ARE YOU HAVING ABARTH?
Rossi gets a sticker on his fairing, we get a pimped-up XSR900
Let’s not beat around the bush, the Abarth rep isn’t some highly tuned special, it is an XSR900 with bolt-on extras that has been launched alongside a 695 XSR Limited Edition car. But fair play to Abarth, it does look really good and comes with a nice array of additions.
For £9999, which is £1700 more than a stock XSR, you get a carbon pillion seat cover and also a carbon flyscreen and front mudguard. The engine remains unaltered, however it has been fitted with a stainless Akrapovic full system with dual stacked silencers. On the styling front the bike comes in an Abarth-style grey and the suede seat has red stitching. And finally, the riding position has been altered through the addition of ‘swallow tail’ café racer bars. And that’s the issue…
So extreme is the angle of the bars that they make riding the XSR at slow speed a fairly unpleasant experience. In town it feels as if all your weight is being forced through your wrists and when you hit a bump in the road it gets even worse. Every jolt exaggerates the suffering and within 10 miles of slow speed riding you are left shaking life back into aching wrists.
Increase the speed and the force of the wind passing over the tiny screen starts to come into play, lifting your weight slightly and reducing the pressure on your wrists, but it’s a pretty marginal relief and when you hit the brakes you are back in pain city again.
I’ve never had a problem with the XSR900’s original flat bars, as they help you lever it towards an apex. Adding ace bars does push you lower on the bike, loading up the front and giving greater feel, but on a road ride the benefits are marginal. If you want to hang off it is a more natural starting point, but there is little in it and I’d rather have the comfort of flat bars than slightly more feel and the resulting osteopath appointment. Yet despite the pain, the Abarth rep is strangely appealing…
The heart of the Abarth remains that stunning CP3 triple motor and it is such a joy to use. Yes, the throttle response is too aggressive in A mode, so I just stick it in STD and it’s lovely. The midrange, the sound, the instant drive and the fact it is a total wheelie beast once you turn the traction control off makes me grin from ear to ear. And then there are the Abarth rep’s unique selling points.
The ‘afterburner’ pillion cover is stunning and fits around the LED tail light perfectly. I love the grey and red Abarth paint, which is classy and yet still sporty. The screen I can take or leave, but it is useful, and overall I like the XSR’s retro look, as opposed to the MT-09’s modern madness. But at the end of the day I buy a bike to ride, not to pose around on, and if I did own an Abarth rep I’d have to change its bars for more sensible items. If this extreme riding position doesn’t bother you, or you have wrists made of steel, then there will only be around 100 Abarth reps in the UK out of the total of just 695 built, so it is an exclusive bike. However, I really would recommend that you try it out for size before you buy it, as those bars certainly aren’t for everyone…