daboo

This review from Bennett's in London is pretty in depth. When looking at the gas mileage figures, keep in mind that they are Imperial gallons, not USA gallons. They were very favourably impressed with the F800XR. I found it interesting that BMW acknowledged it has it's sights set on the Tracer GT and the chunk of money that bike is bringing in. BMW F900XR (2020) reviewhttps://www.bennetts.co.uk/bikesocial/reviews/bikes/bmw/bmw-f900xr-2020-review-price-specChris

I have two cameras. One is the Sena 10C Pro. It's a helmet mounted camera and Bluetooth headset. The other is a "dash" camera and is mounted in the front under the cowl opening, and in the rear on the rear fender. The perspective of each is totally different. Disregarding the quality difference, take a look at the effect you get. Sena 10CPro This is the Halocam M1 dash camera. Note how the lean angle in turns is readily apparent. There's no image stabilization on this camera. Rear camera. Much slower road, but it'll give you an idea.

I was concerned about that the first time I took a ride to South Dakota after retiring. I knew the Hit-Air vest restricted airflow some. How much would be too much? As it turned out, I needn't have worried. It actually helped. I hit temps as high as 105F for hours and hours on that trip. If you read up on riding in heat, once you reach 93F, you need to actually restrict airflow. The sweat evaporates at those temps faster than it can provide any cooling effect. I met a couple at a rest stop and they offered to share the only shade there. The lady rider (they had their own bikes), said they had cooling vests also, but the vests dried out in the first half hour. Mine was providing cooling for about 3 hours. I think largely because some air was coming into the cooling vest, but not too much. In temps below 93F, it restricts some air, but I've never felt like it was too hot...and for a Seattleite like me, 70F is a wonderful summer day. We're not used to hot. There's a lot of interest in air bag vests recently. I think people will gravitate one of two ways. Those who like simple and effective will go the tethered route. It works and is uncomplicated. Those who like tech and smartphone apps will go for the untethered sensor vests. Both will justify their purchase in their own minds that they are buying the superior product. But I'm just happy that you're wearing one of these vests, whichever one you buy. Chris

That's not an issue. I've walked away from my bike many times and never once set the airbag off. And while I've heard it mentioned as a concern by those who don't own a tethered airbag, I've never heard of anyone activating their airbag vest by walking away without unhooking it. The tether is two parts. The portion on the bike is 24 inches long with about a six inch portion that is coiled so there is some built-in stretch to the design. The other section clips into the vest at the CO2 cannister. I attached my tether to the frame at the front of the seat area on the right side. When I get off the bike, I simply drape it over the seat. That location works well, plus allows me to stand up while riding. I think you're partially correct. "I for certain would occasionally forget..." True. But the second half of your statement, "and set it off by accident" isn't true. Chris

These are getting to be something more and more riders are buying. When you can spend $1000 for a smartphone, spending $500-600 for something that might save your life is a no-brainer. I bought the Hit Air MLV-P Airbag Vest. Here's one link. Price is $519. Hit Air MLV-P Airbag Vest with Large Reflectors - air-vest.com Hit-Air airbag vests and jackets are the ultimate safety device for... Hmm...didn't expect it to grab an image from the website. That's nice forum software. Anyway, I like the way it and the equivalent Helite versions work. There's no batteries to charge. No sensors to reset. Even if the new Alpinestars and Dainese products work "faster", my Hit-Air vest has been deployed before I hit the ground. I like the way the Hit-Air vest provides collar bone, neck and tailbone protection. Some of the others don't. I also like how I can simply repack the deployed airbag vest with the Hit-Air and Helite products and swap out a @$22 CO2 cartridge in less than 10 minutes and I'm in business again. With the Alpinestars and Dianese vests/jackets, you have to send it back to the factory for them to check the sensors before it can be used again. Overall though, even if I prefer the non-techie versions of air bag vests, any vest is better than no vest. And whatever the cost is, it is far less than one night in the emergency room and more comfortable than months of healing from broken ribs. Chris

