Slick Video Teases New Yamaha MT-09 Perks

Yamaha may have revealed the latest updates to their naughty middleweight last year, but a slick video reminding us of all the changes wrought to wheelie hound is still well worth watching.
Since inception it’s been a constant case of evolution for the MT-09. Nips and tucks, tweaks and twiddles, canny additions and, of course, that unbelievably irritating insistence on changing what throttle maps are denoted by whichever letters of the alphabet. Annoying to bike testers mainly, of course, rather than singular owners – perhaps they like to keep us on our toes?
The 2021 version of the MT appears, and is claimed, to be all new – lighter and more powerful = faster! A redesigned and slightly larger (889cc) CP3 engine features all new parts, boosting claimed horsepower to around 120bhp at the crank, while boasting a front wheel orbiting 93Nm of torque stuffed in its undies.

It’s the first Yamaha naked to get a six-axis IMU, which comes with all the usual rider aids such as traction, slide and wheelie-control. Chuck in an up/down shifter and the MT is fully loaded.
But the real interest lies in the chassis, now the frame is far stiffer (and lighter) than before. The rest of the chassis, the suspension, now has more adjustment at hand. So the question is – are Yamaha changing direction with the MT-09?
On the road, the MT had two perfect USPs – it’s comfortable, and hilarious. But on the sportier side, especially during track excursions, it was miles off the pace – too soft, essentially, and the brakes never matched the competition’s, either. This increase in suspension intricacy and frame stiffness hints that they may be trying to claw back some ground in that regard, so it’ll be interesting to see how it matches up to the rest of the pack in 2021.
We very much doubt it’ll stop being the class clown though, that’s pretty much what MTs are all about no matter which version, or capacity, you care to consider, and we can’t see that changing no matter what they do to it. Would you even want it to? No, of course not…