2014–2017 · Naked Bike · A variant of the MT-09
Differences between the standard MT-09 and the Street Rally
Dirt-Trim Triple With Soul
The Street Rally takes Yamaha's 847 cc inline-three and wraps it in dirt-bike cues: short flyscreen, padded bar brace, a seat built for moving around rather than sitting still. The 115 hp triple is the whole story. It pulls hard from low revs, keeps building all the way up, and never feels like it was smoothed out for the sake of a clean dyno chart. The aluminum frame carries only 414 lb (188 kg) wet, so the bike changes direction the instant you ask. ABS, traction control and ride modes are standard, and both ends of the suspension are adjustable.
This is a hooligan machine with clean manners, and that combination is rarer than it sounds. Build quality is genuinely excellent, the gearbox is precise, and the thing holds together over years of hard use. What it isn't is a comfort upgrade. The riding position pitches you forward over a compact chassis, the seat is small, and the dash tells you the basics and stops there. In wide, fast sweepers the front end hunts and asks for constant correction. Buy it because you want the mischief, not because you want an easier life on the highway.
Spec sheets don't ride bikes, but they set the baseline.
| Power | 115 hp (85 kW) @ 10,000 rpm |
|---|---|
| Torque | 65 lb-ft (88 Nm) @ 8,500 rpm |
| Displacement | 847 cc |
| Engine | Inline-three |
| Cooling | Liquid-cooled |
| Gearbox | 6-speed |
| Final drive | Chain |
| Fork | Upside-down (USD) |
| Front brake | 298 mm |
| Front tire | 120/70-17 |
| Rear tire | 180/55-17 |
| Wheelbase | 56.7 in (1440 mm) |
| Seat height | 32.3 in (820 mm) |
| Wet weight | 414 lb (188 kg) |
| Fuel capacity | 3.7 gal (14 L) |
| Top speed | 143 mph (230 km/h) |
| Fuel economy | 43 mpg (US) |
Equipment check
Chassis
Safety
Your first surprise is the noise. The three-cylinder rasps through the intake in a way twins and fours never manage, and it's loud enough inside the helmet to keep pulling at you. Vibration stays low even when you're deep into the revs, so your hands and feet aren't buzzing after an hour. The riding position puts your weight over the front wheel with the bars close and wide, which is exactly right when you're threading through town and reading traffic. Controls are light and everything falls where your fingers expect. At real road pace the bike feels smaller than it is, almost innocent, and that's the trap. The speedometer reads numbers your brain hasn't caught up to yet, and you keep going back for more. Two weeks in, the urge hasn't faded.
The MT-09 Street Rally (RN29-StreetRally) builds on the standard MT-09: the upgraded hardware, the key spec changes and where its character shifts. The full ride, specs, scoring and verdict are all right here on this page.
| Spec | Standard MT-09 | Street Rally | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Top speed | 130 mph | 143 mph | +12 mph |
My own 0–100 score for this bike against the class, area by area — the marker on each bar is the class average.
Steering effort is close to nothing. A short push on the bars and the bike has already changed direction, so tight streets, narrow corners and fast side-to-side work are where I enjoyed it most. Given how short it is and how far forward you sit, I expected things to get busy once the speed went up, and they don't. Held wide open on the highway it tracks straight and calm, which is more composure than most radical nakeds of this shape ever find. The bill arrives in long, fast bends. There the front end will not settle onto a radius, and I found myself steering in small corrections the whole way through instead of picking a line and trusting it. Nothing about it feels planted in that situation; it wants your hands working. This is a supermoto layout doing supermoto things, and precision through wide curves was never part of the deal.
