wordsmith

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...

Had my usual between-service oil and filter change at ~4400km from new, in preparation for my upcoming long trip. Not that gear-changes were rough or clunky before, but I did feel on the 65km ride home that all was very smooth and easy, but riding the M1 Freeway with very few gear-changes necessary I may have been kidding myself, or it might have been the placebo effect. Whatever, I'll take it. Red-letter day today – saw my first other out-of-captivity Tracer on the road, except for a planned meet-up with two other Traceristas here many weeks ago- suncoaster and kimmie (hi!). Where are they all…? This sighting was actually of a Tracer being ridden out of the dealership's forecourt as I rode in, but it counts!

Now if mine came with the pretty blue finish that comes on the Euro bikes I wouldn't have had to cover them up. 8-) I very rarely respond to posts like this that are so clearly highly subjective - but I gotta say that personally I greatly dislike the blue finished forks. The Barbie-doll colour appears to be very unbike-like to me! But... FWIW and as always YMMV...

The crush washer I just bought for my next oil- and filter-change has a slight groove around the circumference on one side: the other side is entirely groove-less. Please - which side goes against the head of the securing bolt on the oil pan, A (grooved) or B (not grooved) in the pix?. Thank you...

Bought a new Yamaha oil filter today, part no: on box: 5GH-13440-60. Filter cost AUD$17, crush washer AUD$3! Aaaarrrggghhh!

On this matter, there appears to be a sort-of 'blank' or 'dummy' plug/ cap/ cover on the matching round hole on the rhs. What's this for? Does anyone use it - and if so for what may I ask? Thanks..

Nice! Both the cases and the fastenings look pretty sturdy!

I'm about the buy a new filter. If the -50 model is offered should one insist on getting a -60? Or is the -50 still OK? Thanks for advice...

DIY rear hugger installation (see earlier post here dated Sept 11th). Epic fail! I literally over-cooked the piece in the oven through excessive haste and insufficient patience, the story of my life! The front part of the new hugger melted and wasn't able to be revived, so into the bin it goes. But it was worth a trial...! But wait - there's more. I was a bit hasty in tossing-out the piece, as only the front part was damaged, so I have retrieved it, cut off the offending Salvador Dali melting-timepieces-like front 2", and put it to one side for possible future use and 'try again'. The hugger only cost me $18, so no big deal cost-wise, but I hate to be beaten!

REAR HUGGER INSTALLATION.. See later Edit below... The ‘universal’ rear fender which I intend to use as a rear hugger arrived today, only eleven days after ordering. At AUD $18.34 including postage, it’s a neat piece, sturdy and rigid but not too heavy at only 320g, and nicely finished in gloss black. In fact, so nicely finished that on a gloss black bike it wouldn’t need any re-painting, but I’ll re-spray it in semi-gloss or maybe matte back so that it chimes better with surrounding parts of the bike. It will need a fair amount of adapting, but that doesn’t appear too tricky. The ‘lugs’ on each side will have to come off - a jigsaw cut finished with some wet-and-dry abrasive smoothing of the cut edges should do a good job. I’ll also have to heat-up the front part of the guard to flatten that area for a better fit onto the OE hugger, which will remain in-place under the new part. I don’t habitually ride in grimy conditions, but one never knows. The hugger, if it works for me, will be chiefly for visual effect to remove that empty space above the rear tyre which always looks so - well, empty. If it works effectively, I’ll post words and pix later (Mrs Wordsmith will be away for a week from tomorrow so I can set-to without delay). If it doesn’t work you’ll hear no more of it! Pray for me… LATER EDIT - September 13th (unlucky for some!) Epic fail! I literally over-cooked the piece in the oven through excessive haste and insufficient patience, the story of my life! The front part of the new hugger melted and wasn't able to be revived, so into the bin it goes. But it was worth a trial...!

Tongue-in-cheek firmly, I assume, sun! Unless your last bike was a Bugatti Veyron...