We should get together sometime. Looks like you like the same kind of riding I do, and you don't live that far away. Chris

Yes, we have some of the most awesome scenery...though I find the Canadian Rockies and Beartooth Pass to be right up there. But the problem with all three, is the limited season. On another forum, a member decided to come out and visit. He was a doctor from New Jersey. He went with one of us from the area to Mt. St. Helens. There's a picture of the two of them stopped on the way there. The fog was so thick, they turned around. Snow all around them. It was a wasted trip for the doctor. So you make the best you can of it, and dress for everything. With mountain passes, you can encounter just about anything. Chris

Current prices as of today at Revzilla. No rebates yet. I noticed the Metzeler Roadtec 01 went down in price, while the Michelin Road 5 went up. Note also that the Michelin Road 5 is not the highest rated tire...but has the highest price. Supply and demand. I'll go with either the Dunlop RS 3 or Conti RA 3 tires next. Both have been great tires in both the wet and dry. Chris

I started looking to see what I could feasibly do this summer. It adds up to @14,400 miles. And a tire change in the middle somewhere. April - COG ride in Death Valley May - COG Bun Cooler in Idaho June - B.C. Rally to venture into Northern California and central Oregon June - NEWSTOC in Seven Bays, WA June - National COG rally in Vancouver, WA June - National STOC rally in Spearfish, SD July - Siberia (not taking the motorcycle though) August - WeSTOC in Utah September - COG Ride the Ribbon in Central Oregon The "COG" is the Kawasaki Concours Owners Group. The STOC events are with the ST-Owners Group. Both are hard riders, and wonderful people when you're hanging around with them. For some reason, they let a BMW rider tag along... The B.C. group are primarily Concours C14 riders, but they take their version of hard riding up another couple notches. Each summer, they drop down into the US and head for central Oregon and Northern California for some wonderful mountain riding. I had to skip some other rides, like the BMW MOA national rally and the Sounders! Rally in the Gorge because of conflicts. And the wife hasn't seen this yet, so it may be up for change... Chris

After trying the Metzeler Z8 and Roadtec 01s, Dunlop RS IIIs, Conti RA IIIs I'm not sure there's much difference in one tire over another...except price. I'm trying the Roadtec 01s for the second time. The first time, I liked them a lot. I rode through some drenching rain for hours and had no issues with them at all. The Roadtec 01s were supposed to be an improvement over the OEM Metzeler Z8 tires. I replaced the Z8s with the 01s at 11,000 miles because I was heading out on a trip. But then the 01s only lasted 6000 miles. When I bought the first set of Metzeler Roadtec 01s, the spec called for a "GT" version in the rear. I got the normal version, and wondered if that was the reason they wore out in half the miles of the older design Z8s. So after trying the Dunlop RS III twice and the Conti RA IIIs, I decided to give the Roadtec 01s a second try with the GT version in the rear. I have 3000 miles on them now. They have worn about 3/32nds so far and have about that much left. I doubt I'll get more than 6000 miles on them with the GT version of the rear tire...again. I'll never buy them again. My point is that I wouldn't expect anything better out of the PR5 GTs than the normal PR5. FWIW, I liked the Dunlop RS IIIs...enough to buy them twice. Continental came up with a rebate on their RoadAttack 3 tires that put them in the running with the Dunlops. Reviews on both were excellent. I liked those also and would buy either tire in a heartbeat. But the bottom line for me is price since all have great reviews, and with the exception of these Roadtec 01s, all last about 11-12,000 miles for me. Chris

I took another route on my bike and simply wired in a 2.1 amp USB port to the battery. There's about a foot of free wire leading to the USB socket. It dangles down in the area in front of the tank near the forks and is out of the way when not needed. When I do want it, I just pull it out of that space and it has enough free wire to allow me to plug things in and store them in my tank bag. It probably seems tacky compared to wiring in a permanent socket, but it works well. When not needed, you don't see it. When you do need it, it is there and reaches up to the tank bag. And we all have USB cords that fit to our powered devices. Chris