Most Japanese machines built to this standard end up feeling anesthetized, and this one doesn't. That gap is the whole point of the motorcycle. There are no character faults to work around and nothing to forgive, yet thirty seconds after pulling away from the curb it has you grinning like something much cruder. In traffic it reads as a small, innocent supermoto. Take the next on-ramp with the throttle pinned and it is simply gone, no build-up, no warning phase, arriving at speeds that would cost you a license before you had really decided anything. What convinced me was what happened over weeks rather than minutes. I kept revving it past any sensible point, kept inventing reasons to get on the highway, kept carrying more speed through corners than I had planned. The pull got stronger the longer I had the bike, not weaker.
What I keep coming back to on this triple is that it refuses to specialize. There is genuine shove available just off idle, and rather than trailing away as the revs climb, it keeps stacking on more right to the top, so the front tire goes light without much asking. It stays civilized while doing it, too. Next to the big European twins the three-cylinder runs cleaner through the contact points and is far happier chasing revs, and none of the adrenaline goes missing in the trade. My one real criticism belongs to the early bikes: off a closed throttle they picked up too sharply to be pleasant in town, and after a few hours in traffic I was tired of managing it. The 2016 mapping change repaired that properly, keeping the urgency and adding the predictability that was missing. The gearbox never gave me a reason to think about it. Every shift, at any pace, landed where I put it.
I went looking for the usual small betrayals and never found any. Panel gaps sit even, fasteners are finished properly, and surfaces match from one part of the bike to the next, with nothing that feels like it came from a cheaper parts bin than the piece beside it. No rattle turned up over broken pavement, and no particular rpm ever set a buzz going somewhere in the structure. This is Japanese assembly working at full capacity, and you register it with your hands.
Comfort is the bill for everything else. You sit tipped forward onto a small seat, and the instrument panel gives you the basics and stops trying. For an hour of aggressive riding that layout is exactly right. Stretch it to an afternoon at highway pace and the seat and the lean start making their case, firmly, that there is more supermoto than naked bike in this thing. Set your expectations by supermoto standards and it adds up. Set them by touring standards and you will be disappointed.
If the plan is to step off a supersport into something gentler on you, look somewhere else. That is the most common reason riders shop this class, and easing off is the one thing the MT-09 will not do for you. It lives at the supermoto end of the naked-bike spectrum, nowhere near the touring end, and it asks more of the rider rather than less. The manners are polished, no argument there. Underneath them it is still a hooligan machine, and it stays one.
What follows isn't my own riding impression. It's the sum of what riders have handed me over the years: conversations in the paddock after a session, owners catching me at shows, club-night talk, and the messages that arrive from people who put real miles on one. For the MT-09 that feedback lands in a tight, repeatable pattern. The engine and the price get the warmth, and the list of gripes barely changes from one owner to the next.
Ask an MT-09 owner what they would never give up and the answer is the engine, every time. Riders describe torque that arrives right off the bottom and a top end that keeps pulling, with an immediacy and a sound they say nothing else in the class gives them. Character is the word that keeps coming up, ahead of any figure. Owners regularly frame it against sportier machinery and say they get that kind of acceleration while sitting upright, and they credit the low weight for making the 115 hp feel like more than it reads. Durability gets steady support too. High-mileage examples get talked about as mechanically sound, and nobody describes a pattern of failures.
The chassis draws the second-loudest praise. Riders describe a bike they can place exactly where they want, with wide bars giving them leverage, ground clearance they never run out of, and behavior at walking pace that stays calm despite the performance. Supermoto is the comparison owners reach for. Money is the other constant theme. They point out they got more power for less money than rivals were asking, carrying less weight while doing it, and long-term owners still make that argument years later. Running costs back it up: riders report roughly 43 mpg US (5.5 L/100km) in mixed use and consider that low for the pace on offer.
Throttle response leads the gripes. Riders describe the pickup off a shut throttle as abrupt in the sharper maps, awkward to meter on corner exits and wearing in traffic, and the gentlest of the three maps is the setting most of them settle into for daily miles. Suspension comes next, and owners are blunt about it. Neither end holds enough damping for what the engine does, the front feeling imprecise and the rear getting unsettled once the pace climbs, and suspension work is the most common first purchase. Brakes bring a quieter but persistent complaint about feel rather than power, with riders saying the initial bite isn't there. The rest is practical. Thin padding has owners shifting around after an hour, nothing takes the wind off at highway speed, the small tank puts them on the lookout for fuel early, and riders who downshift hard report the rear stepping in with no back-torque protection to catch it.
