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Yamaha MT-01 (2006): Feted by many as the successor to the V-Max, does it really step up and take on the "power cruiser" role with aplomb? Jim Walsh blags a test ride and reports

2006 Yamaha MT-01 certainly looks the part... but does it perform as well? Read on and find out Age has its benefits. Once upon a time, blagging a test ride from a dealer was a bit difficult to manage, but now the balding head, lager belly, and gravity ravaged face mean one can bowl into a dealership, smile sweetly (missing teeth help here), and place one's behind upon some outrageous machinery.

I hadn't even sat on a Yamaha MT-01, but upon hearing that a local (and somewhat "tamed") dealer had an actual demonstrator available I thought I'd best see what all the noise was about.

"Hahahahahaa!! Woohoo!! Heeheeeheehe."

"Look at me, look at me.... wheeeee. Fnar, fnar, bwaaahahahahahaaaaa."

At this point I'm certain I was handed the key because I was scaring REAL customers off.

The rev counter looks like it was nicked from a diesel 4WD. 5.5K rpm redline? Most bikes I've ridden haven't really woken up at 5.5k rpm. I had a race bike whose idle was 5k for goodness sake. Looking the bike over while it was doing it's warm up jig I was struck by how everything had a sheen of quality. The frame and swing arm castings are almost organic in form, and the engine was detailed in that special way that only cruiser engines seem to merit. It was difficult to spot control cables and wiring harnesses, giving the MT a "controlled by telekinesis" look.

What a nice comfy seat. Despite low footpegs and that hulking lump of iron and alloy called an engine, a slightly more aggressive lean to the bars than my own cherished Kawasaki Z750S give the MT a sporting feel, much more so than other muscle bikes and sports cruisers I've ridden, like Buell's XBS range, or Harley Davidson's Street Rod. Chugging out of the car park was an experience in itself, what with the superb V-Twin soundtrack, and the lively throb transmitted through the chassis to the rider, it was difficult to not laugh out loud and immediately go for the big wheelie. Not the best way to test that particular dealer's tameness however, especially as he has been using the MT-01 as his own personal transport.

Lowdown stomp? You don't know what it means until you hammer this engine... I had 30 minutes to get a feel for the "beast". I think Yamaha have hit the nail on the head by emphasizing its Cruiser nature in the brochures and road tests I've seen. It is just as happy thudding down a main road as cruising on the motorway, or swinging through sweepers. Hitting the twisties needs a bit of brain engaged though, because even though you've heard the term "lowdown stomp" before, it's all relative until you stick a 1700cc engine in a chassis with some justified pretensions to sporting capability. Revving the cat food tins it calls pistons out to maximum rpm results in dropping engine revs into the fattest part of the torque curve when the next gear is engaged, causing you to lunge forward like an enraged rhino. Best bet is to stick it in third and ride it like a twist and go. This will cover 15mph to 75mph without complaining, and leave you wondering how any engine that sounds like a freight locomotive could possibly make you grin wide enough to require corrective surgery.

Flicking through a series of tight bends requires some commitment, and the faith that something that looks like it should be a handful on mountain roads can be hustled with vim and vigour. You can certainly feel the chassis working to do its thing when flicking from side to side and I would have liked to have had the time to play with the damping and preload settings. It felt like the front and rear weren't working quite in sync with each other on standard. Front to rear weight transition and vice versa is also an issue, requiring the planning skills to keep everything settled on the way into and through a corner, but this just encourages a riding style that works well in 90% of fast road riding.

MT-01 - no, it isn't really that tall, but the photo just looks good... By the time I got back to the shop my face-splitting (though somewhat painful by now) grin was enormous, unlike my completely numb nether regions. Yamaha need to market a padded cricket box, embossed with the MT-01 logo which would serve the dual purpose of protecting the man-veggies and creating the appearance of being suitably endowed to be able to stake a claim to MT-01 ownership.

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