Welcome to the dark side of Japan. This company slogan – dreamed up in Yamaha’s European marketing department – is the future of Yamaha. This three-cylinder, 847cc four-stroke MT-09 marks the start of what Yamaha hopes will be a new legend, in the same guise as the YZF-R1, and the FZR series before that.

The new Yamaha MT-09 is the most important motorcycle to come from the Japanese Tuning Fork brand in over a decade, and represents a change in company philosophy from safe and slightly sedate to edgy and sharp.

This funky, purple-rimmed brat of a motorcycle is all about why we ride bikes in the first place – fun. It’s about stripping away anything that doesn’t need to be there and getting back to the basics. Put simply, wheelies and stoppies!

Yamaha’s brand new MT-09 was launched in Australia on Tuesday. Image: Colin Chan.

The MT-09 renders the porridge-bland FZ8 instantly redundant. The 800cc four-cylinder, which always seemed like a stop-gap bike between the 600cc and 1000cc versions of the FZ range, is now confined to history where it will not be remembered as a game changer. The new MT-09 is.

The MT is skinny, light, agile, and quirky. It has a character that is totally unlike the Triumph Street Triple is comes up against, and at an utterly gobsmaking $11,999 ride away – yes, ride away – it represents the best value for money of any bike currently on the market.

And yes, the purple rims look sick.

The triple cylinder engine is super-torquey and a blast to ride. Image: Colin Chan.

Character is important. It makes people like you. And this is something the MT-09 has bucket loads of. From the second you fumble with the new, lighter and neater switchgear, light up the reworked dash, set the new mirrors, get comfy on the super-skinny seat and fire the three pots, this feels unlike any Yamaha gone before it.

The burble normally associated with three-cylinder engines is replaced by a four-cylinder buzz at idle. “Wait, wait”, I hear you screaming at me. “I thought this was a three banger?” Indeed it is, but there’s no hint of it at idle. It’s only when the revs reach 3000rpm and above that the trademark three-cylinder drone chimes in.

But, and it’s a JLow sized but, the torque the MT-09 produces is something no four-cylinder bike of the same capacity could ever produce. It is positively stupefying. Yamaha pipes on about “instant throttle response” and “instant throttle connection”, normally this is just press release yabbering, but they are so bang on the money here it’s not funny.

The MT-09 is one of Yamaha’s most significant model releases in recent history. Image: Colin Chan.

There is absolutely instant go the millisecond the throttle is twisted – it’s so immediate you could be forgiven for thinking the throttle is snatchy, but in actual fact the fuelling is spot on. There’s 88Nm of torque to play and only 188kg fully fuelled to push, so to say the MT-09 is lively would be like saying Miranda Kerr goes just “alright”.

There’s a claimed 115bhp on tap, but torque is the talk here. And it doesn’t run out of puff after seven grand, it’ll pull like a 40-year-old still living at home right to about 9000rpm, with that slick gearbox and the much shorter gearing than the FZ8 keeping you in the happy zone all day long.

Sixth gear laps of our test track, where the revs dropped to just 800rpm, didn’t faze this engine, which is a testament to not just the torque, but how smooth the fuelling is and how well geared it is. And if you’re a hopeless wheelier, after a day on the MT, you won’t be. Promise!

The MT is skinny, light, agile, and quirky. You’ll be sure to be a fan! Image: Colin Chan.

The lightness of the package means the MT steers with the same fluidity and response as a big-bore supermotard. It’ll tip into and hold a line easily, and the brakes – offering twin 298mm discs and four-piston calipers up front and a single-piston, 245mm disc out back – while not being life-changing in power or feel, to a more than adequate job.

Yamaha has focussed hard on mass centralisation, making sure the weight is perfectly placed to allow the chassis to do its job smoothly and to get the most from the 42.5-degree forward-inclined three-cylinder donk.

You’ll scrape the ’pegs pretty easily if you crank the MT over hard, but that’s what hero-knobs are for. Some riders will use these more than others, but this is not a sportsbike. If you want that, buy an R6.

There’s every chance that Yamaha’s MT-09 will attract a new bunch of riders to the brand. It’s that good. Image: Colin Chan.

Has Yamaha succeeded in their design brief of making a fun and agile bike, one that’s a different direction for the company that will attract new riders? No. They have positively blown the brief to pieces. This is the most exciting Japanese machine in years, and the best thing about it is, you don’t need to be going 4000km/h to have fun on it.

The phrase “going faster at slower speeds” came from the Euro launch a few weeks back, and they are spot on. I haven’t had so much fun on a bike in a long time.

Click here for detailed technical information and specifications direct from Yamaha.