YAMAHA XSR900 GP

I'm not gonna lie, the look of the XSR900GP is right up my street, which shouldn't really come as a surprise given that the era of GPs on which the XSR's paint scheme is based on was when I grew up watching.

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I say watching, because back then there was no internet, and the only way to actually watch GPs was if you were really rich and could afford satellite television, or as in my case, you had a mate with rich parents and had Eurosport. Every now and then I'd be able to watch the likes of Lawson, Rainey, Cadalora, Kocinski and Abe doing the impossible on their YZR500 GP bikes, resplendent in Marlboro graphics, or - as was often the case - getting sent to the moon and back with bone-crunching results.

MCN was still black-and-white then (seriously), so apart from the annual trip to Donington Park for the GP, monthly magazines, and a few opportunities to watch a race on Eurosport, the sight of a YZR500 in full colour in the 1990s was rare. This may be why the colour scheme on the XSR-GP might have such a big impact, because for all its iconic status, it was unusual to see in full colour back in the day. So, it's not really a massive surprise that when Yamaha revealed the bike, it was an instant hit and pretty much sold-out before the press launch even happened.

At this point you could be forgiven for thinking that Yamaha played a blinder for painting an XSR900 like a pack of cigarettes to tap into our emotions and nostalgic memories of a time when the sun always shone... then just sat back and opened its order books. No, it went much deeper than that, and if you take the XSR900 as the starting point, which is itself derived from the naked MT-09, then you quickly realise that the GP is a unique, bespoke bike designed to deliver a different experience.