Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1012061
2019 YAMAHA TRACER 900 GT FIRST IMPRESSION P92 a great job of deflecting the wind and if you're under 5'10", you'll probably find that at the tallest setting, the screen will deflect the wind right over your helmet. If so, happy days. Ride quality is pretty good with the GT. You get a fully adjust- able fork up front with rebound damping and preload adjustment on the rear—the latter importantly accessed via the remote adjuster on the left side under the rider seat. The ride can be a touch soft in standard settings for can- yon riding but the KYB fork and shock does a great job of soak- ing up the kind of bumps you're likely to find when you're on your next big adventure. The handlebar has been moved forward 10mm but the width has decreased 16.5mm, and the overall width offset of the bar has decreased by 100mm, making the machine easier to manage in tight situations (like lane splitting). You also get 30mm longer mirror stems. The rider triangle of pegs, bar and seat is slightly more opened up compared to the '17 model, but unfortunately (for me), the passenger pegs sit too close to the rider's making it hard for the Alternatively, there's lots of mid- to top-end grunt that begins to taper off about 1000 rpm be- fore the redline of 11,500 rpm. At those speeds the triple becomes too much of a buzz box anyway, as the best performance can be found in the 6-9000 rpm range. Couple this with the sweet factory-fitted quickshifter that's good for upshifts only and you've got a sport bike masquerad- ing as a touring weapon. You can hustle a 900 GT at a brisk pace if you're up for it, but the overall demeanor is a bike more comfortable at checking out the scenery instead of breaking canyon records. The addition of a 12V socket for charging a phone/sat nav and having cruise control is a big help here. There's nothing much to say about this other than it works well and it's accessed— importantly—by the left hand switchblock rather than the right, so you don't need to worry about holding the exact speed you want with the throttle hand while trying to set the cruise control. Longer days will give you the tingles pretty bad with a Tracer 900 GT. The three-cylinder en- gine is vibey by nature, and you'll feel those in your fingers and feet if you're riding for any more than one hour at a time. As such, touring riders might want to invest in some bar-end weights that help negate this issue more so than just regular commuters and weekend warriors, as it'll probably affect them more than most. Regardless if you're a tour- ing rider or not, having a screen that's 50mm adjustable is a big bonus. My personal preference is for the screen itself to be much smaller—about half the size it is—so the wind blast hits me in the chest, rather than the hel- met. This is probably a hangover from all the miles I've ridden on large naked bikes over the years. Regardless, the screen does Rider cockpit is similar than the 2018 FJ-09, however, the new TFT dash is much nicer and easier to read. Screen adjustment is super easy when riding. Just pull the lever and lift.