We have noticed a bit of a push from motorcycle manufacturers for what can only be described as a road oriented adventure bike. A machine with an adventure bike’s upright sitting position, easily comfortable and relaxed for rider or rider with pillion and luggage. As well as good ground clearance, excellent suspension and chassis and great handling. Said machines are referred to as Sports Tourers and generally have all the bells and whistles, BMW offers the S1000XR, Suzuki the GSX-S 1000GX, Kawasaki the Versys 1000 and so on and so forth. Yamaha has had the MT09 Tracer model in its line up for a good few years and has had a few changes and upgrades along the way and we took out the latest iteration for a whizz around the countryside.
The Engine:
Equipped with the CP3 triple pot engine we have all come to admire, developing around 85 Kw at 10,000 RPM and about 93 Nm of torque at 8,500 RPM it certainly isn’t slow by any stretch of the imagination, in fact we ran out of quiet road somewhere north of 240 kmh and it was still pulling hard. 85 kw’s in biker talk is about 117 horsepower, from a touring machine that tips the scales at 233 kg, that makes for a pretty quick machine in anybody’s language. And that triple pot motor delivers the best of both worlds, pulling strongly off the bottom end and screaming to max power at the top, and then that sound of that triple, it is just so different to any other on the market and hits you in the most primal part of your soul.
The Chassis & Suspension:
There has been a lot of contention in this office about the overall comfort of the GT+, some saying it is too sporty for proper long distance touring comfort and others really liking the more almost motard-ish riding position which does encourage a bit of hooliganism, especially when that triple comes on song. So Yes! It is probably a bike for the younger rider or the young at heart rider as opposed to the more gentile and conservative ride. That, however, does not mean that it is uncomfortable, in fact it is really quite comfy. You sit on the bike as opposed to in the bike like some of its competitors, the seat is firm yet wide, so over long distances it actually offers better support and comfort than a soft squishy seat, which you eventually end up sitting through onto the hard base plate. Couple that with a superb KYB semi-active suspension and a brilliant sporty chassis and you have a motorcycle that seems to offer the best of both worlds. We found the auto suspension so good and so quickly adaptive that we just forgot about it, and not once did we need for more or less suspension travel, stiffness, damping, feedback or anything. It railed through fast bends when we needed it to, turned on and or stopped on a dime when we needed it to and soaked up all the lumps and bumps when we needed it to, all the time remaining stable and planted.
Electronics:
Besides the comfort and handling, this is where the designers and engineers at Yamaha seem to have gone to town a bit. First and foremost it has adaptive cruise control, which we believe is a definite one up on most of its direct competition, and we do like its functionality over a couple of the other adaptive cruise controls we have experienced. In true Japanese conservatism in its most ‘safe’ distance setting it keeps you very well clear of the vehicle in front of you, in its most aggressive or closest distance setting it allows for the traditional 3 seconds or so gap which is more what we are used to here in SA. What we do like however, is its more predictable acceleration back up to speed once the road clears ahead, some of the other brands units seem to try get back up to speed within mere milliseconds, accelerating alarmingly quickly to the point where you actually end up snatching at the brakes if you aren’t used to the system and happen to be in your own personal ‘screensaver’ mode.
Speaking of screens, the large 7-inch full-colour TFT metre features a high luminosity display that provides you with clear and easy to read information about real-time running conditions. You have the choice of three different screen layouts, each with its own distinctive style to match individual preferences and different riding conditions. A USB-A outlet below the metre keeps your smartphone ready for action. We really liked the Star Wars Lightsaber mode…. possibly a bit too much, but why wouldn’t you? Operated by a simple joystick, through Yamaha’s MyRide App you have access to your smartphone for music, weather, calls and notifications. Enabled for full-map Garmin Navigation, while texts can be displayed when your TRACER 9 GT+ is parked. As standard the TRACER 9 GT+ is equipped with fully integrated heated grips, LED lighting including Cornering lights, self cancelling indicators and a centre stand. And we’re not even halfway through all the fancy new tech yet.
There are three of them, simple and easy to understand and access or change. You have the choice between Sport, Street or Rain, look at the pics we had no need for Rain mode other than pure curiosity, and yeah it works but tamed the MT09 right down so we spent no time there. Street Mode is fun, but Sport mode is where you want to be. Each setting has different levels of intervention to suit most riders and riding conditions and all interact with the suspension, wheelie control, slip or drift control and the brakes, especially when you have the adaptive cruise control activated. For stability and control it has what Yamaha refers to as the ‘Unified Brake System’ which incorporates a hydraulic unit that automatically distributes braking force from the rider’s input to both wheels so subtly that you’ll barely even notice it. We are told this is a first in the world of motorcycles and the radar linked system assists the riders input to stop you from whisky braking when the vehicle in front of you suddenly stops, it also means pulling cool stoppies or skidding the back wheel is basically out of the question.
