Yamaha Tracer 9 GT+ Review: The Ultimate Sport-Touring Machine

• With the updated model due to hit NZ shores soon, we look at our review of the 2024 version.
• Plus version gets factory upgrades and is the first Yamaha to feature adaptive cruise.
• KYB semi-active suspension makes for a smooth and capable mile-muncher.

 Words: Paul Pics: Two Creative Photography

A few tasty add-ons to Yamaha’s touring triple have the ability to turn it into a pukka tourer. But is it still too closely linked to the hooligan MT-09 to be taken seriously for longer tours, and is it worth the extra coin? We hit the motorways and highways to find out.

Yamaha’s MT-09 is known for being a short, sporty, naked, bad boy. So surely simply bolting a bit of touring gubbins onto the same chassis with the same engine wouldn’t work, right? Well, you would probably be right if it wasn’t for the fact that the CP3, 890cc, triple-cylinder powerplant that powers the MT-09 is such an epic motor. And with a great chassis, fun handling and a bit more room courtesy of a few changes to the riding position, the Tracer 9 somehow works. Not only does it work, but it’s also a sports tourer with a whole heap of emphasis on the ‘sports’ if that’s your thing.

Sum of the Parts

At the heart of the Tracer 9 GT+ (and the rest of Yamaha’s Maximum Torque 900 range) is the same triple-cylinder motor pushing out 117hp @ 10,000rpm and 93Nm @ 7,000rpm. It’s not been detuned for more ‘useability’ or any other nonsense, and it’s great that you get the full-monty hooligan motor that’s so much fun in all the other variants. In fact, even with the R9 going to be joining the range soon, I bet even with the sportiest intentions of this model, it’ll still have the same output and performance from the triple, such is the refinement and fun factor that Yamaha has developed into this powerplant.

One majorly important change to turn the MT-09 into a machine capable of smashing out long distances in one go was to increase the tank size, with the paltry 14-litre tank on the MT-09 getting a major boost for the Tracer, with a useful 19-litres of fuel capacity. With Yamaha claiming an average fuel consumption of 5l/100km, you’re well into the 300km range before needing to think of finding a gas station, depending on how much the fun nature of the Tracer 9 has encouraged you to twist the throttle and find your inner hooligan. Still, even while having a load of fun during our testing, the worst we saw was 5.5l/100km on the fancy new TFT dash.

And that’s another improvement for the 2024 Tracer 9, with a 7-inch TFT screen offering plenty of real estate for information and mapping, once you’ve connected your phone and got the necessary Yamaha MyRide App and Garmin Mapping App. Oh, and there’s a subscription for that, so it’s not as straightforward as simply being able to Apple Car Play to the screen. Still, after a bit of messing around trying to get my phone connected to the Yamaha, I discovered the system worked well and offered plenty of integration from your phone to the bike.

The dash itself is a nice piece of kit, with a big central dial and then two lots of information (one on each side) and it’s certainly a marked improvement over the two smaller screens of the previous Tracer 9. The switchgear is also improved, with a small joystick on the left switchblock allowing you to delve into various menus, although I was surprised to see it wasn’t the new switchgear we’ve seen when testing the latest MT-09SP and MT-09 Y-AMT. And there wasn’t the keyless ignition that is featured on those models which is something I’d expect to see more on the touring version than the sportier models. Maybe that’ll be in the next update for the Tracer 9 GT+.

One major update that is certainly a big plus for the tourers out there is the addition of radar cruise control. The millimetre wave system emits a radar ahead of the bike and monitors vehicles in front when the cruise is set, and then adjusts the speed automatically to match the speed of the approaching vehicle. Commonplace on cars nowadays, it’s slowly coming through to motorcycles and I really love it, although many riders reckon they still prefer to stay ‘fully in control’. I tend to use cruise quite a lot when I’m on roads that are possibly well-policed, so the addition of an adaptive system means I no longer have to adjust the speed I’ve got the bike set. The Yamaha system is especially trick, in that it’s linked to the unified braking system, meaning the Tracer will automatically apply the brakes when the vehicle ahead slows. I decided to put this to the test when coming off at a motorway junction when I followed a van which was slowing from 110km/h to a stop at a set of traffic lights at the bottom of the ramp. And despite my hesitation to trust the system – I had my fingers hovering over the front brake – it duly brought the speed down. And the really beauty is that you can use the excellent quickshifter to change gears up or down and it doesn’t disengage the ACC. It’s a very clever and useful system.

