#ProjectBike

It’s been about a month since we introduced Motorcycle.com’s 2022 Yamaha MT-10 SP semi-long-term project bike. In case you forgot the premise of this whole thing, Yamaha offered us the opportunity to hang on to an MT-10 SP for an extended period of time, and since I have a soft spot for the bike, I decided to give it some tasteful upgrades to address some key weaknesses while also unleashing some trapped potential. The point here is two-fold: first is to see what the bike could do with some simple upgrades. Second is to not break the bank while doing so because otherwise, you could easily go buy one of the European competitors that would probably still spank this MT, stock. 

In the past month I’ve installed the upgrades and even taken the trusty MT to the track and ridden it on the streets a little. Read on to get my take on each upgrade, ranging from ease of installation to real-world impressions.

Long-term test bikes aren’t something we normally do here at Motorcycle.com, but when Yamaha’s PR guy Gerrad Capley said I could take the MT-10 SP home after the press intro, it was an offer that was hard to resist. When I asked him how long I could have it, he basically shrugged his shoulders and winked. “Can I modify it?” I asked. “Only if you give it back to us in stock form,” he said. Just like that, I dashed away with an MT-10 SP for an indefinite amount of time. Nice.

If you bothered to read deep into the comments section of my 2022 Yamaha MT-10 SP First Ride review, you might have seen that I was going to do something like this. I suppose putting it in writing with its own post makes it official. The plan is to put some miles on it, obviously, but also to add some bang-for-the-buck modifications to really extract the most out of it without getting too crazy. I also don’t want to price this thing into the category of some of its European competitors, which in stock form would still be better than the MT anyway. And since the bike is predominantly going to be in my hands, it’s going to see a life filled with racetrack miles to go along with the miles spent on the freeway and canyons. But since the MT will be ridden in between other test bikes floating around here at MO, don’t expect to see mega miles or maintenance along the way. Although, if the bike does require any unplanned repairs, that’ll be noted in future installments.