Remember the spy pictures of a faired Yamaha MT-07 Tracer that appeared last year?
Well this is the final version and while it’s lost the ‘MT-07’ name it’s kept everything else that’s good about that bike.
In a move that also applies to the larger, MT-09-based Tracer, Yamaha has removed the MT branding from its budget sports tourers and instead turned the Tracer name into a stand-alone model range. The MT-09 Tracer becomes the ‘Tracer 900’ and the new model is called the Tracer 700.
Semantics aside, the bike is much as we’ve been expecting. The engine is the same 55kW, 68Nm 689cc parallel twin that’s already familiar from the MT-07, and the frame is also carried over, along with the front suspension and brakes. At the back there’s a new swingarm that helps raise the bike’s ride height and adds 50mm to the wheelbase, taking it to 1450mm.
The big news is the bodywork, which follows the same pattern set by the MT-09/Tracer 900. It turns the naked MT-07 into a high-sitting sports tourer, with a hint of adventure bike to the shape but no off-road intentions. There’s a new seat, with a bigger, flatter seat pad that’s one piece with the pillion, and a new 17 litre fuel tank, up from 14 litres on the MT-07.
The seat, at 850mm, is 45mm higher than the MT07’s and the bars are repositioned and sit behind a manually-adjustable screen. All-in-all, the recipe looks ripe to worry rivals like the Honda NC750X and Kawasaki Versys 650, both machines that the Yamaha undercuts in the markets where its price has been announced.
The good news doesn’t stop there. The Tracer 700 also undercuts its rivals in terms of weight. Despite the extra bodywork and larger tank, its ready-to-ride weight, brimmed with fuel, is a claimed 196kg, just 14kg more than the MT-07 and a full 24kg less than an NC750X.
Yamaha plans to have the Tracer 700 on sale in July.
