When I bought TITAN, my used 2021 Yamaha MT-07, the biggest number was obvious.
€6,300.
That’s what I paid for the motorcycle with close to 20,000 km on the odometer.
But almost a year and roughly 10,000 km later, I’ve learned that the purchase price is only the beginning of motorcycle ownership.
Fuel arrives €20–€30 at a time. I always fill it up full.
Insurance quietly leaves the account every month.
Road tax appears every quarter.
Then one month you need a major service.
A few months later, tyres and brake pads.
Then there are locks, riding gear, chain spray, bike washes and all the little €5–€30 purchases that barely register individually but slowly add up.
I’ve recorded most of those expenses since the day I bought TITAN.
So rather than guessing what a Yamaha MT-07 “should” cost to own, I decided to look at what mine has actually cost me in the Netherlands.
And some of the numbers surprised me.
My MT-07 ownership snapshot
Here’s the context behind the numbers.
| Field | TITAN |
|---|---|
| Motorcycle | 2021 Yamaha MT-07 |
| Purchase price | €6,300 |
| Mileage when purchased | ~20,000 km |
| Current mileage | ~30,500 km |
| Distance ridden by me | ~10,000 km |
| Location | Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| Insurance | €23/month |
| Current road tax | ~€37/quarter |
| Typical fuel economy | ~25 km/L |
| Typical riding | Weekdays + weekend getaways |
The headline number: how much money has left my account?
If I include the motorcycle itself, my recorded and annualised cash outlay comes to approximately:
€9,708.55
That sounds enormous.
But it is also a slightly misleading way to describe ownership cost.
€6,300 of that was TITAN himself.
I still own the motorcycle.
If I sold him tomorrow, some portion of that €6,300 would come back to me.
So I don’t think it makes sense to say:
“My MT-07 cost me €9,708 to run for a year.”
It didn’t.
A better way to look at the numbers is to separate:
buying the motorcycle
from
owning and using the motorcycle.
Once I remove the €6,300 purchase price, my recorded first-year spending becomes approximately:
€3,408
And even that number needs explaining.
Because some of it won’t happen every year.
Where that €3,408 went
My non-purchase spending breaks down like this:
| Category | My spending |
|---|---|
| Maintenance, tyres & consumables | €1,278.50 |
| Fuel | €998.06 |
| Gear, security & one-off setup | €691.99 |
| Insurance | €276.00 |
| Road tax paid | €164.00 |
| Total | €3,408.55 |
This table taught me something immediately.
Fuel wasn’t my biggest expense.
Maintenance was.
Maintenance: €1,278.50
This has been the biggest non-purchase cost during my first year.
The two large bills were:
Major service at 25,270 km — €650
My notes from that service include:
- BMC air filter
- spark plugs
- engine oil and filters
- general checks
- bearings and other service inspections
It was not simply a quick oil change.
That distinction matters when somebody sees “€650 service” and assumes every MT-07 service costs that much.
This was a larger scheduled maintenance visit on a used motorcycle that already had more than 25,000 km on it.
Tyres + rear brake pads at 28,200 km — €584
A few months later came another large expense.
New tyres plus rear brake pads cost me €584.
The front brake pads still had life remaining at the time.
Between those two visits alone:
€1,234 left the account.
That explains why my first-year maintenance number looks relatively high.
Check : What the MT-07 maintenance schedule actually requires
I also spent:
€17.50 on Motul chain spray
and
€27 across several bike washes.
That brings this broad maintenance/consumables category to approximately:
€1,278.50
Would I expect exactly the same bill every year?
No.
Tyres don’t politely expire every January.
A major service isn’t necessarily an annual event either.
Maintenance follows mileage and condition more than the calendar.
But that’s exactly why I think real ownership logs are useful.
One year might be relatively cheap.
Then tyres, brakes and a larger service can land close together.
A realistic motorcycle budget needs room for that.
Insurance: €276 per year
My MT-07 insurance costs me:
€23 per month
Over twelve months:
€23 × 12 = €276
I’m very careful not to present this as:
“MT-07 insurance costs €23 in the Netherlands.”
It doesn’t.
My insurance costs €23.
Your premium can be completely different depending on your age, licence history, location, coverage, insurer and other personal factors.
So if you’re budgeting for an MT-07, use my €276 only as an example.
Get an actual quote for yourself before buying the bike.
That’s far more useful.
Road tax: around €37 per quarter for me
My first tax payment was only €18 because it covered a partial period after buying the motorcycle.
After that, my recorded payments were:
€36
€36
€37
€37
Total cash paid in my records:
€164
My current payment is around €37 per quarter.
