Hello from Germany (NRW)

It is getting interesting now, more or less. Had just a short stop at my dealer before the holidays. With the welcome I was already lead to the newest arrival:



For me the first R7 in the flesh. It was delivered out of the blue, will be interesting how the supply will go on. Already now it is said, there will be less delivered than ordered by Yamaha Deutschland (Germany).

As the colours are same same, I rolled it to its big sister:



Yep, looks very grown up. And even with me in the saddle it does not look like a pocket bike. The ergos are fine so far and as far I could check when throwing a leg over it.

Just wondering about the throttle stroke and nobody complained about it?. It remembers me a lot to the XSR /MT/FZ) OEM stroke which is far too wide or long as well. Think this will be my first mod.
I'm curious when the one confirmed 60th Anniversary will be delivered to my dealer. Actually I am not in a hurry as the streets are salted anyhow and the first potential time for firing up will be in three months earliest. And first track appointment is in the mid of May. (But...)

So I may calm down, sit, lean back and wait...

hombacher said:

It is getting interesting now, more or less. Had just a short stop at my dealer before the holidays. With the welcome I was already lead to the newest arrival:

View attachment 546

For me the first R7 in the flesh. It was delivered out of the blue, will be interesting how the supply will go on. Already now it is said, there will be less delivered than ordered by Yamaha Deutschland (Germany).

As the colours are same same, I rolled it to its big sister:

View attachment 547

Yep, looks very grown up. And even with me in the saddle it does not look like a pocket bike. The ergos are fine so far and as far I could check when throwing a leg over it.

Just wondering about the throttle stroke and nobody complained about it?. It remembers me a lot to the XSR /MT/FZ) OEM stroke which is far too wide or long as well. Think this will be my first mod.
I'm curious when the one confirmed 60th Anniversary will be delivered to my dealer. Actually I am not in a hurry as the streets are salted anyhow and the first potential time for firing up will be in three months earliest. And first track appointment is in the mid of May. (But...)

So I may calm down, sit, lean back and wait...

Click to expand...

hombacher said:

It is getting interesting now, more or less. Had just a short stop at my dealer before the holidays. With the welcome I was already lead to the newest arrival:

View attachment 546

For me the first R7 in the flesh. It was delivered out of the blue, will be interesting how the supply will go on. Already now it is said, there will be less delivered than ordered by Yamaha Deutschland (Germany).

As the colours are same same, I rolled it to its big sister:

View attachment 547

Yep, looks very grown up. And even with me in the saddle it does not look like a pocket bike. The ergos are fine so far and as far I could check when throwing a leg over it.

Just wondering about the throttle stroke and nobody complained about it?. It remembers me a lot to the XSR /MT/FZ) OEM stroke which is far too wide or long as well. Think this will be my first mod.
I'm curious when the one confirmed 60th Anniversary will be delivered to my dealer. Actually I am not in a hurry as the streets are salted anyhow and the first potential time for firing up will be in three months earliest. And first track appointment is in the mid of May. (But...)

So I may calm down, sit, lean back and wait...

Click to expand...

Here is mine for you to look at while waiting for yours

...my first appointment mid of May.

For a while I was thinking, that little new R7 will be delivered in April. Maybe end of April or in the beginning of April. Also my Yamaha dealer never said any contrary, when I told him my track day schedule of year 2022. Meanwhile after my first track day I know, this is a very complicated year and any scheduling or estimating about delivery is absolutely useless.

I found a nice little track event not far from me. Could be booked as a two days event, or if you value your condition correctly, book it for one day only as I did. The track looks like that Venray raceway. I booked with an other organiser, but the track was used in a similar layout. Very tiny and curvy, good to get familiar with the R7, was my idea. Anyhow, last Saturday morning, just saddled my XSR and only 45 minutes later I was at Venray in the Netherlands. It was a very nice and familiar event, Enough riding time and the proof, so easy to ride that XSR.




Even that I have seen, that some riders within my group were pushing really hard, or that I remember that the total day of riding was a bit exhausting, the pictures always show some casual or easy riding of mine. No race pic available, sorry.





In total a nice riding day, think this track will see me again.

BR
hombacher

My short R7 episode is already over, before it started. Up to now the ordered 60th did not arrive, that my dealer and me got into a serious negotiation last month.
This is the outcome...



It is the last years demo bike. Big advantage it is already broken in, freshly serviced and a fresh rubber for the rear. After a nice initialisation tour through the curves to get familiar with all those electronic aids, it waits now for the track days end of this month



As a long term CP2 fan, I am really impressed how nice KTM made it with the 890 twin. The 790 was a real disappointment. The engine, the bike, nothing fitted to me, but this 890 R is very nice, smooth and easy touring is possible as well as absolute hooligan mode.
I am quite confident that it will suit to my track riding. In two weeks we know more about it.

BR
hombacher

R7-SE said:

Well! Congrats on the duke 890 r! Probably gonna have more fun with that on the road then r7! At least what my opinion! (Post owner of 890 DR)

That torque and that power on that light weight! F*** MAN! I MISS THAT BIKE! And the barkes omg the brakes! Made of the brake gods compared to the R7.

You got yourself a bargain!

If you didnt get the track pack, i recommend it to you!

Got some sweet spare parts left if you intrested

Click to expand...

Thank you very much. The Duke is for track only. the idea was a R7 track only, but as you can read above, nothing delivered up to now.



After two days on track, I am still slower with it, compared to my times with my trusty XSR. There are some ideas what to change to achieve a better riding position. The OEM seat is far too low, this has to be optimized. Let me have a look what the third party suppliers can offer.
Compared to an out of the box Yamaha, the KTM is maybe the better package. Here I paid for the demo less compared to a new 60th anniversary R7. But hey, the timer says, I am less fast compared to last year. And I wanted to develop with the R7 in means of a more suitable track bike. Now I have an other naked bike...

Naked bike brings me back to my XSR, sure the Duke is a lot of fun, but for all day riding, my little XSR is still the better ride.