betoney

Personally I had @pattonme (forum vendor) build me replacement cartridges, less than $500 including shipping. For the shock, I bought a Penske from Traxxion Dynamics during their Black Friday sale for $850 shipped. The bike is a magic carpet ride! Plush in the harsh stuff and taught in the fun stuff.

It depends on your budget. What’s the best for $300 and what’s the best for $3,000 are completely valid questions for different people. If you were to ask what is the best upgrade for the least amount of money, I personally would recommend starting with springs that match your weight. Around $200 front and back, plus installation if you don’t have the proper tools.

Then by your own admission you did something mindless. Honestly, how is trying different seats until I find one that is comfortable considered mindless? Its not like we can try them before we buy them.

While its great that YOU enjoy the stock seat, please dont invalidate the finding of others just because YOU dont find any shortcomings. I absolutely did find the seat to be uncomfortable, enough that I spent hundreds of dollars on several different seats before finally getting a custom seat made. I dont enjoy mindlessly spending money, I would rather spend my money on tires and gas.

I did exactly that on my 2006 FZ1. Even though the mechanic said the original ball bearings and races still looked and felt good, they were 10 years old, so while he had everything torn apart I had them changed to roller bearings. Maybe it was just me imagining things, but the front end sure seemed to feel smoother after changing to roller bearings.

You make a lot of good points. There is nothing worse than being on a ride and something about the bike is nagging at you, that you just dont like. When you are comfortable and everything fits, it just makes the ride that much more enjoyable. I made a lot of the same changes you did, and cant agree more about the custom seat and heated grips. In addition I also added the MCCruise, Forks by Matt and Penske shock. I wouldn't give up any of these mods if you paid me. My bike has everything that the upcoming Tracer GT features except the quick shifter, and I couldn't ask for a more complete do-it-all motorcycle

3 hours? That is one extremely incompetent mechanic. Taking your time and cleaning the parts as you go, it should take less than 1 hour. Some parts you will probably need: a chain breaker/rivet tool. Impact gun (for front sprocket nut), torque wrench, 30mm(?) socket (I'm not sure exactly) thread locker for rear sprocket nuts replacement retaining nut for front sprocket

It was plenty tight, it took a good deal of effort to remove. I suspect it had zero grease from the factory. Out of all of the pivot bolts, - swingarm, upper linkage, shock mount and upper and lower dog bone bolts, the upper linkage mount bolt was the only one that had corrosion. I cleaned everything up real well and coated everything with Bel Ray water proof grease.

This is the linkage pivot bolt after 1 year. I am so glad I caught this now.

Today I removed the swingarm and shock linkage and got everything greased up. Surprisingly simple on this bike. After the Wheel and brake caliper are removed from the swingarm, just remove the lower dog bone mount and swingarm pivot and pull the swingarm back, then its easy access to all of the bearings.

The install actually isn't too bad, the most difficult part for me was getting the wire "looped" correctly inside the new throttle housing. A word of caution, these grips get HOT... DO NOT set the heat level to 10. Try a mid range setting for lo-mid-hi of something like 3/5/7 to start and adjust up from there if needed. I have ridden in temps as low as 30F and have never needed higher that level 5. One other note, the stock handguards are useless at blocking wind on the back of your hands, personally I use hand shields from a DL-650, $60+s&h on Amazon. They offer complete protection from wind and rocks, but not intended for crash protection.

I swear I'm not stalking you, @betoney But I have the identical question, as I'm also eyeing the R1 320mm rotor conversion. Those caliper spacers look nice... 12 mm I assume. May I ask where you got those, @ghostrider1127 ? No worries at all. Winter is down time for me and I am trying to get upgrades done now if possible. If this R1 rotor conversion is worth the effort its another excuse to go shopping! 8-)

How do you like the R1 320mm brake conversion? It is the next mod I have planned but would like to hear real-world reviews on whether it is a significant upgrade.

I bought the exact same flush mount signals and quickly realized the same thing, you cant see them, oncoming traffic will have no visual clue to your intentions. The stock signals went back on.

I have to agree with you. Getting a seat custom made specifically for you completely changes your riding experience. If I ever get another bike, I will absolutely get another custom seat made.

SoCal? Should be closer to 365. I have 330-340 good riding days up here in Oregon.@keithu You must be a rain rider. I am only 3 hours north of Albany and there is no way that we get close to 300 "good riding days" up here. I dont purposely ride in the rain and between November and April we get a LOT of rain.

That's what I did too. I'm going to be out of town next week so I figured time to get 'er done!Since they have same day turnaround, depending on when you mail it out to them, you should have it waiting when you get back.

Ok, you now have my full attention!! Those sound AWESOME.

My friend has the same screen on his FJ. I am the exact same dimensions as you and I really liked the screen.

I changed the oil and filter last week when I installed the A/S clutch, today I flushed the coolant and brake fluid.

Can you create the spacer with the correct lip and recess like the caliper mating surface? If it fits, sign me up. As far as bolts, I prefer socket head just like the stock bolts.

Thanks, of course STG is out of stock on the spacers but as it will be a winter project I have time. Yeah, another Winter project for sure. My parts for the assist/slipper clutch just got delivered so I have that next on the to-do list after the holiday. Hopefully by the time I get the clutch installed, STG will have the spacers back in stock.

I think you missed the previous 2 pages of this thread discussing larger R1 rotors, caliper spacers and longer caliper bolts. Bottom line, R1 rotors are 22mm larger, 11mm each side of the axle. The spacers move the caliper out 12mm.

@2and3cylinders I was researching this some more and found a forum thread about Better Brakes that listed the caliper spacers as fitting an R6 - See here

+1 on where to get the spacers, and is there another year besides the 2004-2006 R1 for rotors?? If you find a source for these spacers let me know. I was at my local Yamaha shop today talking to the lead mechanic, picking his brain about the assist/slipper clutch swap and he gave me a ton of pointers. We got to talking about brakes and I asked him about swapping the oversize rotors from the R1, he emphatically agreed that the difference in braking would be immediately noticeable. I checked ebay and found several sets from salvage companies, if I can find the correct spacers then I will get this going.