While the Tracer 9 GT+ gets a completely different riding position from the donor MT-09 thanks to a decent set of bar risers, wind-busting bodywork and a taller/wider saddle, another way Yamaha has made the sporty into a tour-ey is by adding the latest KYB semi-active suspension, with the forks and shock damping changing as you select different riding modes. Utilising data from the 6-axis IMU which monitors various sensors, the system adjusts damping using the Hydraulic Unit and Suspension Control Unit to firm the performance of the suspension when you’re getting sporty or softening it off when you’re in cruise-mode. The KADS (KYB Actimatic Damper System) can be set in Sport or Comfort mode and constantly adjusts itself depending on how you’re riding.

Finally, you can’t have a sports tourer without the ability to carry some luggage, and the Tracer 9 GT+ has colour-matched panniers, although they are certainly more designed for a brief getaway than a prolonged tour. The unusual shape is the first hindrance, although the second would have been trying to get into them if it hadn’t been for the man at Yamaha who gave me a demo. It’s a peculiar system which needs to be performed to open the side of the case, with the key needing to be used first to set the pannier to unlock before lifting the handle. You then need to press a button to release another lever, which when pulled, releases the latches and the side falls open. I think they could probably learn something from the functional Germans when it comes to pannier latches…

As you’d expect, the lighting is LED all around, and there are even cornering lights for a bit of brightness when heading out at night. With the radar system positioned at the middle of the fairing, the twin headlights need to be positioned on either side, although with the system only weighing 200 grams, you’d never really know it’s there. 

Fast Enough?

With my first ride on the Tracer 9 GT+ out of Auckland via the motorway, it was the perfect opportunity to test the touring credentials of the updated model. Accelerating hard up the sliproad in an effort to ‘get up to speed’, there’s no doubting that the heart of the MT-09 is still alive and well in the Tracer 9. I did have to wonder, though, whether lots of riders would turn their nose up at ‘only’ 117hp for a bike they might use to load up with luggage and a pillion before heading to the hills. 

If you’re in Europe or places where the speeds are higher, then you could possibly have a case. But for NZ where the roads are twisty, the policing is heavy, and the surfaces are crappy, the CP3 powerplant is well suited to the sporty nature of this tourer, especially with the increased torque and the excellent third gen quickshifter. While some quickshifters change cogs with the merest brush of the lever with your foot, the Yamaha’s system requires a bit more force to get it to swap cogs, but that’s okay. In fact, it’s almost reassuring as you know that 100% of the time, the ratio you’re after is going to be selected with that little bit of extra effort. It’s almost more secure in its action. 

On backroads, the gearbox is a pleasure to flick up and down, with the blipper matching the revs perfectly on downshifts that it’s almost easy to forget to pull the clutch in when coming to a stop as I could shift from sixth to first, all without bothering my left hand. And once I got out of the big smoke and took to the backroads, the MT-09 revealed itself once more as the triple howled and the Tracer 9 carved through turns with more composure than the naked hooligan, thanks ultimately to the semi-active suspension and the slightly longer wheelbase.

Despite the Tracer tipping the scales 10 kilos heavier than the naked version, the brakes are the same, with four-piston calipers gripping 298mm twin discs at the front and a twin-piston caliper gripping a 267mm disc at the rear. To be honest, the added weight means the setup isn’t the sharpest, but there is plenty of feel from the lever. And with the semi-active suspension working to keep the bike level, it’s easy to carry brakes late into corners if your touring is more on the sporty side. Bridgestone’s latest Battlax T32 sport-touring tyres are the perfect combination for the MT-09 tourer, with a sure-footedness coming from the rubber to go with the sporty intentions.

