Tracer 9 GT review

[Larz]

2 hours ago, PhotoAl said:

which panniers did you go with?

 

 

if you are asking me? None, I have some soft throw over sport bike bags that will work if I get some pannier supports, as well as a Givi soft trunk. The 80 lbs lighter gen 3 Mt-09 vs 9GT comment was regarding stock configs with the 9GT wearing her panniers. 

Thing for me is I'm just not doing the long distance touring on the GT 900 that I thought I would; too fat and lazy nowadays. 90% of the miles I've put on her have been "hooning" around town and day riding up in the Mts. The MT will be more fun for that kind of riding and be fine for an overnighter with windshield and some soft bags,eh.

Longer distance I'll break out the MoTow and pull it behind the Mazda, take my dog, Paddleboard, etc. ( sees scornful looks, hears scoffs of derision....😂

[PhotoAl]

Sending you a scornful look and scoff of derision 🙂 

I get you on the MT-09, that's how I traveled on my ZX6R.   Was fun until i hit stretches with speeds less than 45mph.  Without the prop off the wind my wrists would suffer.

[Larz]

39 minutes ago, PhotoAl said:

Sending you a scornful look and scoff of derision 🙂 

I get you on the MT-09, that's how I traveled on my ZX6R.   Was fun until i hit stretches with speeds less than 45mph.  Without the prop off the wind my wrists would suffer.

Yeah I feel ya, can't do a sportbike rider triangle anymore- wrists and neck feel it for days after. Even an XSR 900 is a little too aggresive and certainly not a Ninja nor the new GSXeR GT would work, me thinks. Too bad, the Suzie looks to be a winner. But I am stuck on the triple- the HP to TRQ ratio is suberb for street riding.

[psyshack]

On 11/20/2022 at 9:17 AM, kingfisher said:

I'm no expert or journalist, just a guy with many miles and years of motorcycling behind me, with a great fondness for Yamahas and bikes with the 900 triple engine. My FJ 09 was fantastic; light weight, and quick with that great triple powerplant. The GT 900 replaced it, and was a joy to tour on. Cruise control was great to have. The lure of the FJR replaced them, and after about 90,000 FJR miles, found myself missing the mid weight and kick ass triple of the 900 again. So, a '22 Tracer 9 GT replaced the aging FJR.

After the first 1,000 miles, a few impressions are present.

Engine: The new 890 cc version of the triple is fantastic. Very tractable linear throttle response, and an excellent powerband. Mid range torque comes on sooner and stronger, great for overtaking traffic or powering out of a corner in a middle gear. At 7,000 rpm, a very strong top range rush occurs, that carries all the way to redline. The front end gets light even in 2nd gear with the throttle. First gear, you appreciate the lift control feature for sure.

Suspension and new more rigid frame: Probably the bikes best feature, even over the engine. The semiactive suspension is comfortable and accommodating over rough roads, but also has good dampening that keeps the tires on the roadway in turns, even over washboard surfaces. I've kept it in the A-2 setting so far. The bike is very stable at speed and in wind buffeting situations, such as riding behind a semi on the highway. 

Seat: Many of the past bikes, including the FJ and the GT 900 have required an aftermarket seat for long rides. So far, with a few multi hour rides, I'm surprised to find the seat works fine for me.

Brakes: Strong, with ABS, now including the cornering version. No complaints here.

Panniers: Odd looking at first, but actually quite good. Very easy to mount and remove, with more usable capacity than even the FJR bags. I really like the key setting that allows for keyless entry. 

Headlights: Very good light output and beam spread on both low and high beam. The cornering lights do readily illuminate in turns and makes the light brighter into the turn, but really doesn't reach much farther INTO the turn. That could be improved. Also the tiny but powerful low beam doesn't inspire confidence for visibility to others on the road.

Handling: Pretty much addressed already, but it is excellent. Light, but stable, composed on the highway but a joy in the twisties.

The dash: lots of info, but hard to see at times. I wish they had left the ability in to change from a black background to white with black characters that the GT 900 had. Not the bikes best feature, but well overshadowed by all of the other aspects of the bike.

Overall, I'm enjoying it as much or more than any previous bike, of which there have been quite a few... Only mod so far is a Givi monokey rear rack.

