First two bikes on the list were the Yamaha MT-07 and 09.
There is a large motorbike dealer in Poitiers which we sussed out, which seems to be dealers for Yamaha, KTM, BMW, Victory and Kawasaki as well as probably a few others.
Nice dealer, very different attitude to most UK dealers, didn't talk to us until asked and once asked I was on an MT-09 in 10 mins of getting there. Sadly, the MT-07 they had as a demo had been sold, but I did have a sit etc. I'm in the UK next month so will try an 07 then.
Anyway, the MT-09.....
I had it for an hour, I could have had it all day had I wanted to, very flexible dealer, however I only needed about 10 minutes to find its achilles heal and confirm it.
The engine is brilliant. An ideal mix of torque and power in a nice sized triple engine. Pulls hard and revs well. Sounds good too, even with the standard exhaust. It has 3 power maps, which I played with. A is a racey map, STD is standard and B is soggy.
All of the above praise is ruined by the fuelling. How the mighty Yamaha can get the engine mapping so very wrong is beyond me, but it's quite telling that the dealer started the bike for me and set the map to B to smooth it out a little.
Once on the road, even in B mode you could tell (especially on roundabouts) that the fuelling was poor, even in B mode. Switch it to one of the other modes and it's all over the place. Come off or on the throttle without the upmost of care and it throws you forward or backward. This plays into the other problem, the front is far too soft. It feels like the front is going to wash out it dives far too much, maybe adjustment would sort this but I have my doubts.
You can ride around some of these problems. I'm used to difficult fuelling with the RC8, but I'd go as far as to say it's worse.
Seating position is an odd one too - the straight bars mean you can counter steer into a corner really easily, but the seat is too wide so it makes it difficult to move your arse and legs across to corner and stick your leg out etc. you have to ride almost bolt upright at the back of the seat or trapped against the very wide tank and bolt upright. It's very odd and not just because I'm mainly a sports biker. I've ridden other nakeds and they are much better seated or bar positioned. They were very high too.
Overall a bit of fun for about an hour and I did give it some stick, however for me very disappointing. It is easy to power wheelie though
As I've said, I'll try the MT07 as I'm told the fuelling is way better.
Here are a few pics.