Yamaha’s third generation quick-shifter is also quite a special bit of kit, we found we were able to up shift when running against compression and down shift when banging hard on the gas, HUH? That’s not supposed to happen, and after riding it we did a bit of research and that is exactly how it was designed and manufactured. Where that comes in handy is when you wind on the power but suddenly realise you need to be in a lower gear you can kick down without rolling off, especially when dicing your mate and they have the drop on you. Changing up when running against compression also helps for when you have brain fade and bang down too many gears into a bend and the engine tries to throw its pistons through the head, you can quickly shift up without having to get back on the gas, handy for when space is limited. And that Quick-Shifter is so buttery soft even low down in the rev range where most tend to get a bit clunky.
The Ride:
We used the MT09 Tracer GT+ to run around for a few days flick flacking through the Joburg traffic on our normal rounds, which gave us a good idea to the everyday usability of the GT+ as an everyday commuter. Then we went for a good ol’ cruise in the winter sunshine through the countryside to give her sporty and touring capabilities a bit of a shakedown.
We can tell you this, even though it is touted as a Sports Tourer it is not big, bulky or cumbersome in traffic, in fact it is quite the opposite really, with little bits of its naked siblings character coming out when whipping off the line from a traffic light or suddenly climbing on the hooks and quickly changing direction in rush hour traffic to avoid a pothole, truck or taxi or a dozy millennial concentrating on its phone rather than on its driving. The seating position of the Tracer gives you a nice perspective above most of the traffic which helps a lot with predictive riding and the sitting position gives you more control when having to make wild and unplanned evasive manoeuvres. Then when you get onto a flowing section of the freeway being able to engage the adaptive cruise control between cities, the ride becomes a lot more sedate than usual. The radar and all the onboard electronics do most of the work for you and all you have to do is be on the lookout for potential hazards, your next turn off and so on while the bike judges the distance to the next car, rolls on and off or brakes as needed without you even noticing really , suddenly Joburg freeways become quite calm and a lot less stressful – Very Nice!
Getting away from the hustle and bustle onto quiet country roads and this machine really comes into its own. Still in cruise control we were able to relax and take in the beauty of the rolling farmlands and really just enjoy the peace and tranquillity of a ride like that.
However, when we found a really nice bit of properly quiet road we dropped the windshield, hunkered down and spanked this pony hard…. and she delivered – in bucket loads! The acceleration was just shy of maniacal and the chassis and suspension all worked in perfect harmony as we flipped through the long sweeping bends as the scenery blurred past us somewhere well north of 240 kmh. The GT+ got a little light as we crested a bridge flyover over a farmers road, but did not get squirley and immediately settled back into its rhythm down the otherside before we had to stamp on the hooks with all our might as the tarmac faded into a gravel road shortly thereafter, calling on everything the brakes, the electronics, the suspension and chassis had to offer, and with our butt cheeks firmly clenched the Tracer GT+ came to an elegant stop as if it was all quite standard operating procedure. After a bit more silly buggers we decided to take the cue from the setting sun and head back to the office. What a lekker day out on a really lekker bike – We do like it a lot.
We let Donovan Fourie loose on it for a bit and this is what he came back with:
It was a glorious time in 2014 when such things as COVID hadn’t been invented yet. You would’ve most likely been reading this story on a piece of paper made out of a tree that was part of a larger magazine all while sitting on your favourite chair – the toilet. In 2014, Yamaha made a bold statement – that it does not produce enough exciting motorcycles. Sure, Yamaha could dig into its famous R-series of superbikes, but the R1 and R6 brought Yamaha’s tally of exciting two-wheeled motoring wares up to two.
It was then that the CP3 motor was unveiled, an in-line triple destined for the MT-09 that was all about joy, elation and, of course, excitement. The world rejoiced. But Yamaha is one of those clever sort of companies that enjoys keeping its shareholders smiling, so instead of wasting all that development work for just one motorcycle, they stuck the CP3 into another one – the newly anointed Tracer 9. All this made sense – Yamaha has a vivid history of sports-tourers with such illustrious names as Fazer, TDM and FJ1200, and with all of them seeing the end of their days, there was a slot open for something new in the category. Why not excite things up a bit with the newest exciting motor?
