New 2023 Yamaha Niken GT Review: 3 Wheels Better Than 2?

beautiful Sardinia for the launch of this the 2023 Yamaha Nikon GT now I’m sure you’ll have noticed it’s a rather unusual motorcycle it’s my first time ever riding a Nikon and so yeah it’s quite the unusual experience and so in this video I’ll run through a few of the things that I really liked about this bike of course naturally there are a few compromises that come with this front end as well and then at the end I’ll tell you exactly who I think this bike is perfect for [Music] now look we have to start by talking about this front end setup you’ve got two 15-inch wheels so a little smaller than the 17 incher that you find on most road bikes a fork on either side and then this rather complicated linkage up there and that allows the whole bike to tilt and lean much like a regular motorcycle but the key thing is naturally 

you’ve got way more contact patch they say about about 80 more than a regular 17-inch front wheel because they’re a little bit smaller so it’s not quite double but of course that gives you so much grip at the front end and so much trust that it’s just a phenomenal bike to ride in terms of the confidence it inspires regardless of how the road surface is looking now thankfully today we’ve had great weather it’s been nice and dry but the roads they go from Immaculate to quite broken and potholy and Gravelly and so although the weather has been on our side there has been the opportunity to try out a little bit in sort of lower grip scenarios and it really does just allow you to focus on the road ahead and you really start to forget about the possibility of the front end tuck in now given that you’ve got so much more contact patch as you might expect it is a little bit heavy on the steering at lower speeds and that’s despite giving it such big wide bars to give you all that leverage but I think a secondary benefit as well as all that trust you’ve got at higher speeds is the width of the track here I guess at the front end and at lower speeds it feels very very stable and you know this is now intended the Nike can to be solely a sports tourer they used to be a regular night conversion and then the Nikon GT now in the lineup you’ve just got the GT version with the you know big screen and panniers and so it is intended to be ridden too open with luggage and I think if you’re somebody who’s not super confident at lower speeds when you’re fully 

loaded this is a pipe that can give you a little bit of um assistance in that regard genuinely I’m super impressed with how natural this bike feels apart from those lower speeds but I think that is manageable and I think it’s easy to justify if he’s someone who regularly rides in low grip conditions and you want the maximum stability possible now another thing that this bike really does have going for it is the fact that it shares a lot of its underpinnings with the Tracer 9 line of bikes and their yamaha’s mid to large capacity Sports tour is so you get the same CP3 inline triple engine 889 CC’s I think it makes 113 horsepower and about 90 newton meters of peak torque and so yeah despite looking like a bit of an odd bike and unusual visual bike it’s still got a great High performing engaging exciting engine at the heart of it now I think they’ve given it a bit more weight on the crank to give it more of a sensation of torque 

New 2023 Yamaha Niken GT Review: 3 Wheels Better Than 2?

in the lower revs and also a low RPM assist so it lifts the revs a little bit as you let the clutch out I believe that’s a measure again helped her prevent you stalling it but otherwise you’ve largely got the same engine as the Tracer and the mt-09 and the xsr 900 and for me that’s massively a good thing it’s one of my favorite engines currently on the market also it’s got the slip assist clutch so very nice and light at the lever and it gets that up and down quick shifter which adds a little bit of entertainment and is nice and crisp now the other big benefit of this bike sharing so much with the Tracer 9 platform is that it gets the latest and greatest in terms of their Electronics so a nice big TFT display that’s full color nice and Punchy easy to read I also like the fact that it’s got a really clear and visible rev counter around the outside you’ve got the speed and gears in the middle it’s not too complicated they haven’t gone too crazy with it and then you’ve got three riding mode so Sports Street and range sport obviously gives you the most throttle response Street’s a bit of a happy medium and then rain limits Peak Power by 18 and also gives you the most approachable and gentle throttle delivery TC has two settings and you can also switch it off there’s cruise control as standard there’s the quick shifter that we already mentioned and with this nice big TFT display you’ve also got some connectivity options so if you want to control your 

phone calls and that sort of thing and also get navigation right there on the screen you can get the Yamaha My Ride app but it does open up some nice functionality that’s built into the bike rather than mounting your phone on the bars now if you are the sort of Rider who likes their Tekken gadgets then you may well like today’s video sponsor and that’s insta360. to whom we say a big thank you I absolutely love using their X3 cameras they’ve really transformed how I capture riding footage because although with a traditional action camera you’ve just got that single View and you can only really get one frame in these cameras allow you to stick them on the bars or the bar end or down on the side of the bike and then once you get it into the up on your phone or onto the desktop editing software you can move it around and reframe it and take a view going forward or backward or you can swing the camera around you can frame it in landscape or portrait and it really is for me the most fun way to capture and share your writing experiences not just for pros anyone can do it the app is super simple to use inside I’d thoroughly recommend them to anyone who just wants to share their riding experience in the most fun way so there’s a link down in the description where you can get yours along with a free gift and once 

