captainscarlet

You see, you haven't finished tinkering. Good job we hadn't got around to burning you yet! 😉 My own personal view is keep the bike until you really, really can't ride it or really, really need the money. Perhaps you're not riding it as much as you used to or for such long distances. Nevertheless when the mood takes you the bike is there and even if you just take it for a spin around the block that can still provide that warm fuzzy feeling inside......"What the hell is this man talking about, has he been drinking?" All IMHO. CS

Sorry to hear this Wordsmith. However perhaps you don't need to sell. Obviously I'm not aware of your full physical status but maybe it's ok to keep the bike and just use it less frequently and for shorter trips? I'm a somewhat later model than you (1972) and as yet don't appear to have any/too many ailments. Like you the weather forces me for a certain number of months to leave the bike in the garage. In my case its bloody freezing and in your case its bloody boiling. If I'm honest I prefer your scenario. However the upside of this climatic arrangement is that for half the year I have loads of tinkering time. I've come to understand from your many posts that tinkering is as much a passion for you as riding. Think of the hot summer months as top tinkering time with no pressure to ride the bike. When riding season comes around I tend to ride frequently but over shorter distances. Typically I will try to ride to work every day (ca 20 km one way) and do slightly longer rides at weekends/evenings if I feel like it. I rarely do big rides and in fact the only really long ride to date (6500 km over 2 weeks this past summer) is the first such trip in my biking career, which began in 1996. I found that after the long trip I was a little stiff here and there and frankly it's no surprise because your forcing your body to adopt more or less the same position for long periods of time. As I said I don't know your physical status, but perhaps the above is a way of still enjoying the biking life a little while longer. It seems such a shame to get ride of that beautiful GT you've created. CS

To be honest though I'm not sure I'd bother again. The pipes are now back to brown/yellow again after a seasons riding and I'm not prepared to go through polishing them again, unless I decide to sell at some point. Just ride the bike instead as from the seated position you can't see the pipes! 😁 CS

Paging @wordsmith, so what's the verdict? CS

Ok. I'm guessing you painted it in situ? I am also considering the same. Perhaps you could give us an update on how it holds up against the heat from the exhaust. CS

My precious!

I left all the AIS gubbins in place and simply placed a rubber bung in the tube coming from the airbox. Job done! A classic trick is to push a marble of the appropriate size into the tube.

So what have you gone for? I'm presuming from you previous posts that it's a Razor R shock at the rear with remote preload adjuster? What's he doing for you at the front; cartridge kit or re-valving and re-springing your existing forks? CS

You realise that this is a global forum.... Having looked at the members map I have realised that I have the dubious honour of being the most northerly member at just over 63 degrees north. 🥶 Time to move.... CS

Yes CS

As I understand it, it's because of the different jobs and hydraulic requirements of each fork leg. The right leg is managing rebound and the left compression. I took advice largely from this thread on another forum: K-tech fork oil??? So I picked up a K-tech 20IDS cartridge kit for my FZ, but I'm not... CS

Absolutely. Shipping was actually pretty reasonable, €15 I think. K-tech have a large European depot that all their European suppliers draw from. I ordered from Omniaracing. K-tech Razor R Lite 330 mm rear shock (287SD-014-270-020) €388 K-tech HPFS pair of front fork springs (3624-300-90) €81 K-tech 20IDS fork cartridges (120-014-270-020) €625 Then there was fork oil on top of that. I used Redline fork oil, putting extra light in the compression leg and light in the rebound leg after advice gleaned from the forums. So in total around €1100 which is just short of 1800 Aussie dollars at the current rate of exchange. HTH CS

*Ding ding ding ding ding* You've got it in a nutshell. I have also just test ridden a range of other bikes in my almost annual summer test ride bonanza where I try to scratch that itch for something new. But frankly every time I got back on the Tracer I just thought to myself "this thing is bloody brilliant, why on earth would I chuck tens of thousands of Kronor at buying something that is essentially no better for me, just newer?". CS

