Yamaha releases the "R7"

[Firebolter]

R7, the street brother of the T7. Yamaha took the CP2 motor and put it in the R6 like frame-sweet bike.
https://www.webbikeworld.com/leaked-new ... -deadline/

[Wingfixer]

I bet that will be a good mid-weight bike. I wonder how it will stack up against a 600 (with 4 holes)?

[Firebolter]

If the suspension is good, I bet it will be sweet on the track. That motor is very torquey and alot of fun off idle and up to the 11's. A very linear powerband. Coming out of the corners will be where it shines. I know my CP2 is alot of fun in the twisties and this is more purposeful for pavement.

[smdub]

I bet that will be a good mid-weight bike. I wonder how it will stack up against a 600 (with 4 holes)?

Poorly. A 117hp R6 would mop the track w/ a 74hp R7. But Yamaha already thought of this and discontinued the R6 for 2021.
So if not for the track, why not just buy the FZ-07?

[Bucho]

I bet that will be a good mid-weight bike. I wonder how it will stack up against a 600 (with 4 holes)?

Poorly. A 117hp R6 would mop the track w/ a 74hp R7. But Yamaha already thought of this and discontinued the R6 for 2021.
So if not for the track, why not just buy the FZ-07?

You arent wrong. I would never buy a sport bike for street riding.

But for some weird reason, a lot of people do like sport bikes. For the vast majority of them the T7 motor is probably much better as a road bike.

[Marylander]

You arent wrong. I would never buy a sport bike for street riding.

But for some weird reason, a lot of people do like sport bikes. For the vast majority of them the T7 motor is probably much better as a road bike.

I could see getting another sport bike. I miss my cbr1krr. That's pretty different from something like this in that you could be really lazy on the cbr as that bike made a lot of torque. I did have tubular handlebars on it though and it was not uncomfortable for me as I had it set up.

[Twist]

I had an S1000RR for a few years and went to several Califonia Superbike School camps. I did track days with it and some rides out into the hillbilly twisties of WVa and a few rides down in Western NC/TN. That bike required a very healthy amount of restraint to ride it on the street and I came to the conclusion that a 180 HP sport bike that enjoyed 14,000 rpm romps could eventually lead to the gray bar hotel or the morgue. On the street it was like riding a grenade that kept whispering in my ear "Go ahead, pull the pin." I stopped doing track days because the local track day organizer would always struggle for good on-track coaching and monitoring and there were too many chuckleheads sending people off in ambulance rides on a day when the only trophy awarded was being uninjured and your undamaged bike loaded for the trip home. I did have some great experiences on it but now I'm with Bucho and don't think I'll ever see another street legal race bike in my garage again.

Now, there's a lot of great naked, more upright sport bikes out there. I miss my Super Duke.

[Firebolter]

I am gonna disagree with you Stephen, having ridden a R6 a fair amount of time on the track, more HP is not always the answer or makes you faster. Good brakes, Suspension and torque get you in and out of corners faster than just lots of HP. I think it would be a great middle weight bike and MUCH easier to ride than a I4 on the track, especially for a newer rider. I was always faster on the twin bikes on the track than the I4's. You ever whacked a throttle on a I4 at ~9K rpms out of a corner? If the traction isn't just right that rear spins up fast on the exits and can get sideways quick whereas on the twins I could wring it for everything it had coming out of the corners sooner than the I4. The only place the I4 had an advantage was on long straits where you could spin that motor up and get into the hyper zone and even then on a track like Barber, if I could hold the I4's off on the front straight, I have them for the next lap unless I screwed up and left the door open on a corner entry.

[Wingfixer]

Yup, that was kinda what I was thinking. Back when I had my SuperHawk I held a lota 600 and even some liter 4 bangers off with it. Any kinda straight saw me eating their dust but that thing was perfect on a short track.

[Firebolter]

Any kinda straight saw me eating their dust but that thing was perfect on a short track.

Yeah, and that is what made it so much fun to ride bikes like that on short tracks. Being able to wring it out without fear of too much power coming on. On the front straight I would go all the way to the 3rd brake marker, sit up and get on it hard into the corner where the I4's had to start braking a little sooner as they were carrying all that speed trying to catch me. The motor braking on the twins made corners magic as well, chop the throttle get on the brakes and in and out. Was so much fun to squirt out of the turn and head to the last turn to get my lead going into the turn. As you said, on the straight I could hear them coming but rarely got passed except when a really good rider would run with our group.

I was telling Phil when we rode at his house a few weeks ago, there is something about being able to ride a bike full throttle and just flow through the course that is so satisfying. I was talking about how I could ride the stock Surron full throttle through his trails, and it was soooo much fun. Granted, not going super fast, but was able to stay behind Phil on his smoker and just have so much fun on a small under powered bike. Guess thats why I always loved 125's so much.