2025 Yamaha MT-10

I Was Avoiding This Motorcycle On Purpose

I own a 2019 MT-10. I have owned it for seven years, I have toured on it, I have done track days on it, and the day before this shoot I rode it for nine hours. So when I went back through the first ride list and realized I had gone to the press launch of this generation in 2022 and never actually made a first ride of the standard bike, I knew exactly why. I did the SP. I skipped this one. I did not want to know how much better it was than mine.

I gave up and rode it anyway, mostly because I had not slept and my judgment was compromised. And here's the thing: the problem with the 2025 MT-10 is not the engine, and it is not the price. It is something I did not see coming at all.

Performance Highlights

The 998cc CP4 crossplane four is the same R1 derived motor everybody already knows, 165.9 horsepower and 82.4 pound-feet, and it behaves in exactly two ways depending on which side of 6,000 rpm you are on. Below that it is lazy. Luggy, even, and if you are pottering around town in a tall gear it feels like a big comfortable tourer with a flat spot. Get above 6,000 and it is a completely different motorcycle. The power just feeds and feeds and it never stops feeding.

That split is actually the whole argument between this and the MT-09. The triple hits sooner and harder and lives right in the rev range you use in the city, so back to back most people would swear the 09 is the faster bike in traffic. The 10 makes you go get it. I like that more, because it gives me two motorcycles. Stay in a high gear and it is measured and civil. Drop two and it absolutely is not.

The 40 to 80 pull is where the rider aids show off. I put it in the highest power mode with lift control on 1, leaned as far forward as I could, and the front wheel came up anyway and simply stayed there while the bike carried on accelerating. It ran 3.26 seconds in 1st. My own 2019 did 3.09 in 2nd, so on paper the new one is slower, and that is entirely because this one spent the run on one wheel. Drop the lift control a setting and it would have gone quicker. It also would have missed the entire point of the motorcycle.

Brakes were soft, and I am not going to hold that against it. The odometer read 39 miles. There is a Brembo radial master cylinder on the bar and the pads had not been scrubbed in yet, and when I rode this bike at the press launch on a machine with proper miles on it the brakes were good. I will say the brakes on my own MT-10 are the one thing I wish were stronger, so it is not a spotless record.

Handling is the honest weak point. At 467 pounds you feel every bit of it when you want a quick flick, and the MT-10 does not dart. It initiates a turn and then it goes, which is a different and slower feeling than the light stuff. Once you are into the power band the weight stops mattering entirely. The KYB fork and shock are fully adjustable at both ends, and leaned over hard on a big sweeper the bike just locked in. The SP's suspension is better, that is what the SP is for, but on this one you might genuinely never need it.

Rider Experience & Tech

Body position is my favorite thing on this bike after the motor. Slightly bent legs, wide bars, a small lean forward that you can take or leave. Perched up at the bottom half and relaxed on top. At 5 foot 10 with a 32 inch inseam I could just get my feet down on the 32.9 inch seat. The seat itself is a little hard and the section where it steps up grabs at your leg, so if you are doing distance, budget for a comfort seat. I would.

On the highway it is better than its reputation. Sixth gear at 80 sits around 6,000 rpm and I could barely tell the engine was running. Cruise control works properly and turns off with a forward push of the same switch. There is a rider set speed limiter if you want one. The stability is genuinely excellent, and with a taller screen, which is the first thing I would buy since the stock one does nothing at all, this thing tours. People sleep on that. I have toured on mine.

The quick shifter deserves its own paragraph. Up and down, and every gear lands with a satisfying mechanical hit that tells you it went in without you having to check the indicator. Yamaha overhauled it for this generation and it was already good.

Two real complaints, and one of them is the reason for the whole video. First: you cannot change ride modes while the bike is moving. You have to be stopped. I understand why, because switching a mode is switching ABS and lift control and traction all at once, but if it starts raining on a highway I do not want to be hunting for an off ramp to get out of my aggressive mode. I had to pull over into a parking lot before the 40 to 80 run for exactly this reason. Second: the dash. The riding screen is fine. The YRC menu where you actually build your modes looks like a standardized test from 1980, and Yamaha's newer dashes on other bikes are already much better than this.

And then the actual problem. Yamaha has perfected lift control. Not improved, perfected. You can put a 165 horsepower motorcycle in its angriest mode, wring the throttle wide open, and it will lift the front wheel to the exact right place and hold it there like you meant to do it. On my 2019, I have to respect the bike, because it is actively trying to kill me at all times. This one swaps that knife for a plastic one. I am fairly confident I would ride this MT-10 worse than I ride mine, precisely because it lets me.

The Chase Score & Final Thoughts

A Chase Score of 80/100 puts the 2025 MT-10 firmly in Great territory and lands it third overall, tied with the Street Triple 765 RX and the Tuono 660 Factory, behind the MT-09 SP and the Speed Triple 1200 RX. It is five points clear of my own 2019, and almost all of that gap is Tech going from a 4 to an 8.

Buy it if you have been riding a while and you are tired of owning three motorcycles to do three jobs. Track days, touring, commuting, canyon roads, this thing covers all of it for $14,999 with an R1 engine in the middle, and that is very hard to argue with. I own an MT-10 and a Tenere 700, and the only reason the Tenere exists is dirt. Skip it if you are new, because 165 horsepower and rider aids good enough to convince you that you know what you are doing is not a combination a beginner needs.

Am I selling my 2019 to buy one? No. But that is not because this bike is not better. It is because it is.