
Yamaha is bucking the trend of motorcycle manufacturers by remaining faithful to the concept of Supersport models, with the announcement of the brand new R9 which, as you may have guessed, is the MT-09 in sports kit.
While not as extreme as past 600cc Supersport models, Yamaha’s brand new R9 is still an admission that the company is not done with the sports bike just yet, even as sales of litre-superbikes have fallen off a cliff and the 600cc Supersport class has all but become moribund.

The new R9 takes proven race-derived technology and combines it with the critically-acclaimed three-cylinder engine platform which has done much to revitalise Yamaha’s fortunes in recent years.
The new R9 promises to bring a new level of approachable user-friendliness to the class while losing none of the sophisticated componentry you’d expect from a model that has the R1 as a stablemate.

The CP3 engine remains familiar in terms of engineering and power, but ignition timing and fuel mapping have been optimised for the track. Similarly, the Deltabox chassis is as found on the MT-09 but has been tuned for sports performance at low and high loads. Interestingly, at 9.7kg, the frame is the lightest ever for a Yamaha Supersport model.
No sports bike worth its salt leaves the factory without wings these days and the R9 is no different. The front fairing has been designed after extensive wind tunnel development and the vestigial wings under the lights reduce front-end lift under hard acceleration.

Brembo provides 320mm front discs which are clamped by Brembo Stytlema calipers. The system runs stainless steel-braided hoses and a Brembo radial master cylinder.
Suspension is fully adjustable KYB front and rear, the front forks featuring separate adjustment for rebound and compression damping on the left and right fork tubes.

There are three riding modes – Sport, Street and Rain – and two rider-customisable modes, alongside no less than four track modes. The electronics package also encompasses lean-sensitive Traction Control, Slide Control and ABS, launch control and anti-wheelie control. There are also two levels of engine braking control and something called Back Slip Regulator, which controls engine torque fed to the rear wheel. A Quickshifter is fitted and you can log riding data through the Y-Trac app. The interface for controlling all this is a 5” TFT dash which, naturally, is fully customisable.
There’s been no word as yet on when we’ll be likely to see the R9 in showrooms but, given that the EICMA show is about to happen in Milan in November, we can likely expect to be seeing it sometime in the first or second quarter of 2025.
