wordsmith

Not so much? It's the same with every seat - as I have said before - "one man's seat is another man's poison"!

First impressions... Being pretty impatient I took a brief ride out today to check first impressions of the newly-installed Seat Concepts Touring seat. It was a mere 40km and about as many minutes on some local outer suburban roads, but a poor choice of time of day for such a ride. School was just out so roads were pretty busy, and my feet were up and down like a bride’s nightie. In short - jury’s still out! But I can give a couple of observations. First – the new seat is taller than I’d first thought when swinging a leg over in the garage earlier. My creaky stiff 78y.o. knees and hips are not made for such stuff, so I think some calisthenics or yoga may be in order! And I’ll need to watch pannier-kicking when they are fitted. I guess the seat material may compress a little over time, but it's not a major concern to me - I've had taller GSs! Second – for the same reason I couldn’t comfortably flat-foot at rest unless I stood straight up in the seat and really stretched out. Otherwise it was both feet in tip-toe position, which I don’t care for much at all, but I'm sure I’ll get used to it. Again, the seat may compress a little with use. At first I thought there was little difference in the ‘feel’ of the new seat compared to the OE. The pressure points in my buttocks arising from the bony protrusions at the bottom of the hip structure felt exactly the same, and I was ready to start to feel a little disappointed. Then after a short time I moved around a little on the ‘gripper’ seat material and pushed myself back as far as I reasonably could, with just a finger's width between my lower back and the pillion seat's front rise. This immediately felt a lot better – the pressure points were minimised and I felt more relaxed as I headed for home. But truthfully, the short outing didn’t tell me much at all, as it normally takes about an hour on the OE seat for the discomfort to become apparent, then rapidly worsen from there. A very much longer outing of >400km over a greater range of road types is planned for this coming Saturday – only three more sleeps! On this ride I’ll do some quite long non-stop stretches on the bike, after which I’ll be able to give a more detailed objective appraisal of the seat. So far I’m reserving judgement. Stay tuned!

Seat Concepts offers 2 different seat foams for the FJ, standard and Sport Touring. They recently reorganized their website listings, if you specifically search for Yamaha FJ-09, you will get the standard seat. If you just search Yamaha seats, you will find the sport touring version as well, but in the picture it says FJR. You want This One. You do indeed want This One as advised above - specifically SKU 42-1310-20-1000. Not being at all defensive but in the interest of truth, honesty, and the Australian way what I actually wrote was that it is labelled on the SC website as for the FJR. (The same pic also says FJ-09!!!). I wrote to Seat Concepts pointing out the misleading labelling, but it remains! I think AdvMoto has one left in stock, but their website is simply a clone of the SC site and pix and mis-descriptions! BTW - I'm about to post some 'first impressions'.

If that means what I think it means we will be interested in your comments once installed and tried-out on the road.

