VIDEO: Teaser for a new Yamaha middleweight sports?

With the recent launch of the Aprilia RS660 (RM59,900) it appears Yamaha might be hopping on the middleweight sports bike bandwagon with the release of this teaser video. No real details were shown in the 28 second video, aside from the very noticeable engine note of a two-cylinder motorcycle shown tearing up a country road.

Yamaha currently has the Yamaha MT-07 in its Malaysia market catalogue, while the MT-07 Tracer adventure-tourer is one we don’t get. With the omission of a true middleweight sports bike in the line-up, save the track-only Yamaha YZF-R6 and the other Malaysian market option of the Honda CBR600RR (RM98,888), it looks like the fully-faired sports motorcycle might be making a come back.

The Yamaha R6 is a four-cylinder though, as is market rival the CBR600RR, so there could be a place for a two-cylinder pure sports motorcycle at a competitive price point, as the Aprilia RS660 has shown. It should be noted that many are calling the yet to be shown Yamaha sports machine as the “R7”, a designation missing from Yamaha’s sports bike range since 2002.

2021 R6 Race

It remains to be seen if the new machine will indeed be called the R7, or something else entirely, as traditionally, over the past two decades, the “-R” designation has been reserved for Yamaha’s four-cylinder sports motorcycles, the Yamaha YZF-R25/YZF-R3 excepted. However, with the MT-07 proving popular amongst Malaysian riders for its pricing and ease of use, there is a case for Yamaha to provide a true sports alternative to the MT-07 naked sports, like the current catalogue offerings of the Yamaha YZF-R25 and MT-25 sold side-by-side.

Technically, with Yamaha’s production facilities in ASEAN, it could conceivably bring it’s new middleweight sports into Malaysia at a pricing similar to the Yamaha MT-07’s local market price of RM38,288. What do you think? Is there a place for a new, competitively priced middleweight sports bike in Malaysia?