If that rate stayed unchanged for four full quarters, that would be approximately:
€148 per year
Again, that’s my current figure—not a universal Dutch motorcycle tax.
The amount can change, so I would always check the current official calculation for the motorcycle you’re considering.
One thing I like about tracking these costs is that it makes the fixed expenses feel less mysterious.
At my current numbers:
Insurance + annualised road tax ≈ €424 per year.
Before I’ve used a single litre of fuel or changed a tyre.
Fuel: around €998 for 10,000 km
Fuel was another category I tracked throughout the year.
Across roughly 10,000 km of riding, my total fuel cost comes to approximately:
€998
My typical fuel economy has been around:
25 km/L
or roughly:
4.0 L/100 km
That means 10,000 km requires roughly:
400 litres of fuel.
My fuel chart contains a mixture of fuels including:
- Esso Supreme+ 98;
- Shell V-Power RON 98;
- BP Ultimate;
- TotalEnergies;
- other premium fuels.
The prices in my records changed considerably over the year.
And that’s an important part of fuel budgeting.
Fuel consumption may remain relatively predictable.
Fuel prices don’t.
For my first 10,000 km, the simplest useful number is:
roughly €1,000
or:
about €0.10/km in fuel
That’s a number I can actually use when thinking about future trips.
A 300 km weekend?
Very roughly:
€30 in fuel
under similar consumption and fuel prices.
That’s far more useful to me than just knowing the motorcycle achieves around 25 km/L.
Check : My real-world MT-07 fuel economy and range
Is premium 98 fuel necessary?
You’ll notice that much of my fuel record contains premium 98-octane fuels.
That’s simply what I’ve often chosen to use in TITAN.
I wouldn’t use my €998 figure to claim that every MT-07 owner will spend exactly the same amount.
A rider buying cheaper fuel, riding in another country or achieving different economy will obviously get a different result.
This article isn’t meant to create a universal MT-07 calculator.
It’s a record of my ownership.
The one-off first-year stuff: €691.99
Here’s another category that can make someone’s first year look more expensive than later years.
I spent approximately:
€691.99
on riding gear, security, accessories and general setup.
That includes things such as:
- helmet
- gloves
- waterproof boots
- rain trousers
- Quad Lock equipment
- ART chain lock
- disc lock
- helmet locks/holders
- neck gaiter and earplugs
- rain cover
- motorcycle cover
- small tools
- crash slider
- handlebar-related pieces
- windshield deflector
- DB killer/windshield installation
- various small accessories
Not all of that is essential.
And not all of it is strictly a “motorcycle running cost.”
That’s why I keep it separate.
My helmets don’t disappear after twelve months.
Neither does the chain lock.
Neither does the motorcycle cover.
A new rider may therefore have a relatively expensive first year simply because they’re building the ecosystem around the motorcycle.
Someone who already owns all their riding gear and security equipment could spend hundreds less.
I also bought several things used
One thing that helped keep my setup cost down was buying some equipment second-hand.
I wouldn’t turn that into a blanket recommendation to buy every piece of protective equipment used.
You need to know the history and condition of safety equipment.
The more useful lesson for me was simply that not everything around motorcycle ownership needs to be bought brand new.
Security equipment, certain accessories, luggage and other non-impact items can sometimes be found used in perfectly usable condition.
Buy selectively.
So what did my first year really cost?
There are several answers depending on what you mean by “cost.”
Cash outlay including the motorcycle
Approximately:
€9,708.55
But I don’t find that figure very useful because the €6,300 motorcycle is still an asset I own.
Documented spending excluding the motorcycle
Approximately:
€3,408
This includes my recorded fuel, annual insurance, road-tax payments, maintenance and all my first-year gear/setup.
That is probably the most realistic “all the money around owning and using TITAN during year one” number I can give.
But it still includes almost €700 of one-off gear and setup.
What about actual riding and motorcycle costs without the first-year shopping?
If I remove the roughly €692 spent on gear, security and one-off accessories, my approximate first-year motorcycle-use costs become around:
€2,716
That includes:
- estimated fuel
- insurance
- tax paid
- servicing
- tyres/brake pads
- chain spray
- washing
Across roughly 10,000 km:
about €0.27 per kilometre
Or approximately:
€226 per month
But I wouldn’t call €226/month a universal long-term MT-07 ownership figure either.
Why?
Because my first year contained both:
a €650 major service
and
€584 of tyres/brake work.
Another year could be cheaper.
A future year could involve something different—chain and sprockets, another tyre, another larger service or an unexpected repair.
