LONG-AWAITED YAMAHA R9

Ever since the R7 dropped a few years ago , there have been rumours of Yamaha taking the lovely CP3 triple engine from the MT-09 and shoe-horning it into a sports-style chassis . With barely any preceding fanfare , Yamaha has announced the all-new R9 . Yamaha fans have been patiently waiting for this gem of an engine to get a sports chassis , and it ’ s finally here , sporting a 117hp power figure and 195kg wet , ready-to-roll , weight . First up , the motor is the cross-plane crank triple out of the MT-09 . This is Yamaha ’ s award-winning 890cc CP3 liquid-cooled , threecylinder , DOHC , 4-valve per-cylinder fuelinjected engine . It ’ s all controlled by the proven throttle-by-wire YCC-T system ( Yamaha Chip Controlled Throttle ) and Yamaha says the final drive ratio , ignition timing and fuel mapping are all optimised for Supersport performance both on track and on the road . The triple-cylinder roar has almost become the trademark of the CP3 , and Yamaha ’ s engineers say they ’ ve paid significant attention into amplifying the engine ’ s emotion-evoking sound . Yamaha says it remains committed to the future of a road-going Supersport market , and the appetite and desire shown for this market since the introduction of the R7 make it clear there remains a place for road-going Supersport models . The R9 completes Yamaha ’ s step-up Supersport category , progressing from the entry level R125 , through middleweight R7 and up to the R9 on the road-going side ( the R1 GYTR , R1 RACE , R6 GYTR and R6 RACE stay in the line-up for track use ).