Yes I got an ICE motorcycle again! I just couldn’t get used to no longer having a ride followed by an Akrapovic 😎 Below video is from the past riding my 2016 BMW R1200 GS.

shorts dit heb ik gemist #akrapovic #quickshifter #bmwgs

I also loved my street triple for how smooth that engine handles any situation at whatever rpm you’re in. I only have a few clips of that bike on my YT channel. Just not to get the same again I was specifically looking at 3 cilinders from other brands.

That’s how I got into testing a yamaha MT09. It’s difficult to describe the cp3 engine without mentioning how hooligan it is. That motor in a neo retro package lead me to yamaha XSR 900. To be fair a 700 would’ve been plenty for me but I really fancy that smooth 3 cilinder.

Here is everything I learned before buying an XSR 900

As always there is a good wikipedia overview. It’s surprisingly short though. But seems to cover most of it.

The bike was released in 2016 and shared engine, frame and wheels with the MT09. Suspension, geometry, ecu and obviously fairings are different. It’s total length is a bit longer giving for a somewhat more stable high speed handling? Can’t confirm this yet myself but I do remember the MT09 to be badly sprung and very wheely happy.

In 2017 they made a special Abarth limited edition that got a different product number. It came with an Akrapovic twin exhaust and lots of carbon parts and was styled as a cafe racer with drop bars and upper fairings. That’s what I got for myself. It’s different from the special editions since it’s limited to 695 builds world wide. Also the first 95 were auctioned online, the other 600 you could order at your Yamaha dealership.

Over the years the other changes to this model were limited to different colours and some small addons and special anniversary editions up to 2020 when the model was banned because of euro 5 requirements. This bike is euro 4. Similar story for BMW R nine T, almost got one of those.

In 2018 they had another ecu update and they added support for a yamaha quickshifter. So if you really need a QS you should look for anything 2018 and up. There is a QS logo naar the gear indicator when the bike supports it. Before you need to get a third party solution like available from healtech.

Then in 2021 you simply couldn’t get anything XSR and they did tease a model update like the MT09 already got but partly due to covid it was 2022 before you could get the new one. Hence test video’s on YT on the updated XSR 900 are still very fresh.

It’s a totally different bike. They got a new frame, new euro 5 exhaust, new fairings, new dash, new QS, cruise control, updated suspension, brembo front master cilinder and more.

What I learned afterwards

Not much yet to be fair. I only have it a few weeks now and the weather has been not so ideal. When riding it I immediately noticed you sit quite high, more on top versus the MT09 where you would sit more into the bike. I also learned that despite my expectations this bike isn’t any less hooligan than the MT09 is. Not sure why I thought it would be.

Since then I’ve installed some small add-ons like SW-MOTECH sliders and side bags and very cool looking frameless mirrors made by mo.view. I’ll probably also install a healtech quick shifter in the future. Since I have a 2017 model I can’t go for the Yamaha version.

It only had 1.030 km on the dash so I first had to do an oil change. The first 1.000 km you should keep it above 5.000 revs for too long. From 1.000 to 1.500 km that limit is 6.000 revs. Once all that’s done I’ll take it out and make an audio recording again of the exhaust as I started this writing with. Glad I’m back in the ICE game with this Yamaha. My Energica will still serve for my commute. This is a fun second bike.