keithu

Many people won't buy it as a tourer if it doesn't have shaft drive. Not me, but others.

Take my money.

There is definitely no unified braking on this bike.

Yeah, that new Trident is interesting. I can actually see myself adding a sporty naked bike to the garage. This Trident joins the list of "maybes" that includes the Vitpilen 701, RE Interceptor, or a used Thruxton.

Sadly I found it's been ruined recently by a very poor chip sealing job. Their roller must've had a defect because there's a pronounced groove in the middle of the downhill lane, and overall it's poorly compacted. There's fine gravel all over the road surface which doesn't inspire much confidence in the curves.

I think it is legal for Native Americans to collect raptor feathers in the USA (not sure about Canada or Mexico). Maybe you can tell people it's okay because you're a Native Scot?

I woke up resolved to go for a ride this morning, and was shocked to realize that the "dry side" of the Cascades were still in play. Weeks of dry weather mean no snow in the mountain passes. The morning dawned crystal clear but cold, so I started with a boring drone up I-5 to Portland to avoid possible mountain ice. In the Columbia River Gorge I encountered strong winds. At Crown Point observatory the winds blowing up the cliff face were so powerful it was difficult to stand. The last time I felt wind force like this was on the deck of a ship rounding Cape Horn in a storm. At The Dalles I turned south to climb into the Ochoco, the vast high desert of central Oregon. Two centuries ago this land was a battleground where British, Spanish, American, French, and Native trappers vied for dominance. The beaver they hunted are largely gone, replaced with wheat and cattle range. At some point I realized that I was really far from home and I'd promised to make dinner. So I bombed over Santiam and Tombstone Passes on US-20 with a new high score of just 1:50 from Sisters to home. I accidentally rode 420 miles and still got home to make a delicious lemon chicken soup for dinner.

Two questions: 1. Did you bring proper coffee this time? 2. Is the sheep okay? Those birds look like they were ready to move in for the coup de grace.

80w gear oil. It's cheap, grime doesn't stick to it, and it's basically what the chain manufacturers recommend. I never clean my chain because with the gear oil it doesn't get dirty.

I also recommend that you fill the tank with ethanol-free gas for the long storage. A full tank prevents corrosion on the inside, and ethanol-free fuel is less likely to absorb water from ambient humidity.

I am shocked - SHOCKED - to hear this sort of irresponsible behavior being discussed on such as staid and sober forum. Aren't you all even the least bit concerned what this is doing to your fuel economy? Shame on you.

Everybody has cameras now. If prototypes are tested in the real world it's inevitable that someone will snap a photo. In 1998 I wrote for a small California magazine and got to attend the North America press intro for the R1100S. There was some controversy because the NA BMW importer accidentally scheduled their press intro before the German press got to ride it; this was apparently a huge faux pas. So we all had to sign embargo agreements to not publish any photos or details before a certain date. We did a ~300 mile loop out of their New Jersey HQ. At a planned stop in Connecticut we were spotted by some random guy riding by on an old airhead Boxer. I think he almost broke his neck doing a double-take at the parking lot full of 20+ BMW motorcycles of unknown design. He did a quick U-turn and rode into the parking lot, hopped off his bike, and whipped out a camera. Us magazine guys got a chuckle out of it, but the BMW employees were in panic mode as they swarmed him and tried to shoo him away.

It's also worth noting that Visordown posted these Tracer images and then subsequently took them down. That suggests Yamaha threatened them with lost advertising or some other embargo terms. I don't think Yamaha would do that if the images were fake. These images have to be real. The frame, swingarm, and muffler are a perfect match for the 2021 MT09. And nobody would purposely Photoshop such hideous bodywork; only Yamaha themselves could have come up with this.

Present company excepted, of course.

Our idea of patriotism is blowing shit up while wearing red, white, and blue speedos and drinking cans of shitty beer. I suspect most of my countrymen wouldn't know one John Paul Jones from another. It's kind of you to think of us though. 😁

I'll bet those narrow hedgerow lanes are fun on a motorcycle, but they are a little terrifying in a car. Three years ago tomorrow I made a pilgrimage to the final resting place of a close associate to the younger John Paul Jones.

Would that be John Paul Jones the US Naval war hero, or John Paul Jones the bass-playing international rock and roll hero?

I have a Fuzeblock FZ-1 which appears to be similar in size to the PC-8. I ended up putting it under the front seat latch bracket, as shown below. You can see that I trimmed plastic barrier a bit to accommodate the wiring. The velcro strip secures the Fuzeblock so it doesn't vibrate or bounce around. This is a little bit of a pain because it means the seat bracket must come off for fuse block access. But it's only four bolts and comes off quickly. This leaves room for my MCCruise controller in the area where the toolkit used to sit. Since you have a GT you obviously don't need the MCCruise, so maybe you can get away with just ditching the OEM toolkit? It's pretty useless anyway.

Don't. Get the Madstad. I've had both the medium and large V-Streams, plus a 26" Madstad. I found both V-Streams to be loud and buffety; not as bad as the stock screen, but not a whole lot better. The Madstad offers way more adjustability regardless of which size you get.

I thought the same thing when I first got the bracket, it didn't seem to be open enough for my 2015 FJ-09. I didn't open it all and had to squeeze a bit to get it installed initially, but I still had some shaking while riding. I gave the bracket a mighty shove to get it higher in the subframe mounting slots and that helped a lot. I don't think the problem is the Adventuretech bracket, but the OEM subframe mounts are pretty flimsy.

When I first installed the Adventuretech bracket with my custom extension and PIAA LP550s I also noticed quite a bit of bounce. But there is some up-down adjustment on the mount point. I adjusted the bracket up as high as a could, so that the light mounting bolts were actually pressing against the plastic piece under the main headlights. This eliminated all of the bounce, amazingly. I've put about 7-8k miles on it now and there doesn't seem to be any negative effect on the fairing or bracket. Edit: I have a 2015 FJ-09. I can't speak to how well the Adventuretech bracket works on a newer Tracer.

When I was a kid my dad towed our 16' ski boat behind a VW Scirocco. That was pretty normal back then and the boat launch parking lot was always full of cars. If a 76hp Scirocco can tow a boat, a Corvette should be able to pull a bike and trailer no problem.

If the chain failed in the first 1000 miles I would probably make some noise at the dealership. Much after that, and yeah I wouldn't expect it to be a warranty item, much like tires.

My OEM chain lasted about 17k miles and all I ever did was brush a little gear oil on it every 1000 miles or so, sometimes less. One time I sprayed it down with some WD-40 and made a half-assed attempt to clean it, but I wasn't real thorough. The WD-40 was getting everywhere so I decided it was a bad idea. Also, I ride in the rain a lot. Maybe all this "proper maintenance" you guys keep doing is the problem? That's the only thing that makes sense to me. 😎

I was thinking about your oil pan mishap while looking at the re-designed exhaust. The headers all tuck over to the right more, leaving the oil filter and drain pan more exposed. Hopefully an engine underguard is one of the first things the aftermarket produces.