That is the nature of owning a vehicle.
The useful number isn’t necessarily the average.
It’s knowing that these bills can arrive.
What I haven’t included
There are several costs missing from this analysis.
Most importantly:
Depreciation
The motorcycle cost me €6,300.
Its true economic ownership cost includes how much value it loses while I own it.
But I don’t have a reliable current sale value for TITAN, so I’m not going to invent one simply to complete a spreadsheet.
Financing
I bought TITAN for the recorded purchase price rather than including finance interest in this calculation.
My time
Cleaning, maintaining and dealing with motorcycle admin obviously takes time.
I don’t assign a euro value to that here.
Future maintenance
This snapshot ends around my first year.
Anything that happens next belongs to year two.
What surprised me most?
I expected fuel to feel like the biggest running expense.
It hasn’t.
The large service and tyre/brake bills have been much more noticeable.
That’s probably my biggest lesson from the first year.
A motorcycle can be reasonably economical at the fuel pump and still need a healthy maintenance budget.
My second lesson is that small purchases add up.
€2.
€15.
€25.
€36.
None feels particularly important.
Across a year, suddenly there is almost €700 of equipment and setup.
Tracking those purchases has made me much more deliberate about accessories.
I’m increasingly asking:
What problem am I actually trying to solve?
rather than:
“What else can I buy for my motorcycle?”
That mindset will become important later in this cluster when I go through TITAN’s setup and the MT-07 accessories I think are genuinely worth considering.
Is the MT-07 cheap to own?
Based on my first year, I’d describe it differently.
I would say the MT-07 can be reasonably predictable to budget for, but that doesn’t mean motorcycle ownership is cheap.
My insurance and tax are relatively modest.
Fuel economy has been good at roughly 25 km/L.
But tyres and proper servicing still cost real money.
Then you add gear, security and the temptation to personalise the motorcycle.
The motorcycle itself may be simple.
The hobby around it can become expensive surprisingly quickly.
What budget would I keep aside?
If I were buying TITAN again today, I wouldn’t spend every available euro on the motorcycle itself.
I’d deliberately leave money aside.
Not because I expect something to break.
Because ownership immediately creates other needs.
Insurance.
Tax.
Security.
Gear.
Initial service work.
Tyres if the used bike needs them.
And some margin for the thing you didn’t notice during the purchase.
For a used motorcycle, I think having a maintenance buffer is much more comfortable than buying at the absolute limit of your budget.
A €6,300 motorcycle doesn’t necessarily mean you only need €6,300.
My first year proved that very clearly.
Would the costs stop me buying an MT-07 again?
No.
After around 10,000 km, TITAN still gives me enough enjoyment that the money makes sense to me.
That’s obviously a personal judgement.
Motorcycling isn’t the cheapest way for me to move around Amsterdam.
It also isn’t purely transportation.
The weekend rides matter.
The learning matters.
The feeling of walking up to TITAN and wanting to ride matters.
But tracking the money keeps that enthusiasm grounded.
I now know roughly what a year of this hobby looks like for me.
Not somebody else’s estimate.
Not a dealership brochure.
Not an internet comment saying:
“MT-07s are cheap to run.”
My numbers.
And that’s exactly why I’ll keep tracking them into year two.
FAQs
How much did I spend owning my MT-07 in the first year?
Excluding the €6,300 motorcycle purchase, my documented spending is approximately €3,408.55.
How much is my Yamaha MT-07 insurance in the Netherlands?
I personally pay €23 per month, equivalent to €276 per year. Insurance is highly individual, so this should not be treated as a standard MT-07 premium.
How much road tax do I pay for my MT-07?
My current payment is around €37 per quarter. My recorded cash payments during this ownership period total €164 because the first payment covered a partial period and the latest payment extends beyond my ownership anniversary.
How much fuel did I use?
For the roughly 10,000 km I’ve actually ridden, my estimated consumption is closer to 400 litres, or roughly €1,000using the average price in my fuel log.
What was my biggest MT-07 ownership expense after buying the bike?
Maintenance.
A major service cost €650, followed a few months later by €584 for tyres and rear brake pads.
Those two bills account for €1,234 by themselves.
Does my €3,408 figure include depreciation?
No.
I haven’t included depreciation because I don’t have a reliable current resale valuation for TITAN. The €6,300 purchase price is therefore shown separately rather than treated as a one-year expense.
Related Reads
Continue the MT-07 ownership series:
Living With a Yamaha MT-07: My 10,000 km Ownership Guide
What I Like — and Don’t Like — About Owning a Yamaha MT-07
