wordsmith

thanks, dbeau - I geddit now, but 'twas a bit too obscure for me, so I shall double-up on the medication immediately!

Just making light of the sideways direction this thread has taken. No offense intended.No offense (or indeed offence) taken, keithu, but no understand either the too-subtle photo you posted! And Charlie Tan or not (and not to be too precious about it) I'm currently on my third Tracer, so although I claim no expertise I think I can clearly put my hand up to having some experience!

Charlatan! You don't even own a Tracer, do you? Here is a photo of the person who designed the Tracer/FJ windscreen: Sorry, but I don't geddit!

Your personal opinion that the stock seat is 'just fine' is very much at odds with many - if not most - other owners here. Indeed, I'm pretty sure that the OE seat ranks #1 in the dissatisfaction stakes on this Forum - you are one of the fortunate ones who find it OK. One man's seat is another man's poison, as I have said before. The rest of your post is a bit self-indulgent, I find (YMMV). I'm also in something of a minority in that I find the stock windscreen perfectly OK, but I wouldn't belittle those who differ!

Some of the TV pix of weather conditions in many parts of the US are frightening! Here, many places touched +46 deg C (= +115 deg F) yesterday... LATER - In Sydney (our largest city, on the east coast of Oz) temp officially reached 47.1 deg C = 116 deg F. Highest ever recorded there.

Repaired my helmet! The rubber 'trim ring' (probably not the correct name but it's all I've got) became detached when I was away recently, and when I got off the bike to re-fuel it hung around my neck like a hangman's noose. Needed two pairs of hands to re-attach it with some contact adhesive, the ring being secured with some masking tape while the glue cured. Should be OK now, but - weird!

From the link's pix the bike appears to be a NON-TRACER MT-09... FWIW.

I do fully admit to being in jest. And also fully admit that the beak just looks nice, IMHO ?I, too, quite like the beaked look, being a BMW GS-er, fully-beaked, for many years. But I cannot come at the AUD$210+ for the item...

You should be in politics ? (A) He is. (B) - I wish I understood a word of this...... :-S

One recent comment here from a beaked rider was that he couldn't detect any difference between beaked and unbeaked...

Thanks, Adv. I do agree - some great riding all around Brisbane, my favourite roads being around the Wivenhoe and Somerset Dams. Godzone, as they say!

Love that red paintwork! Is that a standard colour, or an after-market repaint job? Woddever, it's nice!

How about showing some pix instead of leaving us all in suspenders?

The great problem with this sort of enquiry, not that it shouldn't be asked, is that one man's meat is very much another man's poison when it comes to such things - seats are another good example. It's so totally subjective that others' findings and opinions are often of little value, although always of interest. F'rinstance, I find the stock screen perfectly OK, while many, if not most, others do not (I'm 5'9" and-a-bit/ 177cm tall, and have 32" inseam). But I recently fitted a cheap E Bay 'double-bubble' screen only because it looks good, is a bit more rigid, and was very cheap at around AUD$37 IIRC. I found it gave a little less buffeting than stock, not that stock had ever bothered me in that regard... FWIW

Dad Gummit Wordsmith, I just snorted hot coffee through my nose! Do you have ANY idea how uncomfortable that is? Thorry, ph! :'(

Is your wife standing nearby?

Just do it!

[b style=font-style:italic]INSTALLED SOME WHEEL-RIM DECALS...[/b] My home garage has always been a bling-free zone, but I have relented and recently added some wheel-rim decals to my Tracer, just to give some visual ‘lift’ to those dark parts of the bike, as I have done with past BMWs. They are easy to apply - fiddly if you want to get it right rather than difficult - and from past experience very durable. An application guide is included – just break the habit of a lifetime and follow the instructions. To add a bit of practicality, I placed a decal on the side of each wheel-rim opposite the tyre valve so as to make it easier to find quickly. The yellow lines on the tyres are simply chalk marks that I put there to ensure even spacing. Eight ( curved decals – two for each side of each wheel – cost me AUD$17, post-free, and they arrived within fourteen (14) days of ordering from Scotland. The vendor makes a huge range of decals that are often model-specific for most bike brands, but the generic ‘Yamaha’ will do for me as ‘Tracer’ or ‘MT-09’ doesn’t seem to be available. Maybe a ‘GT’ version will follow… The gold colour – one of many available – chimes nicely with some discreet gold pinstripe tape I’ve placed on the bike and pannier lids and the solid gold 24 carat front fork. E Bay item number is 132055727959.

