It’s true that life is full of surprises… but this wasn’t one of them. Long before we’d left our lock-up for a day of frolicking, I knew the XSR was assured to be the pick of this crop, despite having never sat on one before. The reason? Well, it’s basically an MT09 with a hint of 1980s styling. It’s got the same CP3 motor that makes 117bhp. The same Deltabox frame that’s strategically tuned in thickness. And the same Rlinfluenced electronics suite that includes everything from rider modes to wheelie control.
Pretty much most things about the XSR are twinned with the MT-09, including the TFT colour dash, which sets this bike apart from its peers, which have largely gone I down the route of half-digital/ half-analogue displays. What Yamaha
