wordsmith

Sorry that I cannot answer that question, duckie - I just don't know.

Further to my post above, I recalled that I had written another post on the subject some time later, after the guru who did my K Tech conversion had worked again on the bike and fine-tuned the suspension after I'd ridden it for some time and distance after the initial work. Try as I might I cannot find that post, but clearly remember most of what was done. For some reason, as a decidedly non-expert in such matters, I thought that the front of the bike was not quite 'right', saying at the time that it felt at times as if it was 'pitter-pattering' over minor and closely-spaced corrugations. Joe Salter, my guru, set to, saying that I had paid for the job and he wanted it to be right (a wonderful change of approach compared to so many!). A slightly lighter spring was put in (was it 8.5 from 9, or am I kidding myself?) and he also fiddled elsewhere in the front fork, but I cannot recall precisely what was done. No charge, of course, as it all came under the quote I was given for the job. Whatever, as good as the initial result was, the newly re-worked suspension was a transformation. I used the phrase - well-remembered now - that "my bum thought it had died and gone to heaven". I had initially asked for the ride to be compliant for comfort rather than for pin-sharp race-track handing, and that's what I got, with no loss of steering sharpness or 'feel' that I could detect. You may be lucky enough to get the same expertise and service, and if my experience is anything to go by it's at least worthwhile having a chat with your preferred K Tech suspension house.

Thanks indeed, tex - all is well, in fact somewhat wellerer than of late, for today I ventured our on the SP for the first time in about ten weeks. Dreadful and prolonged weather events causing widespread floods, many deaths, tremendous loss of and damage to properties, roads, bridges and other infrastructure have kept me and no doubt many others off the roads for a long time. This has affected the entire east coast of Oz, with my home town of Brisbane being particularly badly hit (tho' happily we are OK), then as the La Nina system moved south the north coast of New South Wales and then Sydney were devastated in turn. It's supposedly a one-in-a-thousand-years event, but they said that eleven years ago when a similar thing happened! I'm 'lurking' because I have maybe - just maybe - a renewed interest in a 2020 Tracer 900GT, of which there are only two new bikes still lurking unsold in dealerships here, and I've a little light touring in mind when the country dries out. Hmmm - (scratches head). The dealerships must be pretty desperate to quit them....

Why not contact K-Tech HQ - somewhere in the UK Midlands - and ask them? Unfortunately, I have no shares in the company! K-Tech Suspension Ltd Website Directions Save Call 4.723 Google reviews Manufacturer in England Address: Rawdon Business Park, Marquis Dr, Swadlincote DE12 6EJ, United Kingdom Hours: Closed ⋅ Opens 8:30AM Mon Phone: +44 1283 559000 Suggest an edit · Own this business?

