Yamaha Tracer 9 GT+ Review: The Ultimate Sports Tourer?

mdsseducation.net –this my friends is the new 2023 Yamaha Tracer 9gt plus and it might well be the most techie bike currently on the market you see the Tracer 9 lineup has long been a proven sports tourer but for this new plus version they’ve added radar enabled cruise control which ties into almost every aspect of the bike it’s without doubt the most elaborate cruise control system I’ve heard of on a motorcycle so far so does this extra fancy Tech Elevate the Tracer 9 to the status of the Ultimate Sports tourer or has it now become too complicated two nanied and two sterile at the expense of the pure joy of simple riding well I wentÂ

Yamaha Tracer 9 GT+ Review: The Ultimate Sports Tourer?

out to the Press launch in Sardinia to find out thank you thank you but before we get started a massive thanks to cardo for supporting the channel and sponsoring this video they make the best motorcycle com system on the market in my opinion and we specifically use their range top impact torque Edge for which you’ll find a 10 discount code down in the description and it’s rammed full of the latest features but in particular I’ve been super impressed with the dynamic mesh communication

Tech which means that up to 15 Riders compare with up to a mile between each I also love that it automatically heals so if someone drops off there’s no need to manually pair again when they catch back up and then there’s the sound quality the JBL design speakers are second to none and the noise getting on the mic is pretty much perfect so there’s no annoying wind noise that makes you want to

switch it off genuinely this is the headset I’d want even if they didn’t sponsor us and so I’d thoroughly recommend checking out the link and the discount code down in the description below the big update that they’ve been talking about though for this bike is the new front facing radar and that opens upÂ

active cruise control so effectively just like a car it will follow the traffic in front at a predefined distance and it will manage the engine and it will manage the brakes to make sure that you don’t get too close but also when a gap opens up it will speed the bike up to a predefined limit now I’ve tried this before on plenty of other bikes the BMWs the Ducati the KTM personally I really like it as

another little tool that you can use just to minimize fatigue on Long Motorway Journeys and free up your mind to really pay attention to what’s happening around you but I think it gets misinterpreted as semi-autonomous or driverless and that’s really not what it is it’s a tool like I say just like you treat standard cruise control like a tool as if you use it in the right scenarios it’s a really good

system this one in particular is impressive in the way that it ties into the link-breaking system so when it detects a car or a bike in front and you’re getting a little too close first it’ll shut off the engine and try and slow down with engine braking if that’s notÂ

enough it’ll start to apply the brakes and also while it’s doing all this it’ll firm up the Fork because of the electronically adjustable suspension to stop the bike sort of diving forward too much now I’ve had a chance to do plenty of testing today I wouldn’t say it’s great for twisty roads because it backs off the speeding Corners too much because it’s trying to maintain this big gap and naturally bikes do

Bunch up towards corners and then stretch out on the way out of them so really you know you can’t use it for that sort of twisty ride because it’s just not built for it but when you are cruising into town on straight roads or you know wider sweeping roads where you don’t have to break too much for the corners it behaves perfectly well and just as good as any other active cruise control system

that I’ve tried personally I’d love to have this on a Touring bike where Motorway miles are always going to play a big part I just don’t derive any pleasure from constantly Feathering the throttle in busy Motorway traffic and given how impressed I am with Yamaha’s new system I’d gladly hand that snore fest over toÂ

the bike that leads you to really concentrate on the traffic around you and should also help to remove a little mental and wrist fatigue on those big days in the saddle and look I think the key thing here with this bike is that yes it can do all that stuff but when you do peel off the motorway and onto a

a good stretch of road you can just switch it all off and enjoy what is fundamentally an excellent bike to ride at the heart of this bike you’ve got what I think is one of the best engines currently on the market it’s the Yamaha CP3 so it’s an 890cc inline triple around the 120 horsepower Mark about 90

odd newton meters of peak torque and it’s just an absolute joy to use perfect in my book for a sort of middleweight sports tourer like this because you’ve got that low-end Grunt and talking us that make it usable and practical but also the top end revs and power that are also necessary for a bike like this to be proper good fun when you get it moving the soundtrack’s excellent as well they’ve really given it plenty of induction noise so you’re reallyÂ