If you're looking to try this out...and want something that easily switches to a car dash cam...I'd try one of the Go Pro clones on eBay. I just checked, and there are two immediately that I saw for less than $30. There's a member on the ST-Owners forum that has used one of these with good results. And at $30, you haven't lost much if you don't like it. Chris

I'm starting out in May for an extended weekend trip to Kamiah, Idaho for the Bun Cooler rally. Great riders, great partiers when they get off the road. In the beginning of June, I'm headed south with some riders from British Columbia to central Oregon and Northern California. They know some of the best twisty little traveled roads in those areas. Then mid-month, I'm headed to Eastern Washington to NEWSTOC for an extended weekend of riding and great fellowship. Starting on the 15th and going for a week, is the Concours National Rally in Vancouver, WA. Then I have a decision to make. At the end of the month is the ST-Owners National Rally in South Dakota and the BMW MOA rally in Montana. Somewhere in there, I'll need to change tires... And in the beginning of July, I'm headed to Siberia... Chris

I rode with some Kawasaki C14 riders last summer who ride down from British Columbia specifically to ride the Central Oregon / Northern California roads. As I was going through hours and hours of twisty hilly roads on good pavement (for days), I was thinking the same thing. Those roads were fantastic.

Fuelly results need to be taken with a critical eye. How many fill ups did the person make? Are they recording only their top mileage when hypermiling? And skipping their normal results? Do they live in Kansas where a traffic jam is two cars at a 4-way stop? Or Brooklyn? On my F800GT, I used to get @50 mpg in town. 55-60 or so on trips. I'm getting mid-40s now in town. Traffic is just getting so bad. Since there's nothing I can do about it, I don't worry about it. What I do watch like a hawk, is my MPG on a trip. And if I wasn't getting what I expected, then I'd be concerned. Chris

There's a couple things I spotted in your comments. Your mileage is in the city. The bike is wickedly quick. City mileage will just tank your mileage. Sit in traffic, and your mileage will go down. Stop for a light or stop sign, and your mileage will go down. I had a Burgman 400 scooter with a average MPG display. After a fill up, if I babied it, I'd be up in the 60's on the way home, especially after coasting down the hill to my house. Of course, the next morning, I had to go back up that same hill. On the way to the freeway, there were about 4 stop lights. The MPG would go down to the low 50s and stay there for awhile. It wasn't till I'd gone about 15 miles at constant freeway speeds that I would see the average MPG start inching up. In other words, it took at least 15 miles of constant speed riding to make up for those few stop lights and the hill. How do you know the bike is wickedly quick? Oh...I see...you've been twisting the right wrist a lot. And you didn't think that made a difference? I think you mentioned the engine cut out...as the front wheel lifted. And you're surprised that your MPG isn't higher? Chris

And one thing about "commuting", is that you travel the same roads, day in and day out, for years. You learn behaviour patterns and where likely issues may occur. Chris

Here's a couple tips I've learned over a lot of years and miles commuting in the HOV lane. Ride in the tire track area...NOT the center of the lane. The cage drivers are very cooperative in using their car tires to pick up all the metal debris they can get to. However, they can't do much about the center of the lane. You will however, do a service to all who follow you if you ride down the center of the lane because your soft sticky expensive motorcycle tires will pick up every nail, screw, cotter pin and piece of left over metal from the earlier traffic accident in your tires. Ride in the tire track nearest the main line of cars. Why not hide over in the farthest tire track? Riding next to the other cars allows you to be seen when someone checks their mirrors before pulling into the HOV lane. Most vehicles are going to stay put, or they'd have already moved over. So the reality of someone pulling in front of you are not as bad as the fear makes it seem. Don't tailgate. Put 3-4 seconds between you and the car in front of you. If you tailgate, and especially if you are over in the far tire track, you are hidden...until they move into your lane. If it happens...you have only yourself to blame. By hanging that far back, your bouncing headlight is easily visible to anyone who checks their mirror. Chances are, they won't be able to tell how far back you are, and so will let you pass. In over 160,000 miles of commuting on Seattle's I-5 corridor, I've hit my brakes hard maybe 5 times. Chris