Handlebar clamp recall (2015-2017 models)
A safety recall affecting certain 2015-2017 MT-09 (FZ-09) motorcycles where the handlebar clamps may loosen, posing a crash risk. Owners should contact dealers for inspection and repair.
Excessively aggressive throttle response causing jerky on/off transitions
The ECU's fuel mapping creates abrupt power delivery during throttle transitions. In A and Standard modes, small throttle movements cause disproportionate power changes. Fuel cut functionality above ~4,500 rpm shuts off injectors during deceleration, then reapplies fuel abruptly when RPM drops — creating a pronounced jerk. Most problematic at low speeds in urban riding. Yamaha partially addressed this with a revised ECU map for 2015, and offered free reflash to 2014 owners. Some 2014 units shipped with improved mapping. Aftermarket ECU flashing (2 Wheel DynoWorks, vcyclenut, Ivan's Performance) available for ~$350 USD.
Intermittent engine cutout at idle and during low-speed deceleration
Engine cuts out at traffic lights, during slow maneuvering, or when decelerating to a stop. The ECU reduces fuel supply too aggressively near idle. Related to throttle body synchronization issues in some cases. Problem can worsen in hot weather.
Throttle position sensor malfunction causing hesitation, surging, or stalling
TPS wiring or connectors may become damaged, loose, or corroded, sending faulty or no signals to the ECU. Symptoms include hesitation, surging, stalling, or poor performance. Can trigger fault codes.
Stock front fork and rear shock lack adequate damping for performance
Front fork too soft in compression and rebound for the bike's power and weight. Rear shock loses damping control under aggressive use. Dive under braking is excessive. Rear end feels unsettled over bumps. Multiple aftermarket suspension companies (K-Tech, Öhlins, YSS, Nitron) offer complete replacement units, indicating strong market demand for upgrades.
O2 sensor failures when exposed to heavy rain or pressure washing
The O2 sensor is vulnerable to water ingress. Heavy rain, deep puddles, or pressure washing can cause sensor failure, triggering engine warning light and poor running. The sensor's position makes it susceptible to road spray. At low constant throttle, O2 sensor cycling between lean/rich creates lumpy engine running. Solutions include O2 sensor eliminator, Power Commander, or ECU flash that disables O2 sensor cycling at low RPM.
Where this Yamaha MT-09 pulls ahead of — or falls behind — its rivals on the numbers, and the typical bike in its class on character.
Power
Torque
Displacement
Wet weight
Top speed
Seat height
Forget spec-sheet bragging. Here's who the MT-09 is actually built for.
On tight, technical canyon roads this bike is a weapon, and the traffic getting there is easy work. Just know the fast sweepers ask for constant input, and budget for suspension.
Made for Angeles Crest Highway · Coronado Trail / US 191 · Highway 1 / Big Sur
Tight, repeating corners are exactly this chassis' territory, and light handling pays off over hundreds of turns. The multi-hour ride to get there is the part you'll feel.
Made for Back of the Dragon · Blue Ridge Parkway · Cherohala Skyway
Great on the twisty stuff, honest about the rest. Long Texas highway stretches between the good roads will remind you this is a compact, forward-biased machine, not a mile-eater.
Made for Austin / Texas Hill Country · Twisted Sisters · Austin / Handbuilt Motorcycle Show
If this one isn't quite the fit, these are the bikes worth riding back-to-back against it.
Any price note compares both bikes at the same age — the youngest age both have on the used market — against this Yamaha MT-09. “cheaper/pricier” is what that bike costs second-hand, not how worn it is.
