The XR9 Carbona has been conceived using the experience gathered at the iconic Pikes Peak race when Bottpower won in two categories and finished fourth overall back in 2017. Run over a 19.99km road course with 156 turns and an elevation gain of 1,440 metres, the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb – also known as the Race to the Clouds – is one of the most extreme tests for a bike and rider.
The idea behind the XR9 was to create a motorcycle with a high level of performance that’s ideally suited to riding on open and windy roads. As with many of Bottpower’s other creations, the XR9 has a hint of flat track aesthetics combined with a modern and aggressive stance. XR9 is an evolution of the design featured on the Pikes Peak race bike, while at the same time incorporating details from Yamaha's R-series – like the small hidden headlights that accentuate the sportiness.
The Bottpower team has made use of their extensive experience with composites and 3D printing with the aim of creating a motorcycle that is as light and capable as possible, and the company’s new body kit allows any customer to convert a Yamaha XSR900 or another CP3 Platform into a XR9 Carbona.
The kit is made up of several main bodywork assemblies together with a range of special parts, enabling every CP3-powered Yamaha motorcycle to be customized with a great level of detail.
XR9 Carbona kit contents:
- Fuel tank cover with integrated air intakes (carbon fibre)
- Carbon fibre seat & tail including alcantara saddle, tail & signal lights
- Front number plate, with integrated DRL (LED)
- Radiator covers with winglets, and high/low beam headlights
- License plate holder
- Sprocket cover
- Belly pan
David Sánchez, Bottpower manager:
I want to give thanks to Yamaha for giving us this opportunity of working with them inside the Yard Built program. I also want to express my gratitude to the Bottpower team, I think they did a great job designing and building the XR9 Carbona.
To participate in the Yard Built program meant two important challenges for us. The first one was to design a cool and fast bike, and the second one to develop a "plug-and-play" kit which can be easily produced, and that would allow any Yamaha XSR900 or CP3 Platform owner to transform their bike into an XR9.
We are very happy because we believe that we have accomplished both goals. The kit is already in production – in fact we have already built several units for some of our dealers and our closest customers.
We also have developed some parts that can be mounted on any standard XSR or CP3 Platform, such as the sprocket cover, the license plate holder, and the belly pan.
Hugo van Waaijen, senior designer:
The biggest question for us was how we could evolve the design of the XR1 (Bottpower’s previous bike with flat track aesthetics) into something new.
How do you go from a motorcycle with a big V-twin engine, a backbone (invisible) frame and a short wheelbase to a liquid cooled, 3-cylinder inline engine with a "twin-spar" frame?
The lines of the XR1 have a very horizontal character and we wanted to make that more modern and dynamic by tilting it downwards. At the same time, the proportions should have a similar feel with a lot of optical mass around the engine meaning a stubby front and short rear.
During this design process it became clear we wanted to use Yamaha R-series elements like the hidden round headlights to create the feeling of a race bike with a numberplate. At the same time, we wanted to cover the radiator to "hide" it and accentuate the optical mass around the engine.
We played with several ideas for the fuel tank and seat while keeping the "peanut" shape and numberplate character of the flat tracker design.
After the first sketches we chose a certain direction which was then modelled into a polygon Maya model. During that phase we got a good feel of the proportions of the bike in 3D and the character it had. When looking from the ¾ front view it reminded us of a Pitbull with strong muscular shoulders (the fuel tank) and a hunched look which creates a powerful stance.
After this phase we started with the CAD phase where we modelled all components using scanned parts of the XSR900 as reference. The goal of this process is that by building high quality CAD models we can ensure the parts have a high fit and finish appearance. During this process we 3D printed parts to check the fitting and looks of them. The goal was to take a stock XSR900 and transform it into the XR9 Carbona with a plug-and-play kit without changing the frame.