FITTED NEW SEAT CONCEPTS TOURING SEAT I’m a bony, lean, and not-very-well-padded 83kg fully kitted. Over many years and on many bikes I’ve tried lots of things to improve OE seat comfort where necessary – full fitted sheepskin covers; sheepskin pads; Air Hawk; having OE seats re-made with minimal success at considerable cost; bought an early Tracer seat kit from Seat Concepts after they had a special deal on this Forum way back; finally a beautifully-made but very expensive custom-made Bagster two-piece item from France, on its own custom seat pan/ base. The Bagster seat was by far the best-performing of these choices on my last Tracer, while the early Seat Concepts kit offered some improvement over stock. The only bikes I have ever owned that had great ‘komfortsitzen’ seats were my late BMWs – R1200Rs and GSs. Sadly, they come attached to very expensive motorbikes! Quite recently Seat Concepts brought out their newer ‘Touring’ seat kit (confusingly named on their website as for the FJR). With a couple of longer ~4500km trips in mind, I decided to order one, having been moderately satisfied with the earlier ‘standard’ replacement kit on my first Tracer. Description of the new Touring seat is best left to the makers: “… Seat Concepts added foam to the front of the seat to be able to reduce the slope into the tank. With this change, they were able to keep the seating pocket thicker with foam for better comfort. They also widened and added some support around the edge of the seating area for greater comfort. At the front, we kept it narrow to minimize the thicker foam affecting the reach to the ground. With these changes and an improved foam density will help keep the seat from being an item to stop you from going on that ride or enjoying the bike”. My pix below clearly show the difference in shape and structure between the OE foam and the new Seat Concepts Touring version - OE is yellowish, new is white. The foams look a bit distorted in the side-by-side pic - I think that's a trick of the light or the camera angle! The new seat is appreciably thicker at the rear than the OE, and quite deeply ‘dished’ so that I’ll be sitting in it rather than on it. It’s also about ¾” wider where it counts. There’s also substantially more material in the Touring foam – OE weighed 330g, while the new seat foam weighed-in at 750g. I ordered it from the Australian distributors, AdventureMoto, who were pleasant people to deal with. Some delays caused me a bit of frustration, but unasked they offered to meet the mailing cost to me – only $10, but a nice gesture. All-up cost was AUD$275 delivered to me from Sydney. But onto specifics: learning from vduboy here that he’d found the re-covering job pretty straightforward (thanks, Nate!) I decided to DIY, hiring an electric upholstery stapler for $22 and buying a pack of staples for $4. Helpful instructions came with the kit, which consisted of the new cover plus new foam for the rider seat, and a new matching cover only for the pillion seat, plus a bit of plastic film 'water barrier' to cover the new foam, keeping it from absorbing water (strangely, the OE pillion seat foam was already covered in this way!). The instructions also advised to stick the foam to the seat pan, which I did with some aerosol contact adhesive, but again it seemed a bit odd that neither the OE rider's or pillion seat foam was stuck down. So with some help from Mrs wordsmith (who has lots of experience with dressmaking, understands pleats and tucks, and has suitable patience!) the job was quickly and satisfactorily done in about 1½ hours from start to finish. Because, I think, of the concave or dished nature of the seats there are a couple of gentle wrinkles on the upper surfaces, but they may disappear with use - if not, it's not a big deal! They could possibly have been stretched-out during installation, but the instructions do warn against fastening the covers too tightly. An important hint in the instructions recommended laying the covers out in the sun to warm and soften before installation. No problems here with that - plenty of sun! - but elsewhere maybe putting the covers into a warm (not hot!) oven, or borrowing wifey's hair-dryer would help, as when cold the material is pretty stiff and inflexible. Overall, it’s not a chore that anybody should be frightened of attempting, IMHO, as the staples can be easily removed and re-done as the job proceeds, and apart from the stapler the only other tools needed are a pair of thin-nosed pliers and a flat screwdriver to remove the scores of original staples, plus a 10mm socket to remove and refasten the seat-lock catch at the rear of the front seat. A ten seconds job, it needs removal to be able to fit the cover around that area. Proof of pudding. At 5’9½” or 177cm and with 32” inseam, I can flat-foot on the bike with the OE seat in its lower position if I move right forward. This is quite important to me as I dislike any need to tip-toe. Happily, in the garage the new seat seems only fractionally taller and I expect that on the road I’ll still be happy at rest. But of course the major difference sought is the most important of all – the new level of comfort. But this will have to wait until the weekend when I can get out on a longish ride over varying terrain to put the new seat through its paces. Stay tuned!

Worth every penny, but to install you have to drill out the 'swivel pin' from one side of the OE pegs.

Good call, zach: just ordered a black one of these for AUD$8.82 delivered to Oz!

But, is it also connected to the battery? In that case, the yellow wire from the brake light supplies the trigger signal that activates the relay, thus powering the modulator directly from the battery.I refuse to continue this discussion for I knoweth not that of which I speak! I can only assume that my electron-savvy guru knows his stuff. It works, that's the main thing for me!

My guess is that it's needed to to get switched power from the battery to power the modulator.Yes, bb - it's hooked into the brake-light wire (yellow) and that clearly powers-up the Mod through the relay when brakes are applied...