I'm looking forward to the comparison reviews. We have the Tracer GT, the Multistrada, the BMW F900XR, and now the Triumph 900. It'll make for good reading. :) Chris

I'm always a little reticent to post here. I don't own an FJ-09 or Tracer. I test rode the FJ initially and ended up with the BMW F800GT; it just fits me better. I keep in touch here because I love motorcycling...and the Tracer GT would be on my short list if I needed to replace my F800GT. The Yamaha is really a superb motorcycle. But the comments you made are spot on with what I experienced last summer. Previous to this one ride, I'd ridden fast with some pretty experienced riders. They were hard core riders who don't think anything of riding from places like Alberta or Nevada to go to a small rally in Eastern Washington. Not only can they put on the miles like that, but they ride fast in the turns. Then I joined up with a group of riders from British Columbia. Each year they head south to experience the isolated roads in Northern California and Oregon. They were like a class above the other group. They had modified their ECUs to get about 150+ hp at the rear wheel. You'd think I'd be left behind with only 90 hp in my F800GT. I was initially. Then I decided to skip looking at the scenery, which wasn't special, and just focus on the road...and explore the upper reaches of my bike's rpm range. I kept up just fine. I rode with two Microsoft guys on Ducatti Multistrada 1260s at the end of the summer down in Oregon. Again, I kept up just fine. You mentioned the curves. I got a chuckle out of the BC riders. They were on Kawasaki Concours C14s. Wonderful bikes. They are on the "sport" side of sport-touring, I suppose. Those guys could fling their bikes through corners at speeds that amazed me. But by lunch, it was no problem to reel them in. Even if a heavy bike can take curves fast, it still takes a lot of effort. At the end of the day, I was still ready for more riding. And I think it has to do with the low weight of our bikes. To me, the spec sheet is one thing. It'll tell me the top end horsepower and maybe the top speed. But there's a limit of how fast any partially sane rider will take a corner they've never seen before, and once you top 90-100 mph...what is it worth to go faster and lose your license? My GT clocked 139 mph per the Michigan State Police testing. A R1200RS is supposed to be able to reach about 145 mph. Do I care about 6 mph? When will I ever ride that fast? I'm far more interested in how the bike gives me a grin in day to day riding in the daily commute and some fun rides. Does it bring a grin to my face? Do I love the looks of the bike from whatever direction I come up on it? Do I look back to see what it looks like one last time as I walk away? I'm sure you have that feeling on your FJ-09s and Tracers. And I'd much rather have the reliability of a Yamaha than the new BMW or KTM. And if you love what you have...why spend thousand$$$$ to find out the new bike isn't as good as the one you had? Chris

There's a little mental exercise I go through when considering buying a new bike. What improvements does it have over what I have now? Or in the case of the post by nevada72, what's the improvements the 1250 has over the 1200? Next, how much extra will that cost? So far, that has kept me from jumping from one bike to another and wasting a lot of money. The FJ-09/Tracer is a great bike. It's the standard by which every other bike in this category will be judged by; that's pretty cool. But...the marketing folks earn their living by convincing you that you just gotta have that new fancy update. Chris

That's why when I can, I'll buy used. I picked up my current bike from a retired cardiologist who outfitted my bike with only the best mods to make it suitable for touring. There was about $3000 of accessories on it...and the bike was priced below Kelley Blue Book. Chris

Yeah, OIS was mentioned. There are some ridiculously cheap GoPro knockoffs at Big5 and eBay that work very well from what I've read on other forums. It's a safer way to record video without taking a chance on ruining an expensive phone if you don't know if it has OIS, or not. Chris

What would it cost to simply trade the FJ-09 in on a GT? You still won't have the longer swing arm by changing all those parts, so that'll cost you some $$$ too. Chris

I'd really recommend against putting a phone on the handlebars of any bike. I frequent a lot of forums and I've read in several places where member's phone cameras died because of the vibration. They were all using the phone as a GPS, but the camera died. Chris