#Tracer9Gt

It’s been a while since I walked out of work into a dark winter evening and scraped frost off of my motorcycle seat before hopping on to brave the elements. Longer still, that I did it every night during college in the Midwest where my enthusiasm and devil-may-care attitude outweighed the fear of potential black ice lurking in the shadows. Not long after that time, I moved to California with its promise of year-round riding in the sunshine with mountains I could visit within a day to get my fix of snow if/when needed. It’s been great. I do miss the seasonality though. The moist smell of dirt and decay that you only get a few times a year on unseasonably warm fall days as the leaves begin to change color and litter the forest floor before drying to a crisp in the winter wind. I miss the silent mornings when an overnight snow storm left the landscape blanketed in a sound dampening layer of ice. I miss change.

New motorcycle model introductions follow a well-worn path: travel to the event location, eat nice meals, get briefed on the bike of the moment, ride a route designed to highlight the bike’s strengths, take photos/video, eat more good food, return home, and write up a review. After 27 years in this industry, I still get a cheap thrill about throwing a leg over a new motorcycle before it is available to the general public. However, what really gets me going is when I have a chance to log more than just the couple of hundred miles typically covered in an intro and spend some real time on the road with said bike.

Astute readers are probably wondering why Motorcycle.com is publishing a First Ride of a bike that’s not coming to the States this model year. Our reasoning is that, thanks to the sleuthing of Dennis Chung, we suspect the Yamaha Tracer 9 GT+ will be coming to the U.S. in 2024. (Read about it here.) So, we thought our fellow MOrons might be as interested as we are in how well the new technology incorporated into the GT+ performs. We hope you enjoy this taste of what it has to offer. –EB

Last November, Yamaha Motor Europe revealed a new Tracer 9 GT+ at EICMA, a new version of its Triple-powered sport tourer equipped with a 7-inch TFT display, adaptive cruise control, and a radar-linked unified braking system.

For 2023, Yamaha has gone crazy with the new Tracer 9 GT+ and thrown every bit of technology it could think of at the bike. Now sitting atop Yamaha’s sport-touring mountain as the flagship for the brand – taking the place of the dearly departed FJR1300, which has been out of production for a few years – the Tracer 9 GT+, with its multitude of electronic rider aids, will help make the sport-touring experience as stress-free as possible.

With the Ducati Multistrada 1260 S Grand Tour taking top honors of our sport-touring MOBO in 2020, it should come as no surprise that the 2021 Multistrada V4 S further cements the Italian’s dominance of the category. The new Multi V4 is basically better in every way, from its stonking new V4 that can play the part of mild tourer or wild canyon ripper, to its more versatile 19-inch front wheel and world-class electronics package that includes adaptive cruise control and blindspot monitoring as well as electronic Ducati Skyhook suspension. The new Multi continues to impress in a way that is surprising for a bike of its size.

The definition of a sport-touring motorcycle has gotten a bit blurred lately with adventure-touring bikes encroaching on the space. A good bike in either genre agrees that you need to be able to pound out miles and do it in relative comfort. The difference comes when one decides to pursue sport over adventure.

Remember sport-touring motorcycles? Maybe you don’t, thanks to the rise of adventure-touring bikes cross-pollinating the genre. Well, before the craze of wanting to explore both the paved and unpaved paths of the world, there was a subset of motorcyclists who felt the call for exploration without the need to play in the dirt. Asphalt touring was one ingredient necessary to satiate the exploration hunger, but being able to get from Point A to Point B via the longest, curviest path possible was the other. Having the ability to pack a co-pilot on the back and/or assorted gear in saddlebags was further accoutrement to make the dish even sweeter.

Yamaha has updated the Tracer 900 GT, renaming it the Tracer 9 GT and giving it similar updates to the new MT-09 including the larger 890cc three-cylinder engine, new frame and six-axis IMU.