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Since the R7 was launched it has captured the imagination of many aspiring racers looking for a more affordable point of entry.
Unlike most other parallel-twin middleweight sportbikes on the market, the riding position is unusually aggressive for the segment, much closer to that of the outgoing R6 than many would have expected. Most modern middleweights give riders a more balanced riding position, in search of sales they opt to offer a more comfortable rider triangle.
This is not the case for the R7, it is targeting track enthusiasts or potential buyers they might be losing by removing the venerable R6 from their lineup. It is a proper little sportbike with a smaller/less powerful engine, so we can’t help but draw comparisons to the old R7 from the 90s that it shares a name with, even though we really shouldn’t.
10 New: Versatile Parallel Twin
Yamaha has truly gone to extremes with the development of this little parallel-twin engine, we don’t think that even they were expecting to put it in every conceivable type of motorcycle.
First breaking cover around 5 years ago, the mill has made its way into a naked bike, café racer, adventure bike, touring bike, and now a middleweight sportbike.
9 Old: Screaming Inline 4
The R7 was the last true 750cc class sportbike Yamaha would develop, its inline-4 was able to rev all the way up to 14,000 rpm and was able to produce an impressive 160 horsepower.
Sadly for Yamaha, this homologation investment didn’t really pay off, the bikes became infamously unreliable on track. With all that power at such high revs, engine failures were all too common.
8 New: Racing Roots
What’s in a name? Well, it seems Yamaha intentionally wanted to direct our thoughts to the race-bred R7 from the 90s, hanging onto its PR coattails in a manner of speaking.
It is also a continuation of the R6 (above) design theme. Looking at the two side by side will help you see just how similar they look, and it is clear that Yamaha doesn’t want to lose those roots that have been in development for so many years now.
7 Old: Designed For Racing
Designed from the ground up to go racing, the original R7 was a pure homologation special that was produced in severely limited numbers and only really ever intended for it to be a track machine.
Its racing intentions were made clear by the fact that the bikes they shipped to customers didn’t even come with their mirrors or blinkers attached. As such, the bikes that made it to North America were not technically even road legal.
6 New: Typical Yamaha Flair
It might seem underpowered on paper, comparing it to just about any bike designated for track use will not turn out favorably. However, the CP2 engine just makes its power in such a way that the bike is still a lot of fun to ride.
It is a very torquey engine, even when tuned for the sportbike, most of its power is available throughout the rev range. This means it will power-wheelie like any literbike and will have them beat off the mark every time.
5 Old: All Power
Being a race bike, it made all of its power right at the top of the rev range, if the second bank of injectors was activated, the power figure went from around 130 horsepower to 160.
So much power from such a small, high revving engine made it quite a handful to ride, its power came on in such a dramatic fashion that riders liken these bikes to the two-stroke race bikes of the 90s.
4 New: Budget Track Bike
With an aggressive riding position, compact design, and uprated forks, the new R7 is a more than capable track machine. It is the kind of bike you can also live with, so it is a realistic expectation to be able to ride the bike to a track and do track days.
If you want to go racing the overall lack of power will render the R7 uncompetitive, but if it is for personal enjoyment then this is a great budget track machine, especially when you factor in the lower running costs.
3 Old: Limited Edition
With only 500 (or so) made, ever so many crashed and written off, these bikes are getting exceedingly rare and valuable.
$30,000 for bikes in reasonable condition is a good deal, as these bikes will be getting far more pricey in the near future. However, it will also become rather hard to keep them in decent condition if you are going to use them for their intended purpose.
2 New: Sport Bike For The Street
It won’t be comfortable, but no sportbikes are. It will be reliable though and will actually give you daily kicks if you choose to use it regularly without the concern of it blowing up on you.
Thanks to the aggressive nature of the machine and the torquey nature of the engine, this bike will provide just as much fun (if not more) as any liter bike can within legal limits.
1 Old: Street Bike For The Track
Technically Yamaha sold this as a production bike, but in reality, they only made enough of them so it could be homologated and used for racing.
It is a proper track bike and quite frankly does not fare well at all on the road. It is purposeful and will take incredible skill to get the most out of it, but that is part of the allure.