Yamaha MT-03 Burnt Ass
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Hey folks.
I was just browsing through some old photos there and came across some of the MT-03 seat incident that I had a while back. I wrote briefly about it here, but unfortunately it seemed to skip past without any dedicated post about it. I think that was during my riding only period, where I never bothered to update YY. Shame on me.
So just as a wee updater, my first bike was a Yamaha MT-03, brand new. I rode it for 5,000 miles and then out of the blue, the rear of the bike melted.
It looked something along the lines of this (these photos were taken the same day of the incident) :
It was a good looking bike you know.
So the seat looked like this from the outside. I thought “why’s my stitching burst?”
The carnage that lay underneath. There was a toolkit melted in to this as well!
To the right centre of this image, at the bottom, you can see where the texture of the toolkit has made an imprint on to the plastic. It shows just how hot it is, if fabric can leave a textured imprint on hard plastic.
The frame was in direct view of the hole that I discovered in the exhaust, so was also heated up to whatever temp comes out of an exhaust. Very hot, enough to melt the shrink wrap over the cables.
The hole. It’s amazing how something as small as a weld can create such a big mess. This was about an inch in length. Amazing.
This picture shows how the plastic shield melted as well.
This is the bottom of the pillion grab handle, and you can see the charred carbon residue left on the bottom of it.
A wee arrow showing the location of the failed weld. It’s actually on the other side but I don’t have a photo of it.
So there you go. It still amazes me that we got away with it. I can only imagine the mess that could have resulted had Emma been on the back. And I’m still a bit disappointed with the way Yamaha dealt with it, by saying “Tough.”
Well this problem and the attitude from Yamaha made me decide to leave…and buy a Buell. And what a fantastic decision it was.
I wonder if anyone else has had this issue with regards to failing welds.
Anyway, a tale for the YamYam book anyway.
Thanks for your article…I was attracted by the bike and I’ll be vigilent on that point….
Saturday, February 6, 2010 at 21:14
oh what a shame – i really hope this was a one off.
glad your missus / you didnt get hurt obviously. Buells are very good choice – judging on looks (not ridden)
i’ve become infactuated with the MT and am very very close to actually getting one as my first big bike & thought i better do 1 more run through reviews before going ahead… and then I stumbled accross your blog. :S
would be really interesting to know if this is a “regular” occurence.
Friday, February 19, 2010 at 17:43
When i read the title ‘Yamaha MT-03 Burnt Ass’ i was thinking along the lines of you eating a red-hot curry then doing a nuclear fart heading down the m90…
Yes i know i’m too old to be making fart jokes.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010 at 20:57
Wow, I have an MTO3 and have done 14,000 miles on it so far, I absoloutely love the bike and its a shocker to read your story, hope that was a one off !!
For me the power is OK, I think its plenty quick enough for what I need and theres a chance I might keep my licence too, I think the handling, low running costs and simplicity just do it for me, and it does look and sound great too, I have never heard of another one going bad like yours….bad luck
I love my MT)3 so much and its now out of warranty, I would be gutted if mine went the same way as yours…thanks for posting
Thursday, June 17, 2010 at 21:58
This burn out problem has a recall notice from yamaha, RM/2007/047, if you check out the MT-03 owners club, this is a forum on there that lists the three recall notices that yamaha released for the MT-03. Apparently to have the work done is free of charge or so they say
Sunday, October 3, 2010 at 22:06