2020 Yamaha MT-03 Welcomes New Riders, Returning Road Warriors

Yamaha completes its Master of Torque line of hyper naked bikes with the new MT-03, an entry level motorcycle that will be as much fun for beginners as for seasoned riders and those returning to two wheels after a long hiatus. With bodywork similar to bigger-displacement bikes like the MT-07, MT-09 and MT-10, to the casual observer it will look just like its more powerful siblings. Priced at just $4599 before the $425 destination charge, it’s like an affordable superbike.

The intense, upright styling you see here is what Yamaha calls its “Dark Side of Japan” theme. The idea is the islands aren’t populated solely by salarymen dutifully riding bullet trains to rote jobs in Tokyo skyscrapers. No, there are some rogue agents on the archipelago, and they all ride Yamahas. At least that’s the idea behind the theme. It’s cool styling, no matter what it’s called. Naked bikes mean no fairings or other non-essential bodywork, just an engine, a frame and two wheels.

The MT-03 is the naked version of the Yamaha YZF-R3 introduced five years ago. The R3 was meant for both street and track use. When I rode the R3 in 2015 at Thunderhill, it felt just as much at home on that road course’s many diving turns and straights as it did on the country roads we also took it. Though it has the same frame, swing arm and engine as the R3, the MT-03 drops the bodywork along with the track pretense in favor of an all-around public roads persona.

While the front forks are still inverted KYBs with the same 5.1 inches of travel, 25 degrees of rake and 3.7 inches of trail as the R3, the shock diameter drops from 41 mm to 37 mm on the MT-03. It’s a softer spring with compression damping decreased for a better ride. Handlebars replace the R3’s clip-ons for a more upright, comfortable riding position. The grips are an inch and a half taller and almost an inch farther back than the R3’s. ABS is also standard on the MT-03.

The engine remains unchanged. It’s the same 321-cc upright parallel twin as the R3, making 42 hp to move the 373-pound (wet weight) MT-03 off the line and down the road. Yamaha says top speed is more than 100 mph.

Throw a leg over the MT-03 and pull it up off its kickstand and it immediately feels far lighter than those 373 pounds, just as the R3 felt way lighter five years ago. Yamaha introduced the new bike in Austin, Texas, but instead of heading straight to COTA, we cruised the city streets for a while, taking pictures of the bikes crossing the city’s famous Butterfly Bridge. On the street it felt right at home right away. The MT stands for Master of Torque, remember, and its wide torque band was easy to access across a wide range of tach. The new riding position remained comfortable all day, too. Yamaha seats seem to be getting a lot more comfortable over the years. Seat height is the same 30.7 inches, which should line up with a lot of inseams among potential buyers.

Outside the city we rode along the twisting, 65-mile-long shoreline of Lake Travis (a place I would like to return to this summer with a ski boat). On these twisty roads the MT-03 felt very much like the R3. It’s a fun corner tool to carve your way along your favorite road or canyon. Tires are the same as the R3: Dunlop GPR-300 front and rear. They held on perfectly well as far as I pushed them along the lake’s mostly-well-paved circumference. Lean into a corner and, as long as you have picked the right line, you sail right through it and power out the other side. There’s no hesitation from the bike. It’s fun and addictive, a lower-horsepower version of the MTs 07, 09 and 10. The faster riders that day might have even scraped a knee puck or two.

And all this for just $4599. Or $5024 when you add the $425 destination charge. Yamaha points out that the price is $200 less than the Kawasaki Z400 with ABS and $300 less than the Honda CBR 300 R ABS. It’s also $900 less than a KTM 390 Duke. All of which shows you there are a lot of great bikes in the entry category for somewhere around $5000 right now. Yes, you could save money and buy something used off of Bike Trader dot RU, but you might be spending as much as you saved fixing things that fall off of it. Buy a new bike and you are worry free. Plus, there’s financing available from all these brands, making them affordable to just about anyone.

So if you’re thinking about getting on a motorcycle, or if you’ve been off of bikes for far too long and want to get back on, now would be a good time. Summer is coming, the road is calling and you must go!

Source: Read Full Article