I went with: Cool
Yup, I know, you bet I was going to vote Awesome, but while I do think parts of it is awesome (tank/seat/wheels/engine), there are other parts/designs of the bike that haven't grown on me just yet (headlight/gauge/tail lights/horn placement) that would be harder to live with. The XSR700 I sat on at the Calgary motorcycle show this year was comfortable and a lot higher seat height than I anticipated for a standard. It feels more of a dual-sport standard height than a normal seat height, even though stats say it's "Seat Height 32.7 in". Great bike though, love the idea of putting in a triple cylinder engine in there over a parallel twin.
Also I really like the retro paint job, sad it's only for this year (from what I've read) though. The guage/clock is what really gets me, it's off-set and doesn't really look retro or even nice. Couldn't they have used a twin clock setup or even a normal analog clock?
I like what Grey Thumper said "it's clearly a modern bike, but with classic cues, shapes, and proportions... there are a lot of clunky details that show this wasn't originally intended to be retro, and is a modified existing design."
Reminds me a lot of what we saw in the late 80's and 90s with standards turning into sportbikes as sportbikes were the "thing" at the time and then sportbikes turning into cruisers! It was all a bit crazy then... but we have it today with Yamaha and the FZ-09 and FZ-07 engines and Kawasaki with the 650cc engine in the Ninja to the Vulcan, much like they did with the 500cc version.
Still, the XSR900 is a bike I'd be happy to own (with some more retro modifications) in Yamaha yellow, and a bike I'd gravitate towards at a bike night, and for that, it's a solid cool for me.
Mike