While the riding position is totally different from that of the MT-09, it’s easy to feel the connection, especially when pushing on into corners. I felt my shoulder drop naturally down and forward, my knee extending and my bum shifting over that wide, sumptuous saddle as I was gaining more confidence cornering for our photoshoot, but I was eventually brought back to reality when something solid started touching down, most likely the centrestand. Again, the semi-active suspension would help add to cornering clearance, with the automatic damping adjustment hopefully stopping the suspension from compressing too much when you encounter a bump mid-turn, which is often the time you find a sport-tourer touching down. But it was great to see that the Tracer has lost none of the sporting pedigree that we love so much in the naked.

Top Tech

While there’s a new saddle and high handlebars to give the MT-09 a more touring stance in the Tracer guise, the one thing I did notice was that the footpegs still felt relatively high and certainly positioned back rather than a more neutral touring stance. With my rides only lasting a couple of hours each time before coffee and cake called, comfort never became an issue, and I never felt myself going for a leg stretch. But if I was to spend a day in the saddle I reckon the position would start to make itself known as the fuel reserves got low, but then you’d need to stop anyway! And I guess that’s what you expect from a tourer with sporting credentials.

The wide saddle did make getting both feet on the floor a little bit of a stretch (I’m 6 foot), and the riding position itself was a little cramped thanks to the lip of the raised pillion saddle, meaning there is no ability to shift back. Again, it’s part of the trade-off of having a tourer based around an MT-09, which is inherently short and sharp, but you won’t want to be too tall and then spend a day on the Tracer 9 GT+, as it might get a little cramped especially if you’ve got someone on the back.

Popping back out on the motorway saw me calling the radar cruise into action again, with a trigger at the front of the left switchblock adjusting the distance the system will keep you from the car in front. Switching on the heated grips and heated saddle gave my old bones a bit of a respite from the cool air, while sliding the large screen up offered some extra wind protection, although I did need a slight duck of the helmet to really get out of the blast.

The beauty of the Tracer 9 GT+ is that it shows you don’t need 150+ horsepower to make a sports-tourer fun. Instead, an excellent chassis and involving powerplant are more than enough to compensate for the lack of horses, especially as our test bike had an optional Akrapovic end-can fitted to unleash a bit of triple fruitiness. Unfortunately, the Tracer hasn’t yet received the grills on the top of the tank like the MT-09 to really release the airbox growl from the triple, but the Tracer still sounded plenty fine enough, especially when flicking up and down the box using the quickshifter.

The radar system is great, and the new dash is a major leap forward, although the integration with the Yamaha app is still a little buggy. Hopefully, they’ll work that out. So, if you’re looking for a machine that will do a bit of everything from touring to weekend blasting, then the Tracer 9 GT+ ticks the boxes. At $28,306.65, it’s slightly over $10k above the standard MT-09 ($18,044.65), but for that, you get a whole heap more bike. Okay, there isn’t a boost in performance, but you do get the excellent tech on a bike which will lap the country with ease and still put a smile on your face.

Specifications

2024 Yamaha Tracer 9 GT+
Price: $28,306.65

Engine Type
Liquid-cooled, 4-stroke, DOHC, 4-valve, 3-cylinder

Displacement (cc)
890.0

Bore x Stroke (mm)
78.0 x 62.1

Compression Ratio
11.5 : 1

Lubrication System
Wet Sump

Fuel Management
Fuel Injection

Ignition
TCI

Starter System
Electric

Fuel Tank Capacity (L)
18.7

Final Transmission
Chain

TransmissionConstant mesh 
6-speed

Frame Type 
Diamond

Suspension Front 
Telescopic forks, 130mm travel

Suspension Rear
Swingarm (link suspension), 137mm travel

Brakes Front 
Hydraulic dual discs, 298mm

Brakes Rear 
Hydraulic single disc, 267mm

Tyres Front 
120/70ZR17 M/C (58W) Tubeless

Tyres Rear 
180/55ZR17 M/C (73W) Tubeless

Length (mm) 
2175

Width (mm) 
885

Height (mm) 
1430 / 1470

Seat Height (mm) 
820 / 835

Wheelbase (mm) 
1500

Ground Clearance (mm) 
135

Wet Weight (kg) 
223

Contact
www.yamaha-motor.co.nz