Yamaha MT-09 : The Endearingly Dark Side Of Japan

At least the generous suspension travel helped give a wrist-friendly ride quality and was backed up by a competent rear shock. The MT clattered slightly over bigger bumps, but generally soaked up everything the roads threw at it. The thinly padded seat was starting to feel slightly uncomfortable towards the end of a 300-km day, but its rear is wide enough to give fairly good support. Although the tank is small at 14 litres, the engine is good for around six litres/100 km so should give a respectable range of around 200 km.

Most other chassis bits worked well, including the brakes, with the twin front discs and four-pot radial monobloc callipers having plenty of bite if not quite as much feel as some systems. The launch bikes were the non-ABS-equipped models, which will be first into production and available almost immediately. The ABS, which will be as useful on the easily locked rear disc as on the front, will follow around the end of the year, its premium of about five per cent looking well worth waiting for.

Meanwhile, the MT has a long list of accessories that are available straight away. Owners can add sporty parts such as flyscreen, billet levers or Akrapovic pipe or improve practicality with a comfort seat, hard luggage or electrical socket. Kitted out with some of those parts, this naked hooligan will become a passably practical all-rounder.

But it’s for its excitement generating potential, its ability to show the Dark Side of Japan, that the MT-09 stands out — not just from other recent Yamahas, but from its four-cylinder compatriots too. Those fuelling and suspension glitches mean the triple doesn’t quite live up to its outstanding power and weight statistics, but it’s still the pick of the naked Japanese bunch — a fast, fiery, fun-to-ride motorbike at a very reasonable price. Welcome back, Yamaha.