’d recommend the most. It really does make a tangible difference to the way the bike rides.

In other news – the bike is holding up well, despite the wintry turn, and the screen is helping keep a bit of the windblast at bay.