Yamaha XRS900 Seat Cowl Review

By Jeff Pamer

How I Justified Buying a Yamaha Seat Cowl 

I didn’t buy my XSR on a whim.  Well, I did a little, but I had done my research.  I knew it’s what I wanted.  It had the perfect mix of retro, and modern sports-naked performance.  I’m a sucker for retro bikes.  Love them.  They are the reason I took the plunge and bought a bike, as detailed in a previous post.  In my many hours of researching bikes and their available kit, I knew once I bought the XSR, the Yamaha rear seat cowl would be top of my list for light modifications.  The reasoning was purely because of ascetics.  I really liked the way it looked and feel like it pulled the bike a little further to the retro side of the retro/modern scale, seemingly without sacrificing comfort.

We Need to Talk About The Price

Now briefly I will touch on the elephant in the room.  The cost.  I got mine on sale for 15% off, and it was $382.49, originally $449.99.  That is not cheap even on sale.  There’s no way around that.  You can currently find it on Revzilla for 20% off at $359.99.  No matter how you slice it though, with the amount of assembly required, you really need to want it to buy it.  Fortunately for Yamaha and Revzilla, I did.   

First – The UnBoxing

Unboxing the Yamaha part was a bit unnerving if I’m honest.  I was aware from other online reviews that there was some assembly required, but like the instructions that came with the part, they were light on details.  Really though, it wasn’t the lack of instructions that made me a bit apprehensive, sitting there, right below the instructions on my dining room table, was the set of 3M decals.  I’m not sure if I’m the only one but applying those decals to an expensive part makes me feel like a high school student walking into class to take a test and chose to smoke a metric ton of narcotics instead of study; woefully unprepared.  

Assembly – Easier Than I Expected

As for the actual assembly of the cowl, it was pretty straight forward.  You really need to torque down the rubber expansion plugs, it took a few tries to get them tight enough.  My advice for anyone wanting to buy this part; if you loved Lego and models as a kid (or an adult) and you can do some light maintenance on your bike, you should be fine.  Just organize all the hardware in like piles, use some common sense, and you’ll get there. Plus, if you get stuck on any of the assembly, email me! (jeffpamermotorbike@google.com)  If you don’t feel like this is up your alley, no worries, just have your dealer do it.

Attacking the Decals

Before I got it all assembled, I attacked the decals, and to be honest, they were as much of a pain, as I thought they would be.  I was armed with deep breaths, patience, and a credit card.  The decals have guide holes that line up with the holes in the bottom of each aluminum panel.  

Start with the bottom and peel away a bit of the backing.  You need to find a balance between lightly lining things up and committing/pushing it down with the edge of the credit card to ensure there are no air bubbles.  I had to pull back a couple of times and restart, so it’s not the end of the world if you screw up a bit.  Just stay consistent and confident as you go, taking your time.  Once you have it all pushed down, with the patience and concentration of Homer building that circus tent out of mashed potatoes, peel back the top film.  

After the two large side panels, the back XSR900 decal is pretty easy, and I actually advise you to start with that one before you tackle the larger side panels.  It’s good training and way easier.  

Why A Hair Dryer Is Essential

My biggest piece of advice, that I leaned from not doing; have a hair dryer, or a heat gun handy.  It’s a miracle that I only got one tiny air bubble in the finished product without one. You can use it to lightly heat up the decal and smooth out any mistakes.

The Final Step – Installing It

After the part has been assembled, attaching it to the removed seat is a piece of cake.  Remove the strap that is on the seat and attach the provided brackets to the seat where the strap was secured, torqueing the bolts down to 5.2Ft-lbs.  The cowl then gets pushed over the foam of the back seat and screwed onto the brackets. Done!  It’s really not too bad to put together if you enjoy that kind of thing, and I was quite happy with the results.

Living with Your Yamaha Seat Cowl

The best surprise of the seat cowl was not only how good it looked in person, but also the unexpected functionality of it.  Before I rode with it, I was unaware of how much energy I was expelling frighting the monstrous amount of torque that Yamaha triple dishes out.  The cowl secures you in the seat, leaving no need to hold on like before.  I feel secure under even wheelie educing levels of acceleration.  It changed the entire look of the bike and the riding experience for the better.  

Taking it off to have a passenger join you for a ride is easy enough, but you will need tools to take the seat off, so be ready for that.

Do You Want One?

I think you do.  The price is still high but the functionality of the cowl in improving the riding experience along with the looks makes it sting a lot less.  Not often does a part surprise me like this one did.  I am overwhelmingly happy with it , now that I’ve lived with it for over 5 months.  If you are in the market for and XSR, you should truly consider putting a little (a lot) of extra money aside for such a handsome and functional accessory.