Slipping and sliding around in the mud of the unsealed, mountainous section of the N Highway hadn't been part of the plan, but the rain radar and forecast had let me down, which left me riding in conditions unsuited to a sports-tourer… and then I saw an excavator doing embankment repairs… while sinking into the mud. At that point, I'd rather have been cleaning toilets at the GP than paddling through marginally less smelly muck on a brand-new Yamaha Tracer 9 GT.
In the radar-invisible drizzle, I managed to squeeze past the excavator and eventually (and with considerable relief) made it back onto the blacktop 20 minutes later. Impressively, the Tracer, showcasing its touring adaptability, was dirty but not damaged.
Yamaha's current sport touring range has something for most tastes. There's the impressive shaft-driven FJR1300 battleship, the Niken with its super-glued twin tyre front end and the Tracer 9 GT. Compared to other chain-driven competitors, the GT takes a slightly different path to sport touring bliss. It's a little more compact, has less engine, less weight and premium features.
To find out if it delivers, we did a 3000km run to the Phillip Island 2023 WSBK round. The ride featured all the positives, and as mentioned above, negatives of Australian motorcycle travel.