Sounds good! I see your in Okiehoma like me. I've been trying to buy any MT09 variant and not get screwed to death. K & N is now a dealer I want nothing to do with after a long relationship with the old owners. And Maxey makes me want to wear a body condom to be at the dealer or take a shower after chatting with them on the phone. Who did you by your bike from? I've got $20k cash setting here and if any of these dealers would deal I could very well buy a MT09 variant and a tenere 700. I really don't need a Tracer for touring. I have a 2018 Wing Tour 6MT for a sofa that will do wheelies. But it would be nice to have the Wing, a MT of some sort and a basic ADV bike in the stable. Kaw, Suz, Hon, BMW are honestly acting like they want to sell motorcycles. Suzuki is already getting 2023 bikes to dealers. But Yamaha can't seem to poo or get off the pot. Enjoy your Tracer and stay safe,,, Okies be trying to kill us in there cages.

[kingfisher]

Sehorn Yamaha in Shawnee has been my go to dealer for some time. It’s a distance away from me, but I have had good experiences with them. They still have several Tracer 9 GT’s in stock.

[kingfisher]

Well, just thought I’d better check to make sure I was accurate that they had some in stock; they had both color bikes in stock last week, but yamaha website no longer shows them when you check for dealer inventory. 
 

Now have 2,600 miles on the bike, enjoying it greatly. The T32 rear tire is wearing fairly quickly, guess I need to stop “enjoying” the engine power so much..😀

[psyshack]

3 hours ago, kingfisher said:

Sehorn Yamaha in Shawnee has been my go to dealer for some time. It’s a distance away from me, but I have had good experiences with them. They still have several Tracer 9 GT’s in stock.

I was in Shawnee Tuesday and went by Sehorn and the Honda, Kaw, Suz Dealer. Sehorn only had used bikes in stock. But Shawnee Honda was trying to sell me a z900 and a few other bikes with pricing while still higher than I'm going to pay wasn't pure covid ripoff rape. Did you say you came off a FJR to get on the Tracer? I'm a big FJR fan. FJR is what started this wanting to buy a bike in 2022. With 2022 being the last year of production for FJR in the USA. I ordered a FJR from a buddy of mine that owns a Yamaha/Honda Dealer in Arkansas. Then it came in freight damaged to the point it was pretty much totaled. And that's the only 2022 FJR I've seen.  ,,,, I've only seen one Tracer with a Okie tag on it. And I saw that bike on the Pig Trail in Arkansas back in the summer so it probably wasn't you. If you see a big lug dwarfing a Wing throwing a hand up to you on a blue Wing in Okiehoma it's probably me. As the new style Wings are still rare here. Good Luck! 

 

[texscottyd]

11 hours ago, psyshack said:

K & N is now a dealer I want nothing to do with after a long relationship with the old owners.

I’m really sorry to hear that… Norm & Lucy are great people, and the dealership used to be The Place to go.  

A good friend still tells the story of driving from Houston to Tulsa on a Thursday to buy a new FZR600 from the McDonalds, putting a few break in miles on it Friday, spending Saturday stripping & prepping & safety wiring, and racing it at Hallett on Sunday.   Good times.  😀

[psyshack]

1 hour ago, texscottyd said:

I’m really sorry to hear that… Norm & Lucy are great people, and the dealership used to be The Place to go.  

A good friend still tells the story of driving from Houston to Tulsa on a Thursday to buy a new FZR600 from the McDonalds, putting a few break in miles on it Friday, spending Saturday stripping & prepping & safety wiring, and racing it at Hallett on Sunday.   Good times.  😀

Yep it use to be a hell of a dealer! New owner sucks. I bought a few bikes from them over the years. But what they shined in was machine work, porting, head, crank work, engine builds and tuning. While it kind of got hard to get a good deal on bikes in Tulsa over all. K & N was the place to get YamaHammer Parts and really good pricing and combo deals. The Farr's was another good dealer and Vickie was the drag racing queen. And then there was Leroy and Bobby Winters in Fort Smith. We use to have some really great dealers across the country. And every one of them was a old school family owned operation. Now there useless collage boy, cooperate poo pits. Motorcycle culture IMHO as been pretty much destroyed by the useless poo pit boys.

[kingfisher]

3 hours ago, psyshack said:

I was in Shawnee Tuesday and went by Sehorn and the Honda, Kaw, Suz Dealer. Sehorn only had used bikes in stock. But Shawnee Honda was trying to sell me a z900 and a few other bikes with pricing while still higher than I'm going to pay wasn't pure covid ripoff rape. Did you say you came off a FJR to get on the Tracer? I'm a big FJR fan. FJR is what started this wanting to buy a bike in 2022. With 2022 being the last year of production for FJR in the USA. I ordered a FJR from a buddy of mine that owns a Yamaha/Honda Dealer in Arkansas. Then it came in freight damaged to the point it was pretty much totaled. And that's the only 2022 FJR I've seen.  ,,,, I've only seen one Tracer with a Okie tag on it. And I saw that bike on the Pig Trail in Arkansas back in the summer so it probably wasn't you. If you see a big lug dwarfing a Wing throwing a hand up to you on a blue Wing in Okiehoma it's probably me. As the new style Wings are still rare here. Good Luck! 

