I have one and absolutely love it had it nearly two years now. My bike is an early one 2013 and yes the throttle is snatchy, Yamaha did a remap on my bike and it is a bit better, but not great I am used to it now. There are several people in the UK do ECU flashing I will attach a link to the MT09 forum, look for a guy TrippleTrouble (Richie Rees) he is the main man and those who have used his services rave about the difference it makes to the bike
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http://mt09.motorcycle-talk.com/forum/search.php?searchid=448039The suspension is another so called poor point on the MT09 certainly the rear shock is not great. I am a heavy lad 120kgs but I have played with my set up and it is okay for me. It all depends what you want to do with the bike. I do a lot of long haul touring. In the past year I have been from the SW of France to N Ireland , SW of France to N Wales, SW of France down to the Costa Blanca in Spain 3 weeks ago All of those trips I covered over 2000 miles. Next month I am meeting up with a group from the SX forum and we are heading up to the Ardennes region and Baden Baden in Germany. I have absolutely no trouble keeping up with any of these guys on there Z1000Sx's and given the right roads they struggle to hang on to me lol.
My set up is Givi tank lock bag and Shad soft panniers. The stock seat for me is comfortable enough. I can go from full tank to needing a fill up before I start to feel a bit uncomfortable. The tank is a bit on the small side for touring at 14 ltrs and depending how aggressive you are with the right wrist you can get anywhere between 58 MPG to 39MPG.
On my model there are 3 modes (B) =Tame wet weather ride, (Std) = normal dry weather,(A)= Animal/Hooligan mode. Even in Std mode if you give it plenty you will struggle to keep the front wheel down. In A mode a lot of sports bikes will be going WTF!! is that staying with me.
Being a triple low down torque is there and when you hit the power band fecking hang on.
It is a really light weight bike @180kgs and to be honest is one of the reasons I moved from my FZ1 as much as I loved the FZ1 it had become to heavy for me as my knees are shot and being the wrong side of 65 did not really need the big boy Fazer.
I have had absolutely no issues with reliability on the bike although I think I may be due a new battery soon. I have over 10,000 miles on her now and she still looks like new, admittedly I rarely ride in the wet now or winter time.
I would say if you ride all year round in the UK with salted and gritted roads the shinny bits will need constant attention and ACF50 plastered all over. The build quality is certainly not as good as my 2009 FZ1 was but it is a budget bike.
Would I buy another one?? probably not, only because I would buy the MT09 Tracer as it is more suited for touring. The residual values on the MT09 seem weak so a bargain bike is out there. Me when funds permit will seek a decent deal for a Tracer but I am sure I will keep the MT09 as well for weekend fun.
Hope this helps, they are a great wee bike and fun all the way. If you do decide to try one look beyond the snatchy throttle and rear suspension these can be sorted out. Yamaha cannot sell enough of them or the Tracers, there best selling models by far.