Look twice as you walk away…
It’s not very often that you get to spend time with something that you covet from afar…
When the chaps at Yamaha told us that there was anXSR900GP knocking about that we could take for a little spin, we went and fetched it very quickly…
In the last few years, very few bikes released have been quite as emotive as this one. I mean… just look at it, it’s flippen gorgeous. It’s also been a long time since someone actually took the time to dash across the road through busy traffic just to have a look. And that’s exactly what happened when we were shooting the bike at our local coffee shop – a random enthusiast wandered across “Just to see if the bike was what he thought it was.”.
Look at the detail, that tiny LED headlight, the tubular bracket holding the faring, the old school seat design that hides the rear shock. Pop some stickers on it, head to Kyalami and you could be on Wayne Raineys YZR500.
Flippen cool!
We did take it easy on this one – when we collected it it had just sixty odd kilometres on the clock. By the time it went back to Linex, that figure was closer to 400.
Yamaha banked on nostalgia with this one – and they nailed it perfectly in our opinion. But forget about bikes from the days of yore, this is an absolutely up to date machine with all the tech that a giant like Yamaha can throw at it.
The bike has an up and down quickshifter, cruise control, fully adjustable suspension and even a C-type charger.
A six-axis IMU powers all the rider aids that you can think of… Lean angle sensitive traction control, ABS, wheelie control, a motor slip regulator that assists on downshifts. Then there are the rider modes, all transmitted through an old school look 5″ TFT dash, which is really simple to navigate. Bluetooth connectivity and navigation is standard.
It’s no secret that we are huge fans of Yamaha’s triple engine – they know that it’s good and sharing it in this bike was somewhat inevitable. It’s torquey, smooth and pumps out 93nm of torque and 117hp. It all gets symphonic via the six-speed gearbox, slipper clutch and quick-shifter. The CP3 motor offers a lekker broad spread of torque from the very bottom of the rev range – and it sounds amazing. The Belle of the ball is the fantastic midrange. It’s happy to be ridden slowly, but it does so love to be spanked a bit and the beautiful sound is a huge part of the riding experience.
In our opinion, it’s only a matter of time until it appears in an ADV machine, but that’s another story.
This is a sporty machine, with fairly firm, aggressive seating and a stretch to the lowish bars, so you’ll need a good stretch now and then on those long roads. It’s nowhere near as cramped as, say the R1 or the R6. Shorter stints are fun, but like any sports machine, you’ll need to stretch before climbing aboard.
If you compare the KYB suspension to the standard XSR, the GP has a higher spec with more adjustability and a stiffer spring rate on the forks. It all makes sense because, while the seating on the standard is pretty upright, on the GP, much weight is over the front wheel.
The rear is still fairly soft, which is a good thing on some of Gauteng’s roads.
Yamaha gives you engine modes. With the throttle map on sport it’s pretty aggressive at slow speeds, so save that for the open roads. Three pre-set integrated riding modes, ‘SPORT’, ‘STREET’ and ‘RAIN’, featuring factory settings with different intervention levels to suit different conditions, are complemented with manually adjustable ‘CUSTOM’ settings.
One mode down to “street” is still lots of fun and we’ll guarantee you the holeshot when you go up against the GTI brigade.
We’ve told you it’s quick, we’ve told you about the tech, the suspension and the brakes… this bike is a lot of fun to ride fast, it turns easily and changes line effortlessly.
Thanks to a slightly longer wheelbase, it’s also really stable.
Two bits worth mentioning – the bar end mirrors look super cool and work well, but they do widen the bike a bit, so you need to be sharp flipping through traffic. The Edition in SA is the only one sold with that belly plate. It looks fantastic, but we do feel that it creates a bit of engine heat that creeps up your legs. It’s easy to remove though, so it’s a non – event.
Chaps. If you are looking for a bike that goes as good as it looks, then this one might just be for you. We get what Yamaha has tried to do and damn they got it right.
This really is something special. A break from normal.
A bike you’ll look at twice as you walk away…
R269950.00 with the belly plate.