Thank you. As I freely admitted at the beginning of my post I had a lot of help and guidance from a mate who has forgotten more about electrons than I'll ever know, so I have no idea why the relay is there, though I gather it is some kind of switch. In fact, until then I'd thought that a relay was a Bloke wearing shorts running round in circles carrying a stick, who then chucked it to another Bloke wearing shorts who ran around in circles, etc., ad nauseam! Only the additional LEDs flash, but doubtless the insertion of the AUD$4 Modulator into the brake-line circuit could make the OE brake lights also flash. I have PM'd you the circuit diagram, which is a bit rough-and-ready with some of my scribblings on it, but it will help I'm sure.

ADDED SOME REAR BRAKE-OPERATED FLASHING LEDs Here’s the Reader’s Digest version: Made and installed a pair of flashing rear brake-operated hi-viz LEDs, a sort-of poor man’s Skene P3 set-up. Cost me about $45. Many thanks to a mate from another Forum for giving me a wiring diagram and much other guidance. And here’s the unabridged version for those who like me have plenty of time on their hands and/ or who may want to do a similar installation: Many members have seen and may have installed front and/ or rear SKENE® conspicuity lights on their bikes, and I’ve had a SKENE P3 rear-mounted LED kit on at least three earlier bikes – Tracers and BMW Roadsters. SKENE stuff is excellent in all respects, but expensive, especially with the current exchange rate. And the piratical AUD$59 postage to Oz is not Jerry SKENE’s fault, but the kit can be held in the palm of a small hand, and weighs next to nothing! But, ever in search of the see-and-be-seen ideal and to support the aim of the front hi-viz LED spots in making me more visible on the road I decided on a DIY approach to some supplementary rear lights. Internet sources are full of LED strips, but many include both red and amber/ yellow LEDs, which minimises the number of the desired red colour LEDs. But after some searching I bought locally a pair of flexible Bright Red LED strips; a micro-relay and some other small parts; plus a GS-100A Modulator (to make the LEDs flash) post-free on-line - cheap enough, but took forever to get here. I already had the other few things needed to finish the job such as some wire and mini spade terminals, and my trusty soldering iron. So the total cost has been about AUD$45. Another SKENE kit would have cost me about AUD$200, and although certainly affordable and possibly better in some ways, I couldn’t justify the cost this time around. Besides which, I do enjoy ‘fiddling’! I wanted to mount the LEDs in close proximity to the rear light cluster, to maximise the mass of lights there so that a following texting/ lipsticking/ make-up checking/ turning-round-and-screeching-at-the-kids soccer mum in her large SUV – and others – would have the best possible chance of seeing me when braking. SKENE P3s display a constant and distinct rapid on-and-off ‘flicker’ (they call it their ‘patented conspicuity flicker’) before it bursts fully into action when brakes are applied. With my DIY LED set-up the flashing only comes on as braking is applied – a distinct but rapidly-flashing brief sequence initially; then a longer sequence of slower flashes (about the same frequency as the indicators); then a steady ‘on’ state for as long as the brake is applied. The Modulator doesn’t have to be included in the circuit – to omit it would save about five minutes work and fewer dollars – but without it the LEDs would come on without flashing when brakes are applied. But the flashing adds immeasurably to the visibility and value of the installation – in fact, I wouldn’t have bothered otherwise. The self-adhesive LED strips are 15cm (6”) long x 1cm (⅜”) wide, and it seemed that the maximum effect would be gained if placed one above the other. There are various possible mounting locations at the back of the bike, and I decided to mount the LEDs under the carry-rack on a length of 20mm x 2mm aluminium strip painted black. This puts them immediately above the rear lamp cluster, almost touching it, in effect creating one source of light as seen from behind. While awaiting delivery of the LEDs and Modulator I did some time-saving pre-fabbing of the wiring and the relay, soldering the joints and using some heat-shrink tube over the joints for maximum security. The micro-relay fits neatly into the rear tray under the pillion seat with the Modulator close by, and once tidied-up everything was securely zip-tied, still leaving some room. As a final task I was able to conceal the external wires from the LEDs very neatly as they entered the under-seat space, so I’m pleased with the overall result. The final result – when braking there’s a very intense display of bright red flashing LEDs, right where it counts adjacent to the rear lamp cluster. ‘Brighter than a thousand suns’? - it’s hard to judge, but looking at some pix of my past installations this DIY approach does seem to be almost as attention-grabbing as the SKENE P3s, which is all I wanted. And good value at ~AUD$45 or so, with the bonus of a satisfying job that worked perfectly from the start! Pix below show (top) - the LEDs mounted on their bracket close to the rear lamp cluster; (middle) - the LEDs in action; (bottom) - the key parts - Modulator, LED strips, relay.

