---
title: "The Yamaha DT-07 Dirt Track Concept Gives Me Dirty Feelings"
description: "Nothing beats simplicity on two wheels."
date: "2015-10-15"
modified: "2015-10-15"
authors:
  - name: "Chris Cantle"
    job_title: "West Coast Editor"
    link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/chris-cantle"
url: "https://www.thedrive.com/accelerator/518/the-yamaha-dt-07-dirt-track-concept-gives-me-dirty-feelings"
categories:
  - "News"
  - "Racing"
tags:
  - "concept car"
---

# The Yamaha DT-07 Dirt Track Concept Gives Me Dirty Feelings

![](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/images-by-url-td/content/archive-images/101515_yamahadt07_hero_0.jpg>)
*\<em\>www.thedrive.com\</em\>*

Oh, Yamaha. Please don’t tease me like this. The FZ-07 already has a place in my heart: I’m convinced it’s the best of a fresh crop of fantastic new middleweight motorcycles. That cross-plane parallel twin makes rude, rude noises and, displacing 689cc’s, it makes plenty of torque too. Especially down low, right in the meat of the powerband. Right where, say, a flat track racer would want it.

Which is why this Yamaha DT-07 Concept really gets to me. Because, man, that’s just right. Discarding the FZ-07’s fine, stiff space frame for handsome and spindly custom job, ditching the angular headlight and passenger accommodations for a long single-piece body. Forks plucked from an R6. New and righteous Propulsion Labs wheels. It’s art. This concept tickles that funny thing that makes all motorcycles desirable. Because while the FZ-07 is a reasonably handsome, modern machine, nothing beats simplicity on two wheels. And this DT-07 concept is just that. Yamaha, you’re singing my song.

The DT-07 was put together by the company’s race shop at their US headquarters in California. Frequent Yamaha fiddler [Jeff Palhegyi](<https://www.bikeexif.com/dirt-tracker>) chipped in as well, he’s responsible for that bitchin’ bodywork. While a Yamaha FZ-07 engine already powers an impressive [AMA Pro Flat Track machine](<https://www.amaproracing.com/ft/news/index.cfm?cid=62737>), the factory treatment and 60th anniversary color scheme stand this DT-07 concept apart. The bike debuted today at the [AIMExpo](<https://www.aimexpousa.com/>) in Orlando, but I’ll be itching to see it just as soon as it comes home.

*Hat tip to our buddy Sean at [Lanesplitter](<https://lanesplitter.jalopnik.com/>).*

## Author
Honorary laboratory rat Chris Cantle represents *The Drive* from his home state of California. He is a keen motorcyclist, experimenter in fringe motorsports and an NSAID enthusiast. He cut his teeth with *Cycle World* and *Road & Track* as a writer, photographer and video producer before making Time Inc. his home.

### Author social links  
[Instagram](<https://instagram.com/chriscantle>)  
[Twitter](<https://twitter.com/chriscantle>)