Yamaha DT-07 Concept video

Thanks to Lenny Schuurmans for pointing us to this video.
It's from venerable US magazine Motorcyclist, who are obviously putting a big effort into an online presence. The presenter of the piece says to the Yamaha spokesperson, 'If you don't build this you're missing the boat.' But does he mean as a road bike or a racer? I'd be surprised if this isn't a ready to ride racer in this form.

So, let's assume he means a road bike version. If a company can't make a good looking concept they want shooting, but a production road bike could never look like this. It would need a front and long rear fenders; licence plate holders; reflectors; turn signals; front brake system; mirrors; lights; probably/possibly a small oil cooler; catalytic converter... It would be very unlikely to have 19in wheels, unless they had a partner willing to develop and test new tyres (for a niche motorcycle). Yamaha built the Trickster Tricker with a tiny tank, so they might be able to convince the product planning department that the public will buy a bike with a small tank, but will the public? In the numbers a production bike demands? The Scrambler is hitting the mark globally, so it's no unfeasible. Kawasaki built the supercharged H2, so stranger things have happened in recent years.

But, I think a lot of people seem to be missing the point, when they see this and envisage a road bike. It's far more likely Yamaha want a piece of the X Games marketing pie, and see Rossi as an FZ-07 street bike marketing tool, if they can link this concept to that road bike (that isn't a bad looking if you like that sort of thing).

Dirt track bikes look so good to so many because while they look like a traditional street bike, they don't have to play by road bike rules. Manufacturers are getting cleverer at packaging and I'm not saying Yamaha couldn't make a good looking road-going street tracker, but, perhaps with the exception of the early twin downtube Honda FTR250 (and even that needed its fender extenders removing), I can't think of a manufacturer who has made a good-looking, straight from the showroom, production street tracker, but perhaps you disagree. G

SCROLL DOWN to see an earlier post on this bike.