Jayzonk - try this on for size...GT suspension upgrade - September 4th 2019 I'll have to be briefer than usual, for my supposedly-fixed PC is still sulking. The work took Joe - owner of Ride Dynamics and suspension guru par excellence - some three and half hours of steady work, with no coffee or smoko breaks and no time-wasting Facebook chat. As I had said before, his workshop is neat, clean, tidy, a place for everything and everything in its place, including the multitude of specialist tools required for this work. I couldn't imagine an amateur like me working with cheap hand-tools in a home garage being successful. We again confirmed what I was looking for, we chatted briefly about my riding weight, whether pillion and/ or luggage is routinely carried, etc., and hi ho, hi ho!, it was off to work. After I swore on a stack of Bibles that I wouldn't get in his way or want to chat constantly, Joe allowed me to stand by - not too close! - to observe and take pix. It was a very interesting experience as calm, methodical work proceeded. As the various parts emerged from the front fork legs Joe explained the function of the various bits - springs, pistons controlling oil-flow, and so on. To my novice eyes, the new K-tech components looked as if they'd just come from a high-end Swiss watch manufacturer, beautifully finished as they were. The rear shock was a more straightforward swap, and although I was surprised at the weight of the new Razor R shock with remote adjuster, the OE shock was much heavier. The new unit has adjustable length, so about 10 or 12mm (half-an-inch) was wound out, lowering the bike's rear by that much after I said that I like to be able to fully flat-foot at rest, which is barely achievable with the OE unit. Sag - which I had always believed to be what happens to a woman's breasts and a man's belly as they age (the latter has happened to me!) - was precisely measured with a cunning device as small incremental changes were made until the desired settings were reached. Joe reckons that it's rare for an owner to need to return to him for further tweaking, but of course it's there as required. After he had a short test-ride to check everything, it was my turn to ride home, with my thoughts already given after that short and brief 33km ride. Yesterday's 181km outing along very familiar roads was intended to give me more time to evaluate things on terrain of widely-varying surfaces and conditions. There is a distinct improvement in ride quality, best explained that the sharp reactions to road surface irregularities were ironed-out and a more compliant and composed and comfortable ride eventuated. A very good example of what this means was quickly apparent, as I found that I was no longer constantly being bumped-up off the seat and inched forward until my gonads were crushed against the rear of tank: I was 'planted' more firmly in the chosen spot. Of course, larger irregularities in the road-surface - and there are plenty where I went - were still felt, and I don't want to try to convince members that this was a magic-carpet ride, but certainly it was a pleasing outcome for me. Memories of subjective impressions are such that it would be fruitless for me to try to compare the new GT ride with that of my later BMW Boxer twins, which are much heavier bikes and with high-end OE components, including BMW's incomparable Telever front-end, but I am happy. I now intend to take that planned ~1000km circuit some time in the next week or two (but not at next week's end, for it will be Friday the thirteenth!), by which time a couple of shorter outings will have put a few hundred kilometres on the new suspension and allowed everything to have bedded-down. A very good question at this point might be - "was it worth the $2100 spent on the K-tech upgrade?". I'm fortunate enough to have spare disposable income, so while not quite a no-brainer the matter of cost was not a great concern. But others may prefer to take a different lower-cost approach, maybe getting specialists like Ride Dynamics to make changes to the OE components by simply changing oils, shims, springs, whatever, and tinkering with the adjustability of the ex-factory suspension. The jury is still out as far as I'm concerned on whether or not I'll want/ need to buy a new BAGSTER seat to replace the GT's OE seat, which although light-years ahead of Gen1 seats is still only 'just' for me. A new BAGSTER seat would cost $450 -$550 depending on specification, but from past experience I know that it would be the cherry on top of the icing on the cake. I'll make that call after the 1000km outing in a few weeks time, but in any case they are not yet available. Finally, big thanks to captainscarlet who introduced me on this Forum to K-tech and the whole shebang. Pix follow... a place for everything... new Razor-R rear shock work under way... new (red) and old OE shocks. spotless workshop.. draining oil from fork legs.. OE (right) and new oil-flow pistons fork off... new K-tech oil-flow control pistons beautifully machined... new rear shock installed sag-o-meter job done! Edited 2 minutes ago by wordsmith

BAGSTER seat for me (x 4). Yamaha so-called Comfort Seat sucks. YMMV...

I have found an answer, which is in the SW MOTECH Adventure Rack pictured below. I cannot help wondering why Yamaha's own info about the own rack appears to be wrong! I had exceptional service, info, and advice from motorradgarage.com.au in Oz on this quest (they supplied the lower pic below). Thanks for all responses here...

The dealer tells me that any Yamaha brand rear carry rack suitable for Tracer models does NOT fit a 2020 GT with the stock panniers/ bags also installed. E Bay ads support this finding. If so - madness! I had an excellent E-Bay rack on previous Tracers (not GT) which fitted easily with the panniers also in place. Pix of both below - black rack is the incompatible OE Yamaha item: silver rack is an unbranded E Bay item which worked beautifully on non-GT Tracers in the past. (Also much cheaper and lighter) Question therefore is - can anyone suggest a suitable rack that is compatible with the 2020 Tracer GT with OE panniers fitted. Many thanks in advance.

Does such a thing exist? I've only ever seen rad guards in black, which makes the front of the bike even darker and gloomier than ever - a lighter-coloured rad guard - say aluminium finish - might lighten the front view of the bike. Any info please, guys?

Only half....?

So say many MT-09ers from around the globe it seems.

Only 'coz I was nearby, and wanting to see the new GT. Not the least interested in getting one - but thanks for the nod!

It looks pretty large and imposing, especially in the very dark grey (gray) almost black matte finish (much darker than my photo in the flesh). Thankfully Yamaha chose not to fit the much disliked (by MT-09 followers) cyclops headlight - second pic - leaving well enough alone on the GT.