again a massive thanks to insta360 for their support now one of the other things that I’ve really enjoyed about riding this bike today is the Comfort levels naturally it’s very big at the front and so it really does flare out and give you a lot of wind protection just from the Bodywork and tank around the lower body but also they’ve updated the windscreen for this iteration so it sits a little bit taller and it’s also now adjustable with a single hand like that and it does give you a nice level of wind protection they say they’ve specifically designed the curvature to minimize buffetting and also there’s a little hole down at the front there which they’ve enlarged for this version again to minimize that turbulence and yeah combined with these big wide bars that they’ve given it it really does feel like a very commanding riding position and also quite protected from the elements you also get a nice big saddle so they really have leaned into that Sports touring identity and they say they’ve made this version a little narrower in the ways to help with getting your feet down it sits at 8 25 mil so not necessarily super tall but also for shorter Riders they might appreciate that slimness plenty of space for a passenger a good grab rail as well which I think is a massive boost for passenger comfort and then also you’ve got a pair of cases here 

which don’t look massive but they can take a full face helmet each then you’ve got the cruise control the heated grips and a nice big TFT display and it just really does feel like a nice place to sit and soak up some breast touring miles so look clearly there’s plenty to like about this bike it is an unusual design but I will say it is very fun to ride very reassuring comfortable and it packs a lot of impressive features but naturally there is a bit of a trade-off for this uh double wheel setup at the front otherwise why wouldn’t all bikes have them I mean the big one is the way it comes in at 270 kilograms and although that might not sound too bad versus some true heavyweight tours like the big Harleys and the big Indians and the Gold Wing and stuff like that you know really this sits in the sort of like 900 CC realm and if you compare it to the Tracer the standard Tracer 9 without any luggage and all that good stuff comes in at 213 kilograms so much more like a a regular Road biker Naked Bike almost and even the GT version that gets all the gadgets and all the latest tech that comes in at 223 so you’re talking 40 or 50 kilograms heavier than the two wheeled equivalent now I’m a massive fan of the CP3 engine like I say I think it’s one of the most fun engines you can buy especially considering how much those bikes typically cost the nco9 for example that’s sub 10 grand and it delivers so much fun at Road speeds but yeah because it’s pretty much exactly the same in this bike it doesn’t really get a power boost it hasn’t compensated for that extra mass and so I will say it feels a little bit less sprightly and exciting there’s still plenty of power there it is a quickish bike but it’s just taken that little edge off it that makes it truly you know 

exhilarating to ride handling wise I’m a little bit less bothered about it because look you’ve got all that grip like I say and the stability and so even at low speeds it’s not really a massive issue for me it’s more just that it kills the fun a bit and then you’ve got the price so this comes in at over 16 Grand which is maybe no surprise because it’s never going to sell in huge volumes so it’s not going to be a stack them high and selling cheap kind of bike but still when you compare it to the base Tracer 9 it is a massive chunk of extra cash and even versus the fully specked out Tracer 9 GT plus which we’re riding tomorrow that gets radar Tech and all that good stuff you know you’re still paying quite a bit more for the Nikon then there’s just a few other little things like the Finish isn’t quite as good as the Tracer so down here the frame comes around all this wiring and the brake reservoir and stuff and hides it and it looks quite neat but this bike has been compromised a little bit by some of the changes things like the ignition Barrel sits proud here and it’s not really finished properly the brackets kind of on show and so yeah it’s not as well finished as the tray so there’s a little bit less range as well because the Tank’s slightly smaller and it consumes more fuel because it’s not as aerodynamic there’s more rolling 

resistance it’s heavier and it doesn’t quite have that sprightly sporty feel that you’re gonna get from a bike like that it does feel different and you do trade off for that stability some of the feedback and liveliness and fun that you can have on a two-wheel bike but look I think this is a really nice balance between something like a full-on tri-core Can-Am Spider or something like that some of the practicality and stability that those bikes offer and some of the ease of use but much more like a proper motorcycle it really does feel not that that different or not as different as you might expect once you’re on the move and so it really is an impressive piece of engineering and if that’s the sort of very specific balance that you’re looking for I think it is a niche product but then there’s nothing else really like it on the market and so I think in that case you can probably justify the extra spend really as well I think if you’re somebody who wants to go with luggage and a passenger and all that weight on the back but you do feel a little underconfident at lower speeds then again I think this is really a bike to look at and go and test ride and see if it solves a little bit that problem for you either way I’m massively glad that Yamaha 

still make it it’s really an impressive looking thing I admire their bravery for firstly putting it on the market in the first place but also sticking with it and updating it for this iteration and I’m also very grateful to be able to come out here and ride it and try it and see what it’s like now as always I’d love to know what you think of it down in the comments below so do let me know if anyone’s tried one I’d love to hear your impressions as well and if you want to see more of the latest new Yamahas for 2023 I made a list at most cycle live last year I’ll link to it here on the screen give it a click give it a watch let me know which one’s your favorite many thanks for watching and I’ll see you in the next one