Yamaha’s XSR900GP was a hit the minute it was unveiled towards the end of 2023. With the world seemingly tiring of classically styled roadsters and scramblers, the XSR takes the retro genre in a new direction. Rather than be a replica of any one bike from Yamaha’s back catalogue, the GP is like a greatest hits album of Yamaha designs from the Eighties and Nineties. The main fairing was inspired by Lawson and Rainey’s YZR500 racers; the inner fairing stay is from the TZR250 road bike; the fork tops have been designed to look like early Ohlins units, while the seat casts a nod to Alan Carter’s 1983 French GP winning TZ250. For the most part it’s beautifully crafted as well, with lots of tactile touches and neat details. The paint scheme too harks back to Yamaha’s golden Grand Prix days, when motorcycles were high speed advertisements for high profile cigarette brands.
Under this retro bodywork lies a thoroughly contemporary design. The XSR900GP is powered by exactly the same engine as the brilliant 2024 MT-09, which is already considered one of the best all-round road engines of modern motorcycling, and which we’ve already reviewed on the site. Now punched out to 890cc, the ‘Crossplane’ triple produces 117bhp and retains the distinctive three-cylinder character which has made it so popular over the years, with a stirringly fruity mid-range, excellent throttle response, plenty of flexibility, an evocative soundtrack and an improved up and down quickshifter. The MT-09’s triple may be able to trace its lineage back 10 years (with a series of updates along the way) but it remains one of motorcycling’s best engines. In this guise, I can’t fault it.
But more impressive still is how the GP handles. Its chassis is essentially a mash-up of XSR900 roadster and the new MT-09. Its main frame comes from the MT-09, albeit polished silver rather than painted black. It has the longer swingarm from the XSR (for added stability), the uprated adjustable suspension from the MT, the XSR’s tank and so on. Bitsa or not, it has plenty of pedigree behind it and, overall, this mongrel just works. Steering is sharp, precise and involving, the right amount of taut but ultimately comfortable and somehow refined. The brakes, although there was nothing wrong with the XSR’s stoppers in the first place, get an extra helping of classy feel courtesy of a new Brembo radial master cylinder. The result, if you want to just leisurely carve and bend swing, is an easy delight, but if you want to put down the hammer and hustle, the GP also has what it takes.
As much as the looks really grab you, the styling is always going to be subjective and, to my mind, it’s not perfect. I understand the looks are a ‘mash-up’ of different bikes but the boxy seat unit isn’t really to my taste, the ‘letterbox’ headlamp would be better replaced by a pair of 1990s ‘foxeyes’ a la YZF750R, and the trendy bar-end mirrors look out of place too. Then again, the majority of it is exquisite and bikes like these are supposed to customizable. I’m sure Yamaha expect you to be thinking like that anyway, in the hope that you’ll go out and modify your XSR900GP. One popular modification will almost certainly be to fit the belly pan from the accessory range. As standard the bike is sold only with a half fairing, but the lower unit (as fitted to our test bike) really finishes things off.
Comfort-wise I’ve few complaints. You might expect a ‘sporty’ version of a roadster (which the GP essentially is) to be maybe more cramped and harder on the wrists, especially, say, in traffic – and the GP is: but not by so much that it’s in any way a problem. Compared to the XSR, the GP’s bars are 93mm further forward and 114mm lower; its seat 12mm more forward and 27mm higher, with the pegs 26mm both up and back. If that sounds daunting, fret not. It all adds up to a completely natural sporting gait for a six-footer like me. Even in prolonged traffic or city use, it wasn’t bad and was also entirely what you’d expect.
As for when it comes to the GP’s equipment, Yamaha’s newcomer has everything you’d expect – and more. Although XSRs (and MTs) have historically been a little budget and spartan, the latest MT-09 has stepped up noticeably and the GP carries that theme further still. So, like the MT, the GP has Yamaha’s latest slick TFT dash (with new bespoke analogue tacho design, a nice touch) with new and much improved switchgear; the quickshifter is uprated, too, as are the brakes with the addition of a Brembo radial master cylinder and there are lots of neat details and tactile touches. It’s not perfect – there’s some annoyingly exposed wiring around the left-hand handlebar and a conspicuously redundant frame bracket is carried over from the XSR – but any owner is unlikely to be disappointed.
Conclusion
Upon hearing the GP’s price of £12,506, my first thought was that it was a little steep. That’s nearly £2500 more than the new £10,106 MT-09 which rides virtually identically and really only misses the GP’s half fairing. But that’s missing the point. The new GP is a fabulous experience from the moment you clap eyes on it to the end of a long ride. It’s beautifully put together, evocative, easy, thrilling, modern yet period and will be the talking point of any bike meet. It’s already sold well and won numerous awards and, best of all, it will bring a smile to the face of any biker which is something that’s very hard to put a price on. Me? I’d be tempting to customize it with a more YZR500-style seat, swap the mirrors and also maybe, even, get a custom Lucky Strike or Gauloises paint job… dang, they’ve got me already. Told you Yamaha had done a good job, and the price doesn’t really matter…
2024 Yamaha XSR900GP specification
Price: £12,506
Engine: 890cc triple, DOHC, four valves per cylinder, liquid cooled
Power: 117.3bhp (87.5kW) @ 10,000rpm
Torque: 93Nm (68.6lb-ft) @ 7000rpm
Transmission: Six-speed, chain final drive
Frame: Aluminium Deltabox
Suspension: (F) Fully-adjustable 41mm USD fork, (R) Fully-adjustable mono shock.
Wheels: Cast aluminium, 17”/17”
Tyres: (F) 120/70 x 17, (R) 180/55 x 17
Brakes: (F) 2 x 298mm floating discs, four-piston Nissin radial calipers, Brembo master cylinder (R) 245mm disc, 2-piston Nissin caliper. Cornering ABS as standard equipment
Weight: 200kg (kerb)
Wheelbase: 1,500mm
Seat height: 835mm
Fuel tank: 14 litres
Fuel consumption: N/a
Service intervals: 6000 miles/12 months
Warranty: 24 months unlimited mileage
Contact: www.yamaha-motor.eu
Words: Phil West
Photos: Yamaha