Yeah, they are excellent, but with piratical postage to Australia they are pretty expensive at AUD$152. But I do like them! Being high up and wide apart gives the best possible visibility, IMHO, and they are also very easy to install and wire-in. How many sleeps until Santa comes?

As you know, vd, I have one of these Touring seats on order, so I'll be very pleased to read your observations and comments after you've taken a longer ride! I wonder if your comment 'the foam moves a fair bit more than stock' has anything to do with how tightly/ firmly you stapled the parts together. Did you use any glue to secure the new foam to the seat pan? Your experience will hopefully assist my own installation when time comes...

FIRST SERVICE, NEW PANNIERS, AND NEW LEVERS The bike’s first service was completed satisfactorily today at 1040km, and the Yamaha DNA security ‘dots’ added. The service was done for me at no charge as a ‘make-up’ by the dealer because I’d been screwed around a good deal waiting for the panniers to arrive: they are a ‘free’ inclusion with the MT-09 Tracer on the Australian market. And well worth having, and now fitted. I’m still tossing-up whether or not to paint the lids… The new aftermarket levers were also fitted – again gratis. These levers are the only bit of near-‘bling’ on this bike, but apart from their attractive and high-quality look I really bought them as my small-ish hands benefit from the adjustable-span clutch lever. On the out-of-the-box bike only the front brake lever can be adjusted. Yes – I’m wondering why too! They are beautifully made – AUD$58 post-free – and can be had in a variety of anodized colours.

Ok so the lighted inserts that came on my 2015 FJ-09... well one got destroyed. I have no idea where they were purchased from. I need to know the cost if I were to replace them. Anyone know the vendor/source? Thanks Brick Vendor of those excellent LEDs ('knuckle-guard LEDs') is D-ZELL, Korea.

FITTED AN EXTENSION TO THE SIDE-STAND LOWERING STEM... I’ve recently fitted new rubber-topped foot-pegs, which are both wider and longer than the OE pegs, and on the lhs this extra length makes it tricky for me to readily locate the side-stand lowering-stem without having to look down. Looking for a fix I found a short length of 15mm diameter aluminium tube that was ideal for extending the side-stand stem, and it just fitted over the ball-end. I filed a small recess into one end of the aluminium tube, which locks it in place at the inner end of the lowering-stem. The tube has been secured by filling it at each end with hard-setting silicone sealant, and a small black rubber grommet neatens the outer end. A cuppla quick squirts with black paint and job done! The extension adds about 40mm or 1½” to the length of the OE stem and is worth its weight in gold!

Esperance has written some solid, considered, objective words here, about as clear and realistic on this difficult-to-measure subject as I have seen. Personally - and as he says we are all different - I find the OE screen perfectly OK, but then again I do live and ride (mainly) in a pretty benign climate. I don't think I'd want to be commuting through icy winter weather behind this screen!

FIXED YESTERDAY'S FAILURE OF THE FRONT LEDs Following yesterday’s failure I took the front LEDs set-up apart for the umpteenth time to try to identify what caused them to cease functioning – I had thought that excessive vibration may have been to blame. It wasn’t - a quick check of the LEDs by wiring them into the battery showed they were AOK, so it must have been a wiring failure. I took apart all the joints I’d made and re-soldered them, with new heat-shrink tubing over the joints. I also replaced the vibration-prone flat mounting bar with a 20mm diameter steel tube, with very thin walls and very light in weight. As we all know hollow tubes are extremely rigid so this one will definitely not vibrate! Dressed it up a little by putting some faux carbon-fibre vinyl on it, which neatly chimes with the adjacent body panels. While at it, I installed a handlebar-mounted switch, not that it’s necessary, I feel, but I had one so thought it may as well be used. Some black plastic furniture tips fitted the open ends of the tube perfectly, so I hope that’s it with this job. Only one thing now remains to be done, which is to install the DIY flashing rear brake-light LED strips, once the Modulator arrives, by slow boat from China. LATER EDIT: June 22nd. I have replaced the LEDs shown here with the first-fitted 'Angels Eyes' LEDs, having mastered the odd sequence in which they come on - full: half: flashing! The switch - not originally fitted - helps me to control their operation to ensure I don't ride off down the road and annoy the pleece with illegal flashing lights!. I'm also happier with the fitting of these onto the round mounting-bar as the clamp-style fastening holds these LEDs more securely than the single through-bolt of the others. For the same reason they have also been easier to set-up so as to have an identical pattern of light viewed from in front of the bike. Hopefully that's it! Top pic below is the original LED set up: lower two pix show the Angels Eyes...

BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD... Not so much a ‘what did you do...?' - more a ‘what am I going to do...?', for my newly-fitted hi-viz front LEDs ceased working while out on a 300km ride today. I noticed them on the outer ends of the mounting-bar vibrating like a product demonstration at a sex-toys fair, and when I arrived at my destination both were kaput. I’d not have been surprised had olde-worlde bulbs with fragile filaments inside been fitted, but I rather thought that LED beads are vibration-resistant. So I’ll have fun and games again disassembling the front of the bike to get at the under-screen wiring and accessory leads, and taking it from there. If worst comes to worst, I do have some thin-walled steel tube of about 1” (25mm) diameter that I can make another mounting bar from that would definitely be vibe-free, and if the LEDs are dead I do have another pair of 'Angel Eyes' that will do nicely. And while at it – that seat! The day’s outing was 2 x 150km legs with about half-an-hour off the bike between. After an hour it felt as if I was seated on a stone bench with a length of 2” x 1” laid flat and crosswise under my thighs. Torture! I have on order (I think!) a Seat Concepts Touring seat kit but the Oz distributor doesn’t seem at all anxious to let me spend a few hundred dollars with him – or at least that’s the impression I get from his poor communication.

FITTED NEW RUBBER-TOPPED RIDER FOOTPEGS The heavily-studded OE foot-pegs may suit the bike, but having a lazy left ankle I find that the sole of my boot sometimes catches on that peg: this is not desirable when gear-changing or moving to put the left foot down at a stop! Enter the rubber-insert replacement pegs, free of aggressive boot-grabbing spikes and a little wider and longer than the OE items – see pic. I guess the main objective with these rubber-topped pegs is to minimise vibration, but not so for me – I can’t detect any vibes anyway, so for me the rationale is easier/ safer foot movements on and off the lhs peg. I had fitted a pair of these to my earlier MT-09, so the job was familiar and relatively straightforward, fiddly rather than difficult, although it does require drilling-out the swivel-pin that secures the lhs peg to install the new one with its circlip. On the rhs the OE swivel-pin is secured with a split-pin (as are both pillion pegs) – so much easier, and why each side is different is beyond me…! I know from the last bike that I’ll need to lengthen the lowering-stem on the side-stand, as the longer foot-peg sometimes makes it tricky for me (lazy ankle again!) to easily find with the boot, but that’s a small job. I’ll get it done soon enough by welding one of the now-discarded long hero-knobs from the old ‘pegs onto the end of the lowering-stem – the pic below is from the last bike. The kit – see pic – cost a mere AUD$14, shipping included and contains the new ‘pegs, pins, securing circlips, springs, and even new short 15mm/ 5/8" hero-knobs! How do they do it for the price? Recommended. (pix 3 and 4 -hi Robert! -shouldn't be there!)

ADDED A PAIR OF M-STORE MIRROR RISERS/ EXTENDERS These are really great! As the name suggests, they both lift the mirrors UP and move them OUTWARDS. The gains are UPWARDS an increase of 35mm (1.5") and OUTWARDS an increase of 45mm (1.75")***. Together with the small 2” diameter ‘blind spot’ mirrors already fitted I think the combination gives me unbeatable rearward vision. I had them on my previous Tracer and they were an early purchase for this one, costing AUD$26 post-free. They are beautifully made - in Taiwan - and were delivered within 13 days of ordering. I bought the black risers, but they can be had in a variety of other anodized colours. The lhs (clutch) side requires the riser to be *** slightly angled forwards (horizontally) so as to clear the rocker select switch there, but that only reduces its OUTWARD location by a few mm, which doesn’t detract much from its effectiveness. Highly recommended. (A word of caution for anyone working on the OE mirror stems - the securing nuts are the consistency of over-ripe Camembert cheese, so to avoid damaging and marking them use a spanner or shifter with the widest possible face on the jaws that grip the nut).

