The “sport tourer” moniker probably brings big muscular bikes to mind, like the KTM 1290 Super Duke GT or the BMW S 1000 XR, or rather bulky long-distance runners such as the FJR1300 or the GSX1250FA.

Going fast is easy with those bikes but if you look for light-footedness in a sport tourer, you need to look somewhere else. Enter the Yamaha Tracer 700 GT.

For a few years now, the Yamaha MT-07 has been a popular model from which Yamaha smartly derives other models. The XSR700 already stole my heart in 2016 and now the (already reasonably touring-oriented) Tracer 700 gets an (even more) touring-oriented relative: the Tracer 700 GT.

The Japanese kept it simple and drafted an easy upgrade: take a stock Tracer 700, exchange the windshield for a bigger one, replace the seat with a comfort seat and mount color-matched 20-liter side cases. There you go: the Yamaha Tracer 700 GT. Price for that suffix: £600, bringing the total to £7,999. That’s an attractive price tag. But isn’t the GT label too promising?

Hop on the comfort seat and you’ll immediately notice that the Tracer 700 GT doesn’t make an overwhelming first impression like the big sport tourers mentioned in the intro do. The Tracer feels compact and very manageable. At 835 mm the seat isn’t Continue reading →