Comfortably Fast

Is it worth trading sportiness for comfort? We sent Boothy on the launch of Yamaha’s new Tracers to find out.

- Boothy

Amere 50,000 MT-09 sales obviously isn’t enough for Yamaha, who are hell bent on squeezing every little bit of value possible out of their cross-plane crank triple (CP3) motor. And with an engine so versatile, who can blame them? It might sound a little pedestrian to ardent sportsbike fans, but 113bhp teamed up with a seriously strong 87.5Nm of torque makes an engine that will do exactly what you need it to, almost all of the time. And when 22% of Yamaha’s sales in 2017 were in the sports touring segment, it’s no wonder they’re putting so much effort into bikes like the Tracer 900.

As well as introducing an updated Tracer 900, priced at £9,249, Yamaha are launching the all new Tracer 900GT. The GT is a spec’d up, slightly more bling model that comes in at £10,649. For the extra £1,400 you’re treated to a sexy full colour TFT dash (robbed off Yamaha’s flagship sportsbike the YZF-R1), front and rear adjustable suspension, a quickshifter, cruise control, heated grips and a pair of colour coded panniers. Yamaha know there are those who want a bike to do everything from popping to the shops to taking the wife on a tour round Europe, and that’s what the Tracer 900 for. But what they also know is that there are those that want to do those things while indulging themselves in a little bit of luxury and style; that’s where the Tracer 900GT comes in.

Who needs heated grips?