 

They sold the Tracers quickly at Sehorn; they had five of them when I bought mine last month. I traded my '13 FJR for the Tracer at Sehorn. It had  a lot of miles on it but was running as good as when I bought it when it was traded in. Haven't been to Arkansas yet on the Tracer or any other state except for Texas. Can't wait to do a long ride through the Rockies.

[psyshack]

2 hours ago, kingfisher said:

They sold the Tracers quickly at Sehorn; they had five of them when I bought mine last month. I traded my '13 FJR for the Tracer at Sehorn. It had  a lot of miles on it but was running as good as when I bought it when it was traded in. Haven't been to Arkansas yet on the Tracer or any other state except for Texas. Can't wait to do a long ride through the Rockies.

Sehorn had a red and silver used FJR. Was your old FJR one of them? One of them had like 70k miles on it. I really wish my 2022 FJR didn't come in freight damaged. If I had that bike I wouldn't be here right now. But that process did bring me to MT variant's as a purchase. But if Yamaha and Honda don't get there heads out of there you know what and start getting bikes built and moving on with R&D and engineering I'm going to blow them off completely. Kawasaki, Suzuki, BMW, Ducati, Aprilia, HD, Indian and others are getting there acts together and moving forward after the plandemic. But Yamaha, Honda, KTM and others seem to be hung in reverse with the throttle wide open. If I could find a 1290 Super Duke R for sale out the door at MSRP it would be bought. If you ever get a chance to ride one do it. There more fun than a barrel of monkeys on pcp.

[kingfisher]

The 2013 gray one was mine. Had 78,000 miles on it, mostly put on it by me.  I was reluctant to let it go, but am very glad to have the Tracer. It was the time to make the trade, before I put enough miles on the FJR that it wouldn’t be worth anything in trade, and also this was the first time that any Tracers had been available in a good while. Another factor was to grab a ‘22 model before the ‘23 models arrived (if they do, in the US.) I had no desire for the adaptive cruise control and the likely associated price increase. I too would like to again see the day when you walk into a MC dealership and see a showroom full of bikes. Now, to get one,  it seems that you need to get lucky to find one available when you are ready to buy, or to do what Larz has done, and to get on a pre order and pay a deposit. I think Yamaha has done a great job with engineering and R&D. The Tracer is pretty advanced and the FJR, although older, is an excellent design and has great features. The supply chain issues seem to be the rate limiter in motorcycle availability. Cars are the same; local new car lots still have very low inventory of new vehicles.

[kingfisher]

The MC accessory companies don't make much money from me.  Other than the Givi rack, all I've done is to add my heated gear cable, grip puppies (a must have for me,) and my high tech redline marker. The twin dash screens are growing on me; lots of info displayed. My one gripe with them is visibility in bright sunlight. It's hard to see that small red transition on the tach, so a short piece of red pinstripe makes things easier to see.

Surprisingly, the seat and windscreen work great for me. Had to replace the seats on the FJ 09 and Tracer 900 GT.

I've kept the brake setting in BC 2, that activates the cornering ABS. Upright emergency braking drills reveal good ABS function; not as coarse as on the FJ. Have NOT tried to lock the brakes while cornering to test that function. Will just take Yamaha's word that that works as advertised. 

The T32 rear tire is likely to be toast after 4 to 5,000 miles. Wonder if it is really a dual compound tire like commercially available T 32's. Will plan on replacing them with my go to tires (Dunlop RS 3's), when it is time.

Bike is great; very enjoyable  to ride. 

[Larz]

 

Xmas came earlier than expectated😁. 10 whole miles so far, but while it's apples to oranges, agree the gen 3 engine has noticeably more low end grunt than the gen 2, even comparing stock to my flashed bike with a full cat-less exhaust. yeehaw🤪

 

 

 

[kingfisher]

Excellent! What a great looking bike. The new engine has better mid range torque, but when you are able to explore the top end more, after break-in, I think you will be very pleasantally surprised. Every time I ride the 9 GT, the power from 6,500 to 7,000 rpm to redline is intoxicating; your’s even more so in that light weight package. The new engine is a definite upgrade. Enjoy!