Why I bought a Yamaha Tracer 900 GT; March 2020
With a tear in my eye I sold my old Varadero and bought myself a brand new Yamaha Tracer 900 GT. The Varadero had taken me all over Europe in the 6 years I had had it. It had 41K miles on the clock when I sold it. It was a great touring bike which had been totally reliable. Unfortunately, it is also a very heavy bike and maneuvering it around could be tricky.
Buying a Yamaha, a triple at that, was a bit radical for me as I've primarily bought Hondas. I spent quite a bit of time over the 2019/2020 winter looking around at the crop of motorcycles the manufacturers were offering. Being somewhat "old school" I can't say anything blew me away. Too heavy, too expensive, too posey, too complicated, etc.
My main consideration was to get a bike that whilst still being a reliable long distance tourer would be much lighter than what I had been used to. I also didn't want to spend "car money" on a motorcycle. This meant that I didn't consider any of the popular big adventure bikes, i.e. BMW R1250GS, Yamaha Super Ténéré, Kawasaki Versys 1100, etc. Good bikes but a bit too lardy (and expensive) for me. As is my inclination, I first took a look at Honda's offerings. Honda's VFR800F looks OK but I still have a Blackbird so what was the point of getting one of those? I briefly entertained the thought of getting an NC750X as it's a practical cheap bike. However, it's primarily aimed at the commuter market and, for me, a bit underwhelming. I took a look at the Royal Enfield Himalayan. It's great value and I really like the looks of it. People like "Itchy Boots" and Nathan Millward have ridden it off-road across continents without too many problems. However as a road rider who's been known to do a few hundred miles on the autobahn I didn't think 24.5 BHP would cut it. There were deals about on the Moto Guzzi V85TT. I liked the look of the bike but I was concerned about reliability and spares availability. (I believe there have been two recalls since, one for an oil leak and another for faulty footpegs.) Eventually the contenders were whittled down to the Honda Afica Twin, Yamaha's new Ténéré 700 and Suzuki's face-lifted V-Strom 1050. All adventure bikes.
At the time, Honda were in the process of replacing the Africa Twin CRF1000L with the CRF1100L so I didn't bother with the CRF1000L. The corresponding price hike for a CRF1100L, especially if you wanted a model with tubeless tyres kitted out for touring, was an issue for me. I was really keen on the Ténéré 700. It gets great reviews and, for me, it's a light, uncomplicated breath of fresh air. However, the problem for me was that it has a strong off-road bias including tubed tyres (which I tried to look past and failed) and a seat that looked like it would cut me in half after a few hundred miles. As much as I admired the bike, I'm no off-road rider and I typically average 300+ miles / day so it was with regret that I concluded that a Ténéré wasn't the bike for me. With regards to the V-Strom, I felt it was good value for the money but, for me, the 1050 was really just a face-lifted 1000 and really didn't improve over the Varadero.
So how did I arrive at the Tracer? Well after dismissing a Ténéré 700 I was wandering through the Yamaha showroom when I spotted the Tracer 900 GT, a bike I had previously discounted. The more I looked at it, the more I realised it was what I was looking for. It's light, has a reasonably comfortable seating position and comes ready to tour with a set of matching panniers. The extras, particularly the heated grips and cruise control, are nice touches. It has an engine that has been around a while that has a reputation for being reliable and flexible. It also doesn't cost the earth. So I bought one and picked it up 2nd March 2020. To bring it up to my touring specification I asked the dealer to fit a few bits including a front fender extender, a radiator guard, a sidestand bigfoot and Givi crash bars. I also transferred my Garmin satnav mount to the Tracer and added a SW-Motech rack to take my Givi top-box.
Unfortunately I managed to put all of 230 miles on the Tracer before lockdown kicked in and kiboshed my plans to ride to Istanbul in May. Maybe next year? As I write this, lockdown has eased and I have begun riding the Tracer again. Just locally around Dorset. Although I'm still running the Tracer in, so far, I have been very pleased with it and hopefully I'll get to use it as intended sometime in the near future. Love the triple exhaust note!