MC Commute - 2018 Yamaha XSR700

Zack reviews Yamaha’s little retro naked on his daily commute

It’s no secret we’re always trying to get our staff to work a little harder. Especially the ones who always seem to have too much to say. “Write it down!” we always shout at each other. Zack Courts is a classic case, always arriving to the office after his commute with a bunch of opinions about the bike he’s riding. Too much this, not enough that, and occasionally some decent insights that we thought might help consumers or entertain enthusiasts. So we strapped a camera and microphone to his helmet and told him to turn it on when he leaves his house. A lot of his talking in his helmet is complaining about drivers, yelling at red lights, and wondering why billboards aren’t more expensive. But sometimes he actually talks about the bike, and those are the parts we keep. Got a bike you would like to see discussed? Let us know and we’ll send him home on that one next.

A little extra info on this bike:

Quick Specs
BASE PRICE $8,499
DISPLACEMENT 689cc
CLAIMED WEIGHT 410 lb. (186kg)
FUEL CAPACITY 3.7 gal. (14L)
SEAT HEIGHT 32.9 in. (835mm)
2017 FZ-07 MEASURED HORSEPOWER 66.3 @ 8,900 rpm
2017 FZ-07 MEASURED TORQUE 45.7 lb.-ft. @ 6,450 rpm

For more information on Sena Bluetooth, click here.

For more on Tiff’s FZ-07 Adventure, click here.

2017 Yamaha FZ-07 Dyno Graph

Here's a dyno chart showing the power curve of Yamaha's FZ-07, which is the same powerplant used in the XSR700. It has all of the marks of a fun engine to use—linear power and a torque curve that's relatively flat, meaning there's grunt available most places in the rev band.Motorcyclist