surrounded by it in the cockpit when you get on the gas there’s a quick shifter on this model pretty smooth up and down so very nice indeed and it basically does everything you want for me probably the best feature though is the fact that it’s super smooth you’ve got even 120 degree intervals on a crank in a triple like this versus something like the tiger 900 from triumph which is pretty similar the

tiger 900 GT that’s got a t-plane crank that gives it a bit more of a growl but it really does sacrifice some smoothness and I really like the fact that this bike when you Cruise in at a constant speed which is clearly you know partly what this bike is designed for it just feels silky smooth and not irritating at all now on top of that you’ve got a great handling bike and yes this plus model is a little bit more weighty than the other Tracer Nines in the lineup you’d expect that with all the extra features butÂ

it’s still an absolute joy to ride through sardinia’s plentiful smooth flowing bends and it’s perhaps a little refreshing in 2023 where Adventure bikes seem to have become the default for middleweight touring in this sort of segment you know you see a lot of Adventure bikes with oversized front wheels maybe a slightly off-road bias geometry as well but this is fully dedicated to the road and you can feel

it it’s quick turning responsive engaging to ride and pretty much perfect for doing the sort of ride we’ve done today which has got a decent distance to it so you want to be comfortable but also plenty of back to back twisties which can be lots of fun on a bike like this tires are good so you’ve got

Bridgestone t-32s I mean admittedly it is a nice warm day and we’ve had nice smooth roads as well but still plenty of grip for a sports touring Tire brakes are up to scratch as well these are the advics made sort of standard Yamaha brakes plenty of stopping power with the four Pot Radio amount of calipers at the front for a bike of this sort of stature and then forÂ

suspension you’ve got kyb’s latest semi-active electronically adjustable setup and I’ve found the bike to be really nicely poised all throughout the day I mean Road surfaces are pretty good here so it hasn’t really been challenged in terms of comfort but in terms of composure barreling into corners and then nailing it on the way back out you know this bike feels super composed so yes an excellent engine and Chassis inherited from the more affordable Tracer Nines in the lineup and then with the

latest radar Tech sprinkled on top but look there is another key difference and I’d thoroughly urge you to consider it if you’re wondering which one to buy on those other Tracer nines the standard bike and the GT you get that quite controversial looking split Dash it’s got two TFT sections quite an unusual design certainly distinctive but I wouldn’t say it looks particularly practical whereas here

you’ve just got one big TFT slab which is much more familiar and makes a lot more sense there’s much more space easy to read plenty of contrast and well designed in terms of the graphics so yeah a nice big new TFT display that is really nice to use and also allows you to manage the writing mode so you’ve got Street Sport and Rain each of these modes varies up the power delivery the traction control and abs slide control wheelie control and also the semi-active suspension settings and generally there should be something for everybody inÂ

there in all conditions so as you can see this bike really does have the works and naturally as you’d expect you’ll have to pay for it the plus model comes in at just shy of 15 grand which really does look like a big step up from the bay Ace Tracer 9 at more like 11. thing is though largely the bikes that come with this level of Technology bikes that do get active cruise control do tend to be on the premium side I mean the Ducati Multistrada V4 for example if you spec it with that feature you’re

going to be up over 20 grand so yeah while it might look like a lot of money versus other tracers if you compare it to other bikes with this feature it’s really towards the bottom end of the spectrum plus you get a brilliant bike with great fundamentals as well the only thing I will say is that if you’re doing big miles and using this more as a torer than a sports tourer whilst the riding position and the seat feels super comfortable even with this touring screen it’s not the most comprehensive in terms of wind protection and you do get a bit of buffer tinÂ

but given that this isn’t a full-on out and out heavyweight tourer and given just how well it goes when you turn the pace up I think it can be forgiven the question Still Remains though does this extra Tech now make it the best sports tourer currently on the market well look for me it’s a feature and a tool that I’d rather have for boring Motorway work than not and so that makes it pretty compelling

especially given how good it is otherwise when the radar stuff is off the only other bike that I can think of that packs those features as well as the sporty distance fun is the Kawasaki h2sx but that bike is well over 20 grand and really that puts it in a different Echelon of affordability still if you’d like to check it out regardless maybe you’re feeling a little flush today then here’s a link to my favorite 10

things about it from when I wrote it last year as always I’d love to know what you think of the Tracer down in the comments below so do let me know hit subscribe if you’re not already if you want to see more motorcycle reviews like this many thanks for watching today and we’ll see you next time