Buggy Nate

So very sorry to hear about that Wordy. I do hope you will hang around but I suspect that may just be a little too much salt in the wound. I’m sure you have thought about a bike that can’t fall over? Do trikes/three wheelers work to fill the gap?

I knew you would share my hatred for improperly cut cable ties!

I reckon a stock niken screen would work well on a tracer! I like the height of that.

They might actually have inadvertently told the truth. I never believe manufacturers when they give their claimed weights. Dirt bikes have been on a steady decline for the last 20 years loosing at least a couple of kg a year... despite not using any exotic materials!

Already done!

Helped a mate pull down a massive shed and also helped buy a mint 2000 model R1 as his last ride was written off after a crash. Paid me for my troubles and some future service work with a Brembo Rcs 17/19 radial master cylinder. Fit it up to the tracer with nil issues and made some brackets for my hand guards. Will see how it is tomorrow but a quick test on the lawn shows the abs still works and the feel is much more solid.

I would be pulling apart the female connector (carefully) ! And inspecting those terminals. From the pictures the bent male pin may have jammed down a position and possibly opened up one of the terminals. I have as I’m sure Skip has too, people probing for issues and opened the terminals so far that they no longer contact. The hole directly below the former bent pin looks very enlarged compared to the rest. If I remember correctly, those ecu plugs need that black plastic cap removed before the locking pins can be accessed to remove individual terminals. The other possibility is the bent terminal has shorted out to the one below and possibly caused an internal fault in the ecu. I have seen that before too.

Glen20 works awesome for stinky dirt bike gear. Apparently even kills the Rona...

If you look at where the high and low marks are cast in to the case around the sight glass they are a lot higher biased than other bikes. Hence the need to fill Yamaha’s to the top of the sight glass.

I find engine oil or a heavy gear oil a much better lubricant than aerosol silicone spray. It just doesn’t hang on as nice. You can make a small funnel out of bluetac or plasticine and feed the oil it until it soaks through. That lever bush could do with some grease too. I reckon the previous owner may have washed the bike with a gurney or other form of pressure washer and has pushed all the grease out of everything. Wouldn’t be the first time I’ve seen that.

There are quite a few motorcycle engines that use this design. Their motors aren’t quite as compact and light though. One of the best designs as far as maintenance goes is the Kawasaki Zrx engines. Rocker arm under the cam shaft that is spring loaded and simply slides out of the way to remove the valve shim nestled on top of the valve. But again it is quite a large motor. Can’t have it all unfortunately!

If you fasten a cable tie head on the tips of some long nose pliers it makes a great fuel line disconnect tool.

When you turn the bearings with your fingers do they feel smooth? They should not have any grinding or notchiness to them at all. For the 20-30 bucks to replace them I would. They are the only component the front wheel spins on.

You definitely have a spacer on both sides of the wheel? Only one of the above photos is clear. With the calipers off and the wheel bolted up it should be absolutely silent when spun. If not you need to sort the issue out before bothering to bolt the calipers on. I don’t believe you have a brake issue at all, more like a missing wheel spacers or bearing issue. I have just fit a pair of the Ebc HH pads to my own bike and they do not have any more drag than stock pads. Only more friction when applied. Please make sure this get sorted before it is ridden as it sounds absolutely horrible and I’d hate to see some sort of accident happen.

To be fair this as Betoney has said is a very common problem and if you look carefully above happens when undoing the axle nut from the over torqued Yamaha spec and and underrated axle block that does not capture enough of the axle to avoid deformation. I am a qualified mechanic of over 20 years and know a crappy design when I see one.

The reasons AIS is usually disconnected is that it creates an annoying popping and backfire when used in conjunction with an aftermarket pipe. More importantly it interferes with the correct air fuel reading whilst tuning bikes as it as you say injects fresh air into the system and makes the air fuel ratio appear leaner than it actually is. Seems strange that tuners would opt to have it activated. I never did in almost 20 years of dyno tuning. And they are usually a pain to have to reconnect them after tuning.

AIS was around on bikes long before catalytic converters, they do work together but they aren’t both needed to make each other function. Plenty of bikes with only one system. Most cars don’t run a AIS system with cats as well. I have unplugged the AIS system on a Xtz660, Fz6, Mt09 Tracer all without issues. Most with over 100k km on them.

You can just unplug it on most Yamaha’s.

Took the Tracer out for a solo blast through the local national park to bed the new big brakes in. Stoked with the performance of them and they are still a bit off being bedded in fully. I do wish the master cylinder had more of a solid feel like my old Fz6 with the same calipers but that is the price we pay for having ABS.

Doing a valve service does not upset the rings to a point of wearing out. You may as well say the tyres wore out after I filled up. How are the valve ‘barely’ in spec after such a short period between him setting them?! Something is amiss and you are not receiving good information or all of it. Has he performed a wet compression test? Or a proper one with the throttle plates open? Did he check the map sensor is plugged in correctly? Do not take his advice to sell if he cannot even figure out what’s wrong.

Make sure the clamps go back exactly where they should with the little notches in the clamps. No one likes a bike with a throttle stuck full on!

I used to make almost all of my special tools for the bike shop. Boss was always a tight ass like that. I made heaps of pronged tools like the above out of those awful useless imperial sockets. 🤣Heaps of manufacturers use them for clutch hub nuts and frame mount locknuts.

General Kenobi!

Still need to take the cap of to set the fork oil height correctly and/or bleed the cartridges.

Do they not do internal mushroom patches there? As long as the hole isn’t near the side wall they are safe as and plenty of my customers used them on the track and all. Very permanent solution.