....twenty four little hours. Or the few short hours it took to rip out my Tracer's original fork innards and replace them with K-tech 20IDS fork cartridges. I am, as a rule, not one for superlatives and have in the past had a good deal of scepticism when people claim that various upgrades/changes have transformed their bikes. But in this case I find that there are no other words; my bike has been transformed! Over the previous winter I had ditched the original shock for a K-tech Razor Lite and at the same time performed a budget upgrade on the forks by dropping in K-tech springs for my weight and by choosing some more appropriate fork oil. These changes made an appreciable difference but I felt there was more to be had. Having trawled through reams of forum posts it's clear that the real problem with the Tracer's forks is valving and transport of oil. I decided therefore to bite the bullet and purchased K-tech's 20IDS cartridge kit. I could then make use of the K-tech springs I had purchased and fitted during the winter. The bike is now brilliant! The ride is much more comfortable and at the same time far more precise and stable. It's like the suspension is actually working and doing what it is supposed to! My new suspension in combination with my Scorpion slip-on and S-TEC Performance ECU flash have made my Tracer absolutely the best bike for me. It is light, fast, smooth and comfortable and it puts a grin on my face every time I ride it. I recently test rode a number of other bikes including KTM's big adventure bikes, but frankly they left me cold. Sure the 1290 has loads of power but most of it is unusable and frankly big adventure bikes are just that, big, unnecessarily so in my opinion. Sure the big adventure bikes will take you into the unknown but I don't ride off road. Frankly there is no other bike IMHO that offers the combination of benefits that the Tracer does. I was going to qualify that statement with the addition of "for the money" but frankly I don't think that bit of the statement is needed. With sorted suspension, a slip-on and ECU flash it is quite simply a brilliant bike. CS

Fixed for now. The markings on the other leg came off with a very light sand. The scratches I had a go at with sandpaper and a bit of light filling. My local paint shop is closed for the summer and doesn't open for another two weeks. I was not prepared to wait for a colour match so I put some of my Yamaha blurple touch-up paint in an airbrush and applied that. As you can see the colours do not match but given that that part of the fork leg is hidden in the lower cockpit I don't think it's a problem. Next time I pull the forks I might think about getting the colour matched. Reasonably pleased with the above. The fun stuff begins on Monday when my K-tech cartridges arrive. CS

I am in the process of upgrading my forks, again. Having just changed the springs I have decided it wasn't enough and have taken the plunge and purchased K-tech 20IDS cartridges. These will work perfectly with the K-tech springs I fitted during the winter. However in the process of removing the forks I have put some nasty scratches on the blue uppers. I understand it's in a place that can't be seen because its between the triple trees but nevertheless I know they're there. 😞 But I don't understand how I could have removed the forks without it happening. The bolts on the triple trees were all well backed out and I tried to be extremely careful but to no avail. Any tips on how to sort it, or should I just ignore it given it's invisible once the forks are on the bike? CS

Rider sag first before you do anything else! CS

This one... CS

For ECU flash I would have to recommend S-TEC Performance in Newbury. Simon at S-TEC has specialised in tuning our CP3 engines and the results are fantastic. https://www.facebook.com/STecPerformance/ He offers a mail-in or ride-in service and also has a dyno if you want a bike specific tune. I recently had my Tracer flashed whilst on a trip to the UK and the results are fantastic. The bike is now so smooth with power everywhere. It's the bike Yamaha intended it to be before the envirocrats got their hands on it. Simon is really knowledgeable and humble with fantastic attention to detail. He noticed and adjusted little things like my clutch and throttle cable as part of the service. I can't recommend him enough. CS

I'm terribly sorry old chap but here in the old world we don't know what that is. 😋

After my recent marathon trip to the UK I noticed that the lower cross member on my centre stand hand been "sand blasted" to the extent that it was down to bare metal. I took the opportunity this weekend to remove the stand and repaint it. I did a really thorough job including sanding, priming and putting down several layers of semi-matte black top coat. Having ridden to work today the bloody thing is stone chipped already. I'm thinking about wrapping the cross member in some sort of protective black wrap and was wondering if the panel had any input on the matter? Of course I may well be being far too anal and worrying about something as utilitarian as a centre stand. CS

For the exhaust I and a number of others on this board have fitted a Scorpion slip-on. Lovely piece of kit. It is homologated so will pass an MOT and delivers a lovely throaty sound. Scorpion also do a full system if you prefer. You can read about mine and others installs here: For ECU flash I would have to recommend S-TEC Performance in Newbury. Simon at S-TEC has specialised in tuning our CP3 engines and the results are fantastic. https://www.facebook.com/STecPerformance/ He offers a mail-in or ride-in service and also has a dyno if you want a bike specific tune. I recently had my Tracer flashed whilst on a trip to the UK and the results are fantastic. The bike is now so smooth with power everywhere. It's the bike Yamaha intended it to be before the envirocrats got their hands on it. Simon is really knowledgeable and humble with fantastic attention to detail. He noticed and adjusted little things like my clutch and throttle cable as part of the service. I can't recommend him enough. CS

The blurple wheels are fantastic. I love mine and they are so much nicer to look at than boring old black or gold. Plus they are at least 20 km/h faster everywhere.... CS