Common wisdom I have read on many Forums - and followed on my own bikes - is that the optimum location for DRLs is as high as possible and as wide apart as possible - all within reason of course.

No need to be a tin-basher😃! Most auto accessories shop sell sheets of perforated aluminium sheet, in black or silver, and some in anodised colours too if you're into a little bling. I have some here from a sheet 1200mm x 280mm - "Universal Mesh". Cost me about $30 IIRC. Easy enough to cut pieces to suit with a pair of tin-snips, but my caveat above still holds with this stuff, as it is fairly light in weight and in protection too I imagine.

This has been an interesting Thread, and a stern reminder that one can be unlucky enough to have substantial bike-stopping damage done even on a major highway and not only on rocky off-road trails. I'm with those who are glad the OP was unharmed. I have had no experience with sump guards/ skid plates except the OE ones fitted to past BMW GSs, but may I add a word or three about aftermarket radiator protection? The rads on CP3-powered Yamaha bikes are pretty big and offer a large target to anything being thrown up off the road into their general direction. It may not happen often, but once would be enough. Many of the rad guards on the market are made of perforated pressed aluminium sheet. This may be quite OK for a tea-strainer, but offers little protection to serious rock-flying at speed. Added to that the gap between the guard and the front radiator surface itself is small, a few mm at best, and the butterfly-wing fragility of the rad fins needs something pretty substantial to be adequately protected. So - choose your radiator guard carefully, paying particular attention to the material it's made of.

Unnecessarily harsh responses from draco and ride! I wasn't challenging the manhood of those who are interested, or having a go at HD, merely looking into a key specification detail without having to trawl through numerous websites. Back on yer bikes, kiddies! 🥶

Woddzit weigh, compared to competing adv bikes from BMW, Ducati, KTM, Triumph??

Possibly the pleece got a good deal on just-superseded 2020 models. Still a very good machine though!

Only the lid cases, and even at that only the centre recessed part - but it did smarten them up a bit. Your wife may suggest pink - I'd go for silver to chime with the adjacent silver painted bits nearby. The blue, although very nice, might be hard to match... whatever, good luck, and enjoy the bike.!

Very noice indeed, halminator. Happy wife, happy life! 😃

This may help - from a more recent post on the same fiddly subject: I haven't seen the 2021 model so don't have good image of the switchgear. However, psyco's post #9 above gives a good enough impression. The layout on my 2020 SP was rather different (no c.c. for one thing), but it too was easy to mis-use the horn button by mistaking it for the indicator button located next-door. To make the indicator button more 'feelable' I took one of the so-called furniture-protectors/bumpers - a tiny silicone dome of 11mm diameter - scraped off the adhesive, and fixed it to the sliding indicator button with a spot of superglue, securing it while curing overnight with a piece of masking tape. It made it very much easier then to differentiate the feel of the various adjacent buttons, and worked perfectly for me. I'll try to find a pic... LATER EDIT...taken from a previous post on this subject So as before, I fixed this with cheap and quick trick - I simply took one of those tiny 11mm diameter silicone 'bumpers' ('surface protectors' or whatever), cut a slice off each side vertically to reduce its width, removed the adhesive, and stuck it onto the indicator switch with superglue, securing it to cure with a strip of masking tape. Et violin - that should help! Pic below.

Whenever I buy a new bike - too often! - my first next purchase is always Grip Puppies, the genuine ones from the UK. Like many have said, I fit them to increase grip diameter a little, and to reduce vibrations on non-triple bikes, almost non-existent though that may be on CP3 Tracers and the like. I've never used the air compressor method - simply wetting the inside of the Puppy and the grip with soapy water, adding if necessary a light smear of liquid soap, and twisting the Puppy as it slides on allows more or less immediate fitting. Never had any issues with deterioration, slippage, whatever. But do buy the genuine GPs - other I have seen with similar names are so thin that lights shines through if held up to a bulb!

Any 2021 GTs on the road in Oz?

That will work for you - but do buy the one with twin mounts, not a single central mount. And do consider a generic item - GIVI is far too costly IMHO, although of undoubted quality: mine cost me about AUD$46. Pic below shows it on my SP's after-market excellent GIVI screen. Enjoy the GT - a fine bike!