Yamaha XSR900 Review

[DJP]

I've been riding for 30 years and I've ridden pretty much every kind of bike, but these days comfort comes high on my list of wants. I don't like anything under about 700cc and I'm not interested in sports bikes because they don't fit me. But beyond that pretty much anything goes.

I became interested in the Yamaha XSR900 because it ticks the boxes for me. Now frankly, I've never been a fan of the styling: Indeed, the first time I saw one I thought it was possibly the ugliest motorcycle I'd ever seen. But it's growing on me, I can see where Yamaha were going with this and they do look better in the flesh. Besides, I figured that you can't see it when you're on it. So a test ride was arranged.

Now pretty much all modern bikes within my remit do the fast thing, so I'm more interested in how they do the other stuff: The lane-splitting, the filtering, the slow shit. Because I ride in the real world and I wanna know if I can roll-off the throttle for a red light and then roll-on again when it goes green without doing the herky-jerky. I wanna know if it can pull away cleanly without flat-spots or hesitation. Because for me it doesn't matter how good a bike is elsewhere, if the off/on throttle transition sucks then it's off to room 101 regardless.

So I spent a fair bit of time pissing about in slow moving traffic: I pulled away with the absolute minimum of revs. I ran down to a walking pace and then sped up again. I deliberately selected too high a gear. And this baby just sucked it up with nary a twitch. Seriously, this is one refined motor: The fuelling is spot-on and the slipper clutch beautifully light and progressive. Shame the gearbox is typically Yamaha, but you can't have everything.

Riding position: Spot-on for me. Although, make no bones, this is a tall bike and I'm a tall guy. I loved it but it's a long way down. Short-arses look elsewhere. The seat, I don't like so much: The proverbial thinly padded plank. Doesn't help that the suspension is firm. Which isn't a criticism per se but it's definitely set up on the sporty side. “Taut” is a good word. And while we're talking chassis, the brakes are excellent.

And what about that trendy instrument panel, it's way cool, no? Well, actually no. The speedo's clear, as is the gear indicator. The rev-counter, I could get used to, and the rest of is a mess: Tiny figures & symbols laid out haphazardly. A product of form over function. Me no like. Still, I'm sure most people will get used to it in time.

And onto performance. Well there's a lot of hooey on the web telling you that this is a fast bike and not for the beginner. But in reality it doesn't instantly try to pull your arms off and low down it's a docile pussycat. Initially, I found myself thinking “Where's the fast bike?” because it didn't feel that quick to me. But buzz it up beyond 7000rpm and it shows it's other side, the pussycat roars and the world goes into reverse. And the sound: An irresistible, intoxicating auditory exhortation to do it again. Seriously, the sound of a triple at full chat really is like nothing else... And then you slow down and the XSR900 pretends that the whole thing never happened. So yeah it's fast, but you have to work for it.

So will I be buying one? Well I really don't know. On the one hand, I'm struggling to say anything bad about it. But on the other the XSR900 doesn't exactly fill me with desire either. And I don't know why. Maybe it's because it's not quite as comfortable on the road as it felt in the shop. Maybe it's because the power delivery is the exact opposite of my last few bikes which were all about low-end torque. Who knows, but I'm not sure it's the bike for me.
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Suzuki Bandit 1250
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[Tdibs]

Glad it seems like they had sorted the fueling some more, when I test rode a mt09 tracer it was very on|off on|off on|off at slow town speeds and was pretty irritating.
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