Yamaha MT-07: Is It Still the Best Value Naked Bike in the UK?

For the better part of a decade, asking which naked bike offers the best value in Britain has had a boring, one-word answer: Yamaha's MT-07. It arrived in 2014 as a bit of a happy accident, a cheap parallel-twin wrapped in an unglamorous steel frame, and somehow became the default entry on almost every learner's, commuter's and downsizer's shortlist. That is a remarkable run for any motorcycle to sustain, and reputations built that early tend to calcify into assumption rather than fact.

But assumption is exactly what I want to test here, because the naked-bike middleweight class in the UK has quietly become the most competitive corner of the entire market. Suzuki's GSX-8S undercuts nothing and still manages to feel like the smarter buy on a spec sheet. Honda's CB750 Hornet turned up with a genuinely thrilling engine and a badge that opens doors at resale. Kawasaki refreshed the Z650 rather than letting it fade quietly, and Triumph's Trident 660 keeps sniping from the same price bracket with a triple that sounds better than anything else here. So does the MT-07 still deserve the crown, or has nostalgia been doing its marketing for it? I have ridden all of them back to back this year, and I have a clear answer.

The Rivals Have Actually Turned Up

Let's give the competition its due, because for years the MT-07 barely had any. That is no longer true. The GSX-8S borrows a 776cc parallel twin from Suzuki's own V-Strom, and it feels like a genuinely more sophisticated machine at a standstill: a proper TFT dash, a chassis that turns in with real precision, and a fit and finish that makes the Yamaha's switchgear feel a generation older than it actually is. The Honda CB750 Hornet is sharper still. Its 755cc twin spins harder and more eagerly than either rival, and Honda has wrapped it in bodywork that looks like it costs more than it does. Kawasaki's Z650, smaller in displacement but sharper than ever, undercuts everything here on price and remains a genuinely lovely, unintimidating first big bike. None of these are also-rans anymore. They are proper, considered motorcycles, and any one of them would make a perfectly sensible purchase.

This matters because the MT-07's original pitch, that nothing else this cheap is this good, depended on a vacuum that no longer exists. The gap in outright competence has closed, and in a couple of isolated categories, like dash quality or braking feel, I think the newer bikes have actually nosed ahead. If this were purely a showroom beauty contest judged on spec sheets and first impressions, I am not sure the MT-07 wins anymore.

The Engine That Still Wins Arguments

Which is why the CP2 engine matters so much to this argument. Yamaha's 689cc crossplane twin produces a relatively modest 73 hp, well down on the Hornet's peak figure and a few horses shy of the GSX-8S, and on a spec sheet that looks like a weakness. Ride it, and it stops looking like one almost immediately. The 270-degree crank gives the motor an uneven, lumpy firing order that translates into real, chest-level torque from just above idle, with 67 Nm arriving at only 6,500 rpm, low enough that you rarely need to visit the upper half of the tacho at all. It pulls cleanly out of roundabouts in a gear too tall, shrugs off a pillion and a full tank, and never asks you to work for the fun the way a peakier engine sometimes does.

The Hornet's engine is the more thrilling thing to rev out, and I will not pretend otherwise; it wants to be worked and rewards you when you do. But the MT-07's motor is the one that is genuinely more usable on a wet Tuesday commute, and usability, not lap times, is what most owners are actually buying. There is also something the spec sheet cannot capture: character. The CP2 has a slightly agricultural, off-beat thump that makes even gentle riding feel eventful, and after eleven years on sale it remains one of the most likeable engines in motorcycling at any price, let alone this one.

Price Is Not the Whole Picture

On sticker price alone this class is closer than the reputations suggest; a few hundred pounds separates most of these bikes once you are actually stood in a UK dealership. But that is the wrong way to compare them, because the MT-07's real advantage has never really been the RRP. It is everything that follows the purchase.

Servicing tells the same story. Yamaha's dealer network is enormous and its parts bin has been stable for over a decade, so consumables such as tyres, chains, pads and even secondhand bodywork panels are cheap and everywhere, because half the trade has been fitting them to MT-07s since 2014. Insurance groups tend to favour the Yamaha too, partly on raw claims history and partly because insurers simply have over a decade of data to price it confidently; a newer model with a shorter track record is, in insurance terms, always a slightly bigger unknown. None of that shows up in a spec-sheet comparison, and every bit of it shows up on your annual renewal notice.

There is a British-specific wrinkle to all this that spec-sheet comparisons tend to skip: the A2 licence. Yamaha sells a restricted version of the MT-07 that a new rider can hop onto straight after passing their test, then have de-restricted to full power the day their licence upgrades, with no need to trade the bike in and start again. The GSX-8S and CB750 Hornet both offer similar A2 variants now, so this is no longer a unique advantage on its own, but the Yamaha's decade-long head start means there is a vast, forgiving used market of well-known, well-documented examples to buy into at almost every price point, which is exactly what a nervous new rider actually wants.

Used values reinforce the same point from a different angle. Because so many MT-07s have passed through UK dealers and private sales over the past decade, buyers and finance companies alike know precisely what one is worth at any given condition and mileage. That predictability keeps monthly finance payments competitive and protects owners from the depreciation cliff that can hit a newer, less-proven model once the initial hype settles down.

• A decade-plus of used MT-07s on the market keeps parts, tyres and secondhand bodywork cheap and easy to find.
• Yamaha's UK dealer network is one of the largest around, so servicing rarely means a long round trip.
• Insurers have over ten years of MT-07 claims data to price against, a real advantage over newer, less-proven rivals.
• Strong, predictable residuals mean it typically loses less value over three years than most of this list.
• A genuinely light, low-maintenance twin with no complex electronics package that could eventually go wrong.

The MT-07 has never been the best naked bike in this class. It has simply been the hardest one to argue against, and eleven years on, that is still true.— Marcus Vale, Chief Road Tester

Where the MT-07 Actually Loses Ground

I want to be honest about where the Yamaha genuinely falls short, because a fair verdict has to include it. The stock suspension is soft and underdamped for anyone riding briskly or carrying a pillion regularly, and the GSX-8S and the Hornet both feel more composed over a bumpy B-road straight out of the box. Wind protection is minimal, which is true of most nakeds but felt more keenly on the MT-07's more upright, exposed riding position. And the switchgear and dash, while perfectly functional, now look their age next to the Hornet's slicker presentation. If build quality and outright polish were the only criteria, I would send you toward Honda without much hesitation.

The Verdict

So is the MT-07 still the best value naked bike in the UK? Yes, but only just, and only because value is a running total rather than a single number. The Hornet is the more exciting engine, the GSX-8S the more sophisticated all-rounder, and the Trident 660 the sweetest-sounding option in this bracket. But none of them combine purchase price, servicing cost, insurance friendliness, resale strength and that endlessly likeable CP2 engine into one package as convincingly as the Yamaha still does. Rivals have closed the gap on the showroom floor. They have not closed it across the three years of ownership that actually follow. Buy the MT-07 today and I do not think you will feel like you compromised. You will simply have made the same sensible decision a few hundred thousand other UK riders already have, for exactly the same good reasons.