The Rookie Rides: 2022 Yamaha Tracer 9 GT
My eyes, the goggles, they do nothing!
Yamaha is offering the Tracer 9 with a single large display1 for 2023 precisely to prevent these jokes from proliferating on the internet.
Demo Day Impressions
The ride is plush with semi-active suspension working to keep the balance between absorbing the breaks and cracks in asphalt and keep the bike taught through turns and transitions. The seat is wide and comfortable, with an open knee position for this rider and his ~31” foot sole to groin inseam. Reach to the ground is easy if you’re one foot down, and not quite flat footed otherwise for me. The seating position is upright with minimal weight on the wrists. There are heated handgrips behind handguards, cruise control (with radar likely coming in the up-spec 2023), and a fat windscreen to keep riders comfortable longer into the riding season or on longer trips.
The sizeable windscreen is unpleasant for me. I’m certain it works great for plenty of people, however, I could not find a position where I experienced minimal airflow or smooth airflow to the helmet. This resulted in buffeting which felt like dead blow hammers slamming my helmet back and forth. I resorted to crouching down behind the windscreen to spare the inevitable headache. The Yamaha representative was surprised to hear this, and I surmise that I am exactly the wrong torso length and in just the wrong position for the where the air is coming off the screen. Were I to purchase the bike I would need to fit a different windscreen to remedy the issue, as otherwise it would be unbearable to live with.
Yamaha has an absolute pitch perfect street motor with their inline triple, the CP3 motor. The triple is producing about 120BHP and 70ft-lb of torque, and in this tarted up chassis it’s motivating 500lb with the standard bags2 on. The power is tractable at low speeds without lugging or exhibiting bad vibrations/judder at just off idle RPMs. As I roll past the 5,500RPM mark, however, the motor comes alive and the bike briskly achieves triple digit speeds on the four lane stretch of highway. A quickshifter up/down is standard and slickest for upshifts at wide open throttle, with half or quarter throttle shifts being notably rougher. Downshifting is a pleasure with the auto-blip under braking preventing any throttle surges from attempting to blip and maintain constant brake pressure.
With being able to attain a brisk pace, one must also slow down and that brings us to the brakes. Brake feel is not inspiring at the first bit of travel (not a strong initial bite, if that’s what you’re expecting) but increasing pressure loads the fork and tire in a linear and predictable manner. Discovering this as you’re hurtling toward the end of an abruptly stopped car is, however, the wrong time to learn about how the brakes are going to behave and a we’ll3 consider that a lesson learned. Just keep squeezing.
If you don’t want the rush4 of a naked bike, yet still prefer an upright riding position, or are looking for something to extend your riding season then the Tracer 9 GT is worth checking out.
I would wait until the 2023 model year, if we get the GT+, to keep yourself from going cross eyed at the two screens.
The Tracer 9 GT+ (adaptive cruise, a sane dashboard) is not yet confirmed for the US market
This is nice, no need to key aftermarket ones and you don’t have yet another add-on to buy
The royal we
Pleasant way to say roar of the wind
My BIL has Tracer. I didn’t know about them when he showed me. He seems to like it a lot. He commutes with it which is nuts here in Denver. I like triples having had a couple Hinckley Triumphs that became impossible to get serviced.
A good, useful and well written article .
How about some pictures ? .
I hear that factory windshields are often in need of raising, lowering or trimming to work properly with different riders .
I ride naked bikes and use a shield on my helmet .
-Nate