Speaking of yamaha YZF-R7, the knights of my age may first think of the YZF-R7, a four-cylinder sports car launched in 1999, with only 500 units mainly to meet the standards of the WSBK Superbike World Championship and the Suzuka 8-Hour Endurance Race, so the specifications need to be almost slightly modified, and they can race directly on the track. At the same time, the YZF-R6 and YZF-R1 have continued to this day, but after YZF-R6 dominated the track for many years, due to the shrinking market, it announced that it would stop production in 2020, leaving the exhaust sports car market empty.
Back in 2021, this time Yamaha's new generation YZF-R7, although the name is the same as the dream product of that year, but the actual positioning is far from the same. The new YZF-R7 is based on the MT-07 sports street car, using the same steel tube frame and CP2 689 c.c. twin-cylinder engine, but replaced with a front and rear suspension system that is more in line with the track use, and redesigned the Cavalier triangle, with a fairing covering the entire car, replacing the purebred track model of the past YZF-R6.
This sports car is actually very pure except for the engine frame
In terms of appearance, because the size of the twin cylinder is narrower than that of the four cylinder, it has a more slender body design, and the front of the car is like the new generation of the MT family, using a single fisheye headlamp, with a slender fairing, and the shape is quite similar to the MotoGP factory car YZF-M1, and all the way to the side of the bread to the engine. The only pity is that the forward direction light group is not integrated with the diurnal lights on both sides of the headlights, but adopts a separate shape set on the side shell, so that the overall feeling is slightly destroyed.
The rear shape of the car is quite unique, the short tail has a basket empty design on both sides of the rear seat, which not only has the effect of diversion, but also has a high degree of recognition of a single LED upright taillight. At the same time, the exhaust pipe on the right side is not like the long side pipe used by most automakers for environmental protection regulations, and the YZF-R7 still maintains a form close to the lower row, so that the overall feeling will not be destroyed.
After stepping on the car, you can see the color full digital meter, and the speed part is set in the upper half of the screen, so that the rider can easily see the speed information, and the speed is displayed digitally. In addition, the upper left corner also has a gear display function, the right side is the gas gauge, the bottom is the total mileage, time and other information, and the warning lights are all listed on the frame above the screen.
A little test of waist strength, but still very good to ride
It was about the end of the year's yearbook writing day, so although Yamaha was very careful to give each media a 5-day test drive, I could only pick one of the days to try, let alone ride the car to the race track. But when riding to our scheduled filming location, the easy-to-use nature of the car reminds me of when I rode my FZR around in college.
The part of the Knight Triangle, based on the frame and engine of a streetcar originally set as a street car, can be said to be the most squat car I have ever ridden in recent years. This almost close to the posture setting of a thoroughbred sports car, mainly in order to resist the wind pressure at high speed, but because the seat height setting is not too high, it will not have the same feeling of riding with the front wheel like the YZF-R6, but there is an old-school feeling of riding with the engine, for the author, the riding posture of the YZF-R7 can be said to be very familiar, and there is no pressure when parking.
The power part is nothing special, the same CP2 689 c.c engine as the MT-07, has a fairly good low-rpm torque, so even in the city it is not too difficult to ride, after the speed is pulled up, you will still feel the obvious thrust, but it will not suddenly emerge like a 4-cylinder 600-class sports car, overall it is very smooth. In addition, when backstabbing, because this gearbox is equipped with a sliding clutch for the first time, even if the backshift oil replenishment is not accurate, there will not be too many setbacks, which can be said to be a very close to the people and easy to use the power characteristics.
The suspension part, the front suspension system uses the 41 mm inverted periscope suspension commonly used by high-performance sports cars, and the rear suspension system is a single-gun multi-link mid-suspension system, the overall support is quite good, and the handling of pothole bounces is also quite delicate, although it is not as flat as the off-road vehicle, but it can also avoid too many secondary bounces.
This suspension setting, when steering, with the riding posture, will still have the feeling of increasing the rotation by pouring, and the higher foot pedal will have the feeling of not being able to detect the inclination limit. However, due to the lower center of gravity than the YZF-R6 and YZF-R1, coupled with the lightness of the twin engine, the left-right transposition is quite flexible.
Some of the brakes are familiar to the comparator, with a 298 mm dual disc with radiant 4-piston calipers in the front and a 245 mm single disc with a single-piston caliper on the rear, with an ABS anti-lock braking system. This configuration can be said to be very balanced, the front brake force is also quite linear, not too difficult to control, and the rear brake can be easily controlled to help stabilize the body when cornering.
This kind of power, brakes, steering feeling together, riding on the road really let the author have a feeling of going back to college, when riding a modified to only the frame or the original factory of the big change FZR, on the way to the race track, almost exactly the same, the twin cylinder car shaped the slim body, the feeling of fuel tank clamping, the exhaust sound of the double cylinder (although compared to the author prefers the sound of the V-shaped double cylinder), almost all the way back to the year.
Of course, after 15 years, there must be something different. At that time, the author was able to ride the FZR around, but now the waist strength, endurance has long been not as good as it was then, to let the author ride this car on the road all day is really a bit painful, the abdomen to support the upper body, do not let the hand over-support the handle, the feet should be tightly clamped fuel tank, if you ride a little longer, the next day may be muscle cramps to even get out of bed will be a little difficult, for the author to ride this car to walk is impossible. However, if I have a little budget and want to ride across counties and cities to run the track, this YZF-R7 will be the author's first choice.