pieyed07 - re: your pix of the Terry Adcock seat - please explain what are those two bolted-on flat plates protruding one either side and lower down on the bike - some kind of footrest? Looks intriguing! Thanks...

That Terry Adcock seat looks plush! And also rather wide - reminds me of true tale. I was sitting coffeeing with two older riders, both of ample girth. Bloke #1 murmured, apropos of nothing being discussed "bought meself a new seat". Bloke #2 pondered this for while and shot back "how wide is it?". Bloke #1 replied after a short pause "about eighteen inches", at which Bloke #2 retorted "strewth - where ya gonna put yer other cheek". Couldn't help chuckling at this brilliant repartee! True story.

If you'd gone somewhere else for dessert that could easily have taken you out to 240 miles...

ray88 - set-up looks good! Any comments on the new screen, as I have one on order? Thanks...

No need to beat around the bush, vijay: say what you mean...

HAD A PAIR OF MICHELIN PILOT ROAD (PR) 4s FITTED… Took an hour and AUD $449. Now the following may expose me to scorn and derision, and/ or I may be fooling myself, but the ride home with the PR4s fitted seemed to be quite a lot smoother than the ride down to the dealership on the OE Dunlops (at only 5020 km from new). About 50km of the road each way is concrete Freeway, with regular chunky metal expansion joints (I guess) which gave an uneven and at times choppy ride, as did the rather ordinary outer-suburban streets that I rode to and from the Freeway. I tried very hard on the way down on the OE Dunlops to get a good memory for the way the bike felt, and the same on the way back with the new PR4 tyres. Again – I may be guilty of believing what I’d like to be true, but I am sure there was some positive difference there, not that the OE Dunlops ever felt uncomfortable in such conditions. I’m convinced that the PR4s were smoother, but maybe pressures were different. Much more likely would be that the OE Dunlop rear was damaged when I had to ride some distance for it to be fixed when punctured and deflated – the guy who did the repair said in his Aussie vernacular “she’s rooted, mate”. Translation: it’s toast. I had no less than three (3) ‘warnings’ in the dealership about the potential hazards of riding on brand-new tyres (and it was even printed on my invoice!). Some heavy showers fell on the way home and I was super-careful to avoid painted white lines, arrows, etc. I’m pretty happy with the way this bike is now set-up for comfortable distance touring, while retaining the bang-for-buck performance features that make it so appealing as a sporty day-ride. I’ve had PR4s before on a BMW Boxer twin, and FWIW I do like the look of these tyres, which seem to have plenty of ‘meat’ on them, so the smoothness should be accompanied by decent mileage and excellent wet-weather performance. Pix below show the new tyres.

ALTERNATIVE AFTER-MARKET HAND-GUARDS... Quite a few folks here replace the OE Star Trek-style hand-guards with alternatives such as Barkbusters, KTMs, etc. A recent post reminded me that for my last BMW R1200 R I bought from E Bay a very cheap kit to create perfectly satisfactory hand-guards for the bike, at a cost of a mere AUD$14 including shipping. Only minimal tweaking was required, and after a spray of matte black household paint I think the result was entirely satisfactory, both visually and practically. For those who like me can afford more expensive aftermarket bits and pieces, but prefer not to, and who again like me enjoy 'tinkering', and/ or those who might be a bit cash-strapped, this approach can often work well. And if it doesn't (witness my recent abortive attempt to create a proper hugger from a $9 'blank'!) the rubbish bin is an acceptable option! Pix below...