I took delivery of my Shiny new XTR last September, I loved riding it from day 1 and used it as much as I could for commuting and pleasure rides. In my humble opinion the bike is an absolute hoot to ride with power no matter where you are, just open the throttle and it keeps on pulling. Handling is pretty good on road, you can chuck it around and it just grips, havent really ridden it offroad properly yet, just a few tracks. Motorway riding is better than I thought it would be with 80-90mph cruising a real option and its pretty smooth for a big single, only above 90mph does the bike feel a tad unstable, the most comfy cruising speed is 65-75mph. I found the seat pretty comfy once bedded in.

I added the rear rack, engine guard, hand guards and heated grips and I recommend anyone considering one of these to add them as I think they make the bike look a lot better and the grips are an absolute god send in the cold weather.

Fuel economy is good with around 145miles on the 10 litre main tank and a further 60 possible when the light comes on.

I recently rode round pretty much the whole country clocking up 853 miles in 3 days and it never missed a beat despite some horrid weather. I reckon European touring would be no problem with perhaps the addition of a bigger screen.

Its not all been sweetness and light, so far I have had the following faults done under warranty:

Seat replaced as cover rucked up
Buzzy plastics around the forks/mudguard
Rear light fell out
Speedo increasing with engine revs rather than roadspeed
Engine managment warning came up on the display
(The 2 above faults turned out to be water ingress into the electrics)

I have the following to be done when the bike goes in for the 6k service:

Rusty spokes on both wheels
Paint coming off rear hub
Front brake light switch not working
Paint flaking off the chain adjuster plates.
Rear suspension creaking

In conclusion I am very pleased with the bike in general and I think it is the right bike for me, I cant think of anything I would swap it for apart from a Tenere. For pure fun and praticality it gets a solid 10/10. The only thing that lets it down is the build quality, I know its the budget end of the scale, but some of the problems I have had I would not expect to have on a Japanese bike less than 7 months old costing the thick end of 5 grand. I'm not sure the finish is quite as tough as Yamaha would have you think.

I recently had a fairly big crash on mine riding to work and have just got it back after a month with the repair people and it looks like new again. I really missed riding it and had my first cautious ride this evening which was great in the sunshine. I will be heading up to Donington Park for the MotoGP and would love to take it to Europe.....

Nice review there

I think youve sumed up the bike pretty well there its a great bike but let down by some build quality and reliablity areas. The electrics are just not up to any good quality really, the connector blocks are not all rubber sealed and the wires are exposed going into them meaning any damp/water will just rust this wire and also get into the connector. Also the finsih on some areas is low and could be better but what do you expect from a country that still uses raw salt on the roads which eats finishs on any vechile.

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Plough on