When a Yamaha R7 was offered up to Fast Bikes to join our 2023 long-term test fleet, the answer was a no-brainer for us. The R7 is a cheeky little chappie that’s big on smiles and small on price, so is about as relevant as it gets these days. It’s also a bike with a very large scope for modifications, which gets another tick from us. Then the debate started as to who should be its custodian for the months ahead, with everyone making their case only for the updated regulations for the upcoming TT and Northwest 200 to be published. They confirmed that the R7 and Aprilia RS660 are now able to have a whole host of modifications made in order to make them competitive in the Supertwin class which has been dominated by the uberexpensive Paton in recent years.
A quick call was made to Michael Rutter, whose last piston-powered TT win was in 2017 in the Supertwin class, and who finished in fifth place in the 2022 Supertwin TT, just