Fast forward nine years and the engineers haven’t been idle. The people making the stickers, for example, have had to continue making “Tracer 9” decals but now also have to print out the new insignia “GT+”. While the sticker department has been juggling frantically with these new responsibilities, the rest of the engineering crew has been at work changing absolutely everything else. The motor is the same as the new MT-09. The displacement has been ceremoniously boosted to 890cc in its in-line triple motor also boosting the horsepower to 117 and the torque to 93 Nm. That’s while sounding like a banshee wail, the sort of malicious groan that caused mediaeval people to blow out their candles and hide under tables. The motor is helped out by an astonishing array of electronics. There are all the usual things like cornering ABS, traction control, rider modes and that sort of good stuff but the GT+ goes further than that. The KYB suspension is semi-automatic and connected to the rider modes. In sport mode, the suspension is firm to the point of being almost jarring. In the other modes, it suddenly becomes a lounge suite.
On the front of the GT+ is a radar system that controls the cruise control and will automatically leave a gap to the vehicle in front. This is not new technology but the GT+ has its radar-guided cruise control is connected to a unified braking system that figures out the best combination of front and rear brakes. It works well in cruise control mode. In normal braking mode, it takes some getting used to. You pull the front brake lever some and the bike slows down gently. Braking slightly harder and it slows down slightly faster. Pull the lever half a millimetre further and the bike stops dead at any speed. Male riders will need to swallow hard at this point and wait for their voices to re-deepen before gathering their composure. That’s all good and well but the true highlight of the Tracer GT+ is the TFT dash. It has three display themes – one looking somewhat analogue, one neat digital theme and then one that looks like a Jedi knight is showing the revs with its lightsaber. More so, when the sabre needle moves up and down the rev counter, it leaves strange alien-like waves behind it. Men will try to act grown up and mature but even the gent with the most demure constitution will get giddy about that.
The GT+ also has a two-way quick-shifter, just like everything else these days, but this one has been refined to the point that it works at low revs and low throttle openings. People who might be familiar with quick-shifters will know that they only really work at high RPM with the throttle wide open. At low revs, they generally get a bit stuck. Not the GT+ – you can short shift from first to sixth gear without closing the throttle all while going slower than 70 km/h. Then it will happily bounce back to first again, blipping the throttle wherever needed. This is a particularly great feature for commuting where you generally don’t go flat out at redline. Unless you really want to.
The frame is aluminium and much the same as the MT-09. The swing-arm is longer for more stability. As for handling, well, there’s tons of that. The bike is 233 kg which is not exactly lightweight and yet it turns on a dime. This is a great motorcycle for carving the proverbial curves spoken of in motorcycle folklore. It’s the sort of bike that will put full-on sports bikes to shame in the gloves of the right rider. As far as the sports side of the sport-tourer is concerned, this bike is brilliant.
We then head neatly across to the other end of the spectrum – touring. The screen works well and is easily adjustable with gloves on. The ergonomic triangle between bars, pegs and seat is excellent with no pressure on the arms and everything going through the backside. Herein lies a small problem – the rider’s seat is the sort that cups the rider’s backside and, as seems to be the modern trend in motorcycle seat design, is too hard. This is a double threat because it means that your bum will eventually start aching, something not uncommon in the world of long-distance motorcycling. The cure for this ailment is to move around in the seat and give other bits of buttocks a shift. When the seat is entirely encasing you, this is problematic. We are not suggesting that this bike is uncomfortable, but 12 hours in the saddle might be a touch too much.
While we are whinging, let’s return to the motor. It sounds magnificent, it’s smooth as all hell and it’s far from slow. It’s just that we wish it would light our bums on fire more than the seat. In sport mode, the MT-09 is explosive, enticing a grin so wide your head is in danger of falling off. The mapping on the Tracer has been tuned to be smoother and more in line with touring. That should be great in a street or touring mode, but could we not have the full MT-09 mapping in sport mode?
Right, whinging over. This is a jolly good motorcycle if you use it correctly. As a tourer, 12 hours in that saddle might require a backside of granite. However, let’s say you wish to go from your house in Gauteng for a weekend carving proverbial curves in Mpumalanga. The trip there is four hours of mostly grey highway hell heading up the N4 but the destination is thoroughly worth it. Four hours in the seat of the Tracer should be easy enough for the joy of riding around the outside of superbikers on your sports-tourer.
That sort of riding sounds fun.
Get down to your nearest Yamaha Dealer to ride one for yourself – You’ll be so glad you did.
Price: R329,995
https://yamaha.co.za/
