Motorcycles

MT-10: Yamaha gets delightfully ugly with its new naked R1

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The front end of the Yamaha MT-10 is plain nasty
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Yamaha MT-10: a brute if ever we saw one.
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Yamaha MT-10: looking lairy with flourescent yellow rims
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Yamaha MT-10: chunky bolts in the front fairing give it an industrial feel
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Yamaha MT-10: brutish looks almost give it an unfinished feel compared to the old FZ series nakedbikes
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Yamaha MT-10: chunky stance owes as much to the MT09 design as it does to the R1.
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Yamaha MT-10: menacing in black with a splash of red
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Yamaha MT-10: certainly goes against Yamaha's previous design trends
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Yamaha MT-10: busy and angular design
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Yamaha MT-10: shockingly yellow rims will make this one a hard bike to miss
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Yamaha MT-10: the new face of Japanese naked aggression
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Yamaha MT-10: should be a nasty little street machine
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Yamaha MT-10: flouro piped leathers optional
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The front end of the Yamaha MT-10 is plain nasty
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Yamaha MT-10: very odd front headlight and fairing
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Yamaha MT-10: techno-industrial looks meet massive performance
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Yamaha MT-10: looks unfinished next to other Yamaha bikes
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With the MT-10, Yamaha demonstrates it's not afraid to get ugly
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Yamaha MT-10: tank slots echo the details on the R1 and M! MotoGP bike
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Yamaha MT-10: ready to take the fight right up to the BMW S1000R
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Yamaha MT-10: with the Deltabox frame, KYB suspension and Nissin brakes very similar to R1 spec, it should handle beautifully
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Yamaha MT-10: digital dash
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Yamaha MT-10: switchable traction control and cruise control both live on the left switchblock
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Yamaha MT-10: angular tank
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Yamaha MT-10: stubby exhaust
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Yamaha MT-10: looks like a pain to clean, for people who are into that sort of thing
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Yamaha MT-10: adjustable rear shock
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Yamaha MT-10: as a styling touch, these flouro rims are about the rudest thing in motorcycling
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Yamaha MT-10: simple LCD dash looks uncluttered
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Yamaha MT-10: brutish headlight fairing is definitely more MT than FZ.
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Yamaha MT-10: 999cc crossplane crankshaft R1 engine is presumably retuned for road shenanigans
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Yamaha MT-10: doesn't look terrible from this angle. But only from this angle.
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Yamaha MT-10: a big bad bowl of nasty
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Yamaha MT-10: super-naked performance
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Yamaha MT-10: air intake side scoops are a touch straight from the MT-09
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View gallery - 34 images

Shots fired: Yamaha has come gunning for super-nakeds like the BMW S1000R and the Aprilia Tuono with a new naked R1 that's a far cry from the tasty-looking FZ1 or years past. The MT-10 is ugly, squat and nasty, as reflected by the fact it's going to roll into the MT model line. With a retuned version of the crossplane-crankshaft R1 superbike engine providing the boogie, the focus will be on fun, but Yamaha has also chosen to throw in a cruise control system.

What sort of sicko looks at a purebred racebike like Yamaha's gorgeous YZF-R1 and thinks "yeah, let's pull all the aerodynamic plastic off that and make a hideous, brutal streetfighter?" I'll tell you exactly what kind of sicko: me. Me, and apparently the product team at Yamaha, who has just pulled the covers off the 2016 MT-10 at EICMA Milan.

In days gone by, a retuned naked R1 would get the "FZ-1" moniker and a pretty Italian-style naked reskinning. Not this year. The MT-10 is an eye-bleeding techno-industrial abomination, a cacophony of sharp angles and bolts and the odd flouro yellow wheel hub. It's a Frankenstein mash-up, as if the odd-looking MT-09 mated vigorously with the R1, and the offspring looks like it'll get in trouble just because of its bashed-crab face. I love it, it feels like the first hairy-chested Yamaha in a long time that the local posers won't touch with a barge pole.

Yamaha MT-10: chunky bolts in the front fairing give it an industrial feel
Yamaha

The MT-10 makes Yamaha the third Japanese factory to have a proper crack at entering the magnificent super-naked class, after Suzuki's GSX-S stepped into the fray at last year's Intermot show and Kawasaki's Z1000 more or less inched its way into the discussion over a number of years.

It gets the CP4 crossplane crankshaft inline 4, 998cc R1 engine, presumably detuned from its 205 hp peak down to somewhere around 160-170 to look BMW's S1000R in the eye. Reining in that aggressive motor is Yamaha's D-mode system of multiple engine maps, and a switchable 3-level traction control setup.

Yamaha MT-10: looks unfinished next to other Yamaha bikes
Yamaha

Like the R1, the MT-10 gets a slipper/assist clutch – a system that keeps the lever action very light, while also reducing wheelspin under engine braking on downshifts. Anyone who's ridden an EBR lately knows how important a light clutch can be to general round-town rideability.

Suspension is upside-down KYB forks and a monocross-linked shock. Both ends are adjustable but the shock doesn't appear to have the R1's high/ow speed compression damping separation. Brakes are proper radial 4-pot Nissins with standard ABS.

Yamaha MT-10: busy and angular design
Yamaha

Because we live in blessed times, Yamaha has bestowed a full electronic cruise control system upon the MT-10. I can personally take or leave multiple engine modes and traction control systems, but fly-by-wire electronic throttle control has at least brought me the ability to stretch my right arm on a freeway section.

Pricing is yet to be announced, but we'd expect the MT-10's price tag to be closer to the GSX-S than the S1000R, but time will tell. In the meanwhile, let's marvel at just how broad and beefy the list of full-fat nakedbikes has become in the last few years. From the Tuono and Brutale to the Super Duke R and the S1000R, to the GSX-S1000 and now this nasty, chippy Yamaha, road hooligans have never had so many options.

The MT-10 is scheduled to launch at the end of May, 2016.

There's a ton of photos in the gallery. Enjoy!

Source: Yamaha

View gallery - 34 images
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3 comments
Mel Tisdale
It looks as though the whole motoring experience is on the brink of a major revolution with self-driving/major driver assistance packages soon to be the norm. One feature of these developments will be that it will be impossible for road vehicles to exceed a safe speed for any section of road and road conditions prevalent at any time.
If motorcycles are going to fit in with these changes, a fly-by-wire throttle is going to be obligatory, not something a product planner decides to include or not depending on projected product price and profit targets and what the sales director thinks in relation to competitor specifications.
Martin Hone
Hey Loz, if you are gettin' "wheelspin" when downshftin', ya need to go easier on the throttle .....
PedroNuno
Autobots, roll out.