MAD AS A BOX OF FROGS...

In 2013, Yamaha unleashed the hysterical MT-09.

- WORDS: JON URRY

It is hard to imagine where Yamaha would be nowadays if it hadn't had the balls to invest heavily in R&D during the financial crisis of 2008 rather than batten down the hatches and hunker out the storm. In fact, it’s not hard – it would be where many others are nowadays, desperately trying to play catch-up with a fairly outdated model range. But, thankfully for Yamaha, it had someone at the helm who understood the benefits of investing in the future and getting the right product out to the market. Kunihiko Miwa, the man who headed up the R1, R7 and R6 projects in the 1990s. By the 2000s Miwa was in charge of the whole company, and he spearheaded a new generation of Yamaha models powered by crossplane engines. The CP4 R1 appeared in 2009 and the CP2 MT-07 in 2014, but it was the CP3-powered MT-09 that arrived kicking and screaming in 2013 that really set the world on fire.

A masterstroke by Yamaha, the MT-09 not only looked mental, it also recreated the same kind of hooligan-inspired impact and resulting spike in sales that the RD350LC had done in the 1980s. And just like the LC, much of the MT-09's success is down to its motor because, let's be honest, it's not a perfect bike, but when you ride one, it is very easy to ignore a few of its slight issues as that engine is amazing.

Developing the CP3 was quite a radical move for Yamaha but one that was a calculated risk. Triumph had already proven that buyers didn't care about the 'traditional' 599cc middleweight capacity with the 675cc Street Triple and Kawasaki's middleweight Z750 was 748cc, so Yamaha decided to go full-on and give buyers an 847cc triple. And boy, did this gamble pay off, because the CP3 is an instantly addictive motor...