[b style=font-style:italic]INSTALLED A PAIR OF HI-VIZ FRONT LEDs[/b] Finally I installed the front hi-viz LED spotlights, after searching for help from others, for when it comes to electrons I am a very fine deep-sea diver! But thanks to those who advised via this Forum, as eventually I found very detailed and fully illustrated directions under the ‘FJ-09 Tech Tips & How To’ here. These LEDs don’t throw light down the road as does the conventional headlight – they are simply intended to highlight my presence to others. ‘Brighter than a thousand suns?’ – well, maybe not, but bright enough – see pic. I chose to buy the pair of inexpensive, small 2” diameter LEDs from an E Bay site – AUD$26, mailing included, and they arrived nine (9) days after ordering. They are somewhat fancifully called ‘Angel Eyes’, but they do chime very well visually with the adjacent headlights - see pix. Following the Forum guidance I wired the two LEDs directly into one of the ‘spare’ fly lead connectors under the instrument cluster, and lo! – it worked. No mucking around with relays or whatever, and even I found no difficulty with the job – it just took longer than it should have, being fiddly rather than tricky. The screen had to be removed, then two other parts underneath, to reveal a mass of wires and cable and so on – see pic – but the Forum advice was spot-on. As I want the LEDs on all the time the engine is running I decided not to put a switch into the circuit, although I had one. After an initial trial fit of the cross-bar on which the LEDs are mounted I wasn’t too happy with its rather DIY appearance, so I re-jigged it, putting a gentle upward bend towards the outer end of the bar, and spray-painted it semi-gloss black – see pic before painting. That lifted the LEDs up a little - a quick check of some past photographs shows me that they are in exactly the same location as on the last bike - and I think it may also minimise vibration. The 3mm x 33mm aluminium cross-bar is mounted via two bolts onto the underside of the little curved ‘shelf’ immediately under the front honeycomb device. I drilled the mounting holes a little over-size and used rubber washers too so as to further minimise vibration. A satisfying job, and now onto the next! Let there be light!

Wow, this would have made a great tech tip in our tech tip section. What're you sayin', Cruizin?

FITTED A PAIR OF GRIP PUPPIES Unless I really, really concentrate and try hard, and/ or grip the bar-ends very tightly I cannot detect any vibration or buzziness from the handlebars – this bike seems eerily smooth! But fitting Grip Puppies – marketed as being ‘to reduce handlebar vibration’ – definitely helps comfort as they also increase the otherwise-skinny diameter of the ‘bars. Beware imitations – some inferior and not much cheaper lookalikes pose as ‘Grip Puppies’ or similarly-named items. Often you can almost see through them if they are held up to the light! Fitting is not quite the ‘simply slide them on’ act suggested, but I have fitted many pairs of these and today’s job took precisely eight ( minutes. First step is to remove the handguard bracket ends. Next, plenty of soapy water is needed inside the Puppies and on the handgrips to ease them on – I used a liberal amount of liquid soap. Gently – if necessary – use a spoon handle or something similar to get the Puppy started over the ridged ‘bar end. Then, the best way to slide the Puppy onto the grip is to grasp it firmly with a towel and twist the Puppy backwards and forwards while pushing inwards. Don’t be frightened to add more liquid soap + water! Once on, you can squeeze the Puppy along its length with the towel, which will remove most excess soapy water – the rest will safely dry out on your first and more comfortable ride with the Grip Puppies installed. Highly recommended!

There's nothing like a little DIY on a wet Sunday arvo, kimmie! I'm currently basking in paint fumes from the rattle can I used to spray the mounting bracket for my front LEDs... this could become addictive!