Yamaha Motor, Respectfully Presented! MT-07-based Cruiser "Walky7" Debuts at SUGO

At the "My YAMAHA Motorcycle Day 2025" held at Sportsland SUGO on October 18, a machine was exhibited that was quite rugged, but therefore oddly intriguing. This vehicle, named "Walky7," was the result of the "Proposal Vehicle Activity" of volunteers from Yamaha's Experimental Department.

This is an activity that gives shape to the idea of "Isn't this kind of thing interesting? into a reality.

My YAMAHA Motorcycle Day is an annual owners' event held by Yamaha Motor Corporation, and this year, the 2025 event was held at Sportsland SUGO in Miyagi Prefecture. We will report on it later.Among them, the one that caught our attention the most was the "Walky7," a MT-07/Y-AMT-based vehicle that was bursting with a rugged, if not rude, handmade feel that made us think it was not made by a manufacturer. As the slang word "walky" means "strolling," this is a proposal for a cruiser-spec model that allows for relaxed riding.

The story behind its birth can be traced back to a volunteer from Yamaha's experimental testing department who, during the development of the MT-07 and Y-AMT, said, "The 07 engine, with its pleasant pulse, was combined with the Y-AMT, which is clutch lever-less and can be shifted to AT gear for easy riding. Wouldn't it be interesting to make a cruiser that can be driven in a relaxed manner based on this engine? This idea originated from the thought, "Wouldn't it be fun to make a cruiser that can be driven in a relaxed manner based on this?Yamaha allows the creation of such vehicles to the extent that it does not interfere with business operations, in order to hone the skills and spirit of challenge required for product development. In recent years, Yamaha has been active in this proposed vehicle activity, and the electric minibike "E-FV" displayed at the 2023 Japan Mobility Show and the three-wheel and hybrid TW200 "TMW" were born from the same activity.In addition to verifying the new appeal of the "MT-07-based cruiser," Worky 7 also aims to learn welding and metalworking, with the work being done by the volunteers of the experimental division themselves. The Worky 7 has a handmade appearance with its metal sheets bent into a crisp shape, but in reality, six design sketches were created by a professional designer, and the Worky 7 was built based on the design selected from among these (one of the purposes of the proposed vehicle activity is to go through the same steps as actual development). ).

A hint of the pulse...Subaru's horizontally opposed engine?

So, although the exterior of the car has a rough appearance, the "main work" of the experimental division is naturally very serious. While using the stock MT-07 frame and engine, the front forks were extended and the rear shocks and links were changed to create a cruiser-like body posture with a lowered rear end. Of course, the ride position has also been changed, and the seat height is 730mm, the lowest in the MT-07 series. The seat is now low enough to allow the driver to pedal the vehicle forward.The Y-AMT electronically controlled transmission has a shift schedule that allows the rider to comfortably drive at 40 to 50 km/h, and the YCC-T electronically controlled throttle has been re-set in the same direction. In addition, taking advantage of the fact that the Y-AMT model has no clutch lever, the rear brake is operated with the left hand, as on a scooter, in pursuit of an even easier ride.It is interesting to note that the exhaust pipe on the left cylinder is much longer than the one on the right side, so-called unequal-length exhaust pipe. The aim is to enhance the feeling of pulse, but what is interesting is the concept behind the design. The exhaust note of a 4-wheel Subaru car with a horizontally opposed engine, which tends to have unequal exhaust pipe lengths due to its layout, led the engineers to think that they could create a cruiser-like pulse with the same technique. The idea was to create a cruiser-like pulse with the same technique.

Incidentally, the disjointed sound of the horizontally opposed Subaru is the result of exhaust interference (inefficiency) caused by the unequal length of the exhaust pipes, and if the pipes were equal length, there would be no such sound. Of course, the development team of the Worky 7 understood this, but it is interesting to note that when they actually tried it out, they found that the heartbeat was increased, and this could be intensified by changing the silencer. Since high efficiency is not always the right answer for motorcycles, the opportunity to actually test this is something that can only be achieved through the proposed vehicle activities. Although the explanatory board for the Worky 7 stated "There are no plans to market this model," the author is told that the famous Yamaha Cerro started out as a single experimental vehicle, which the developer himself recalls as "embarrassingly handmade. A cruiser would be marketable, and if it caught the eye of a great person, wouldn't it be a workhorse 7, one chance? Image Gallery (12)