The Motorcycle That Quietly Rewrites What An Everyday Sport Bike Should Be
Over the past decade or so, the middleweight sport bike market has completely changed shape. In the past, inline-four supersports dominated this space. These bikes offered incredible performance on a budget, but they were anything but practical. Today, we have a wide selection of more user-friendly models on offer, all offering a different blend of everyday practicality and performance. Credit for this big shift might just go to one Yamaha YZF machine from a few years ago.
Fully-Faired Fun Is Accessible To Everyone Today
You will hear tales of riders starting out on an old supersport, but it is more a case of surviving the experience than actually enjoying it. Old supersports are all too often looked at through rose-tinted glasses, but the reality of the matter is that they were never designed to be used as everyday motorcycles. Modern supersports are quite different and are all significantly more user-friendly.
Most of them are based on street bike platforms, make use of more economical engines, and have more relaxed ergos. More importantly, you don’t need to wring your neck to get the most out of them. These bikes all offer the kind of midrange performance that doesn’t force you to break the law when you want to have a little fun. The bike in question adds a layer of sophistication to the mix, with a host of modern tech and safety features.
The Yamaha YZF-R7 Is A High-Tech Modern Supersport
MSRP: $9,399
Back when it first came out, nobody wanted to give the YZF-R7 the time of day. It bore the same name as a racing legend from the late 90s, and effectively replaced what was arguably the best 600cc supersport ever made. Right from the very beginning, it was on a hiding to nothing. Fast-forward to today, and we now have the real replacement for the old R6 in the form of the R9, and a livery which makes the new R7 look a whole lot like the old R7 homologation special. Yamaha also saw fit to pack the bike with more tech than any of its direct rivals, and we are now able to see the modern R7 in a completely new light.
Reliability Is At The Forefront Of What The YZF-R7 Has To Offer
Power: 72 HP
Out of all the things that make a sport bike special, reliability is an often unheralded feature. Japanese sport bikes built a reputation for being some of the most reliable motorcycles on the market, and the R7 is most certainly one of them. In fact, any bike equipped with the CP2 engine has proven to be exceptionally reliable. Unfortunately, the first thing most sport bike buyers will look at is how much power it makes, and compared to some of the other bikes in this growing class, 72 horsepower isn’t all that much.
Speed Isn’t Everything
For some, speed is everything, and if that is the case, you might be shopping in the wrong aisle. The CP2 is one of the very best street bike engines, with the vast majority of its torque arriving at just 2,000 RPM, or in layman’s terms, just above idle! This means that all of its power is almost instantaneously available at a moment’s notice. While it will most certainly run out of puff on longer straights, it offers strong acceleration and is immense fun to ride on a canyon road where speed limits still exist, or a tight track.
The YZF-R7 Gets An IMU As Part Of The Latest Update
At this end of the market, things like cornering ABS and lean-sensitive traction control are still fairly uncommon. It gives the supersport an advantage in what has become a highly competitive space. Along with all the associated features you get with the IMU, it also has ride modes, cruise control, a quickshifter, and a TFT dash with smartphone connectivity. To be fair, pretty much everything you might want a modern supersport to have is all there, as standard fitment. It is, to say the very least, a comprehensive electronics package.
The addition of modern tech is not always welcome on sport bikes. For one, all these features add failure points which will eventually affect long-term reliability. But, with the CP2 about as proven as anything on the market, we feel that it is able to offset any future issues all these electronics may introduce, but only time will really tell.
The more pressing issue for any sport bike is actually the additional weight. Somehow, even with all these added features, the overall weight figure was kept to just 417 pounds. That is only a mere 3 pounds heavier than the outgoing model, which is next to nothing on a bike like this, which is primarily designed for street use.
A Limited Edition Livery That Just Hits All The Right Notes
LED lighting has made modern motorcycles safer to ride at night, but it has also had a pretty big impact on motorcycle design. Most manufacturers are still trying to figure out what exactly is the best way to go about it, and for the most part, Yamaha has not figured that out just yet. Several of the new Yamahas look a little too much like a Cyclops, but the R7 is the exception to this particular rule. A few minor tweaks to the design have also helped.
But it is the throwback 70th Anniversary Edition that just looks outstanding. It demands a $300 premium (at least while stocks last, as it is a limited-run livery) and is worth every cent. We are also partial to the Breaker Cyan/Raven, which is a neat callback to the funky colors that proliferated in the industry back in the 90s. But not everyone grew up drooling over 90s sport bikes!
It is pretty hard to believe that a bit of color and a few minor changes can make such a big difference. The R7 looks more compelling than ever and has been elevated from also-ran to genuine contender. But it still won’t be for everyone. At this price point (especially if you factor in the additional $300 for the Anniversary Edition livery), you will be saying no to a long list of incredible sport bikes, including a couple of impressive inline-fours.
Source: Yamaha Motorsports
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