If the 2021 Yamaha MT-10 looked like this, would you mind?

TWO of the most divisive motorcycle news stories of this autumn was the unveiling of the new hyper-naked offerings from Yamaha. Both the MT-07 and MT-09 models underwent massive overhauls ready for the 2021 riding season. And not everyone was impressed.

Almost before the dust had settled on those reveals, many in the industry immediately turned their attention to the MT-10. It’s a model that is due for an update, having never been given a styling change since its introduction in 2016.

2021 Yamaha MT-09 SP revealed

With both the smaller machines in the Iwata hyper-naked range going under the knife for 2021, it seems sensible to assume it too will be getting a fresh new look for next year. With that in mind, it seems likely that the king of the tuning fork nakeds will next year look considerably different, with all signs pointing to it sharing the design language shared across the smaller platforms.

Rather than simply dreaming about how the bike could look, one talented designer has gone ahead and created the bike in virtual form, with Italian website Moto.it sharing the results.

The mash-up has been created by taking the fuel tank and headlight from the 2021 MT-09 and morphing it onto the chassis of the venerable MT-10. The result is a very handsome looking bike in many respects. To us, the single headlight look seems to fit the more muscular outline of the MT-10 better than it does on the MT-09 and MT-07. No doubt helping the aesthetic is the fact that the original MT-10 was, let’s admit it, no oil painting, whereas the previous smaller capacity nakeds were always fairly well received.

But could the 2021 Yamaha MT-10 look much more familiar?

While the thought of a fresh and new MT-10 is exciting, we could all be well off the mark. Spy-shots captured already this autumn showed a version of the MT-10 undergoing testing in a completely different guise. That machine featured a turbocharger and styling that was very much like that of the current machine.