jthayer09

It reminds me of an anime bike with those chonky tires, not a bad thing. I do dig the bronze cylinder heads!

2021 Sportster S | Harley-Davidson Canada $17,999 USD MSRP for a bike that doesn't have passenger room or luggage capability, single disc brake, 11.8L fuel tank (3 Gal), and large tires. Also is reportedly down approx 30HP from the Pan-America. I like Harleys for the most part, had an '84 FXR that was an absolute joy to ride. Done most of my overseas touring on a '06 Fat Boy when I visit family as that's the second bike in their garage. But I think this needed to be around the $12K mark IMO; I'm not sure who this bike is for? It's up on price and down on features, the Indian Scout starts at $11,899 too. So $4K-5K for cruise control and a fancy screen?

He's making a joke that he's combining 1L of dino-oil with 2L of full synthetic shown in picture which comes out to be "semi-synthetic".

Holy hell, anecdotally I've always thought that Maxima's SynBlend ran the best in my 2015 FJ09 and I just blew it off as me being crazy, thank you for the vindication. Maybe I'll try MOTUL's 5100 semi-synth next change for farts and giggles. Not sure about "normal" full synthetics but I've noticed the CP3 absolutely shreds 100% ester based oils: I've tried 2 MOTUL oils (7100 & 300v), and Maxima's Extra4 and it all of them have performed beautifully but then sheared down a rating within 1000mi. I know the 300v & Extra4 are all advertised as racing oils and are meant to be ran hard at the track then changed out, so I suppose they're doing what they're designed for; so I think there's some truth in your "just another thing from racing world" speculation.

The more I read about other peoples' experience with the T9GT the more I'm convinced the bike was made for people 5'9" and shorter I think the stock windscreen sucks, yet people here are posting that it's wonderful and mentioning they're between 5'7" and 5'9". I think the gauges are hard to use because I have to look down to see them, and again people who are 5'9" or shorter are saying they're great. I'm closer to 5'11" than I am 5'10"; 180cm. It's crazy how different the experience is on the same bike. Next big advance in motorcycle technology: tiltable/adjustable gauges?

The gauges are very down low and at a weird angle; I have to take my eyes off the road to look at it. It suffers from glare a lot more than the old FJ09 screen and isn't as bright and mines turned up to the max. The font is very legible and clean though.

I fit the PUIG touring windscreen for the '18-20 900 GT models on my T9GT today; the handguards hit at full lock when its at the uppermost position, but just barely. Could just shave like 5mm off the sides with a Dremel and it'd be ok. Did a quick 40mi loop and I think I prefer stock + eBay spoiler so I'll be returning the PUIG. The PUIG is more effective at diverting wind away and makes the entire ride more quiet but I seem to get a concentrated wind blast right on my forehead, I think it's the "v" shape of the top edge of the screen. It's a shame because the PUIG on my '15 FJ09 was perfect and the company has great service. The eBay spoiler has got to be the best money I've ever spent on a motorcycle, it's wonderfully effective and I've just carried it over from bike to bike.

It's from the organization that regulates and oversees the implementation of the JASO standard for motorcycles: JALOS (Japan Lubricating Oil Society). The link I provided is a direct link to the organization's list of JASO MA, MB, and MA2 filed oils from their own website. The list is published on the first of each month. The disconnect here is oil manufacturers claiming their oil is JASO MA/MA2 rated but not actually filing and submitting registration to JALOS and letting them conduct their tests. Only oil that has proven to meet JASO specs can have the JASO box on the bottle with the registration # so that you can look it up and its specs. See example from a bottle from an oil that is actually on the official list - in this case Motul: The picture above is out of date (T903:2011) as JALOS updates the spec every 5 years to remain up-to-date with motorcycle tech so we are currently on T903:2021. But you can look up this exact oil on Motul's website and check the technical data sheet to see that it is currently registered as M033MOT165 that appears on the JALOS list which is recent as of July 1st 2021. It is on line 670. I'm not saying oils like Rotella aren't formulated to JASO specs and meet the requirements, but we don't actually know that they meet JASO MA specs; we can only take Shell's word that they are testing to ensure performance to spec. Shell has other oils on the list: so either they haven't submitted Rotella since the last spec update, or they did and it didn't pass. I like Rotella T6 myself and have used it every winter for the past 3 bikes I've owned, but I question the ethics of oil manufacturers being able to list their product as meeting a spec when they won't even submit their oil to the governing body of the said spec to guarantee that it in fact... meets the spec. Here's a good article that can explain with more details if interested. On another note it looks like Castrol submitted a bunch of their oils to JALOS last month, as of June they only had 1 oil on the list and it looks like they now have 9.

Nice find! I do like the look and sound of the Yosh system; if it retains the center stand that may be a buy in the future. Stock exhaust is already really good though, sounds great and is neatly tucked away. I'm waiting for 2WDW to have an ECU flash available before considering a full exhaust swap. As one commenter in the fz09 thread mentions, his full Akra swap made the bike have worse throttle/fueling without an ECU flash.

600mi update! Did some more riding this week to get to the 600mi mark on the T9GT, you can find the one of the longer routes at the below link, I just went there and back fully loaded with gear just as a test: https://bit.ly/3qJgTkC Below are more impressions on the bike, expanding on what I stated previously and some new discoveries: Brakes: They’ve finally settled in, braking power is pretty similar to the old FJ09; maybe marginally better with the radial master cylinder. Seat: Again, would like to reiterate how good it is. I’m 5”10 170lbs-ish and it’s never uncomfortable; it is W I D E. The under-seat storage is hilariously large: it holds my side stand puck, and both pant and jacket rain liners and still has a little bit of room to spare. My jacket liner has a finish to it for comfort, you could probably fit two un-finished rain liners in it for a pillion. Windscreen: I added a $23 eBay spoiler to it. It helps the buffeting at the tallest setting, but I think most of the turbulence does not come from the height, but rather the profile & shape of the stock windscreen. The hourglass taper lets wind wrap around the screen and hit you, which creates noise as it finds its way under the helmet. Also, as confirmed in another thread it uses the same mounting points as the previous 2018-2020 Tracer 900 models. Exhaust: As a mentioned previously in a separate comment this is probably my favorite part of the bike. The entire assembly being under the bike keeps a tidy look, I also personally adore the sound: it has a great mid-bass purr at idle but absolutely roars when you get on it. It hums nicely when cruising. Yamaha earning that tuning fork logo with flying colors on this one. I don’t think I’ll be getting an aftermarket system. Electronics: Since my initial impressions I’ve done almost all of my riding in the “least intrusive” settings: TCS1, Drive mode 1, Suspension 1. Yamaha lists suspension as Sus-1 being for smooth roads and Sus-2 being for bad roads. I don’t think that’s quite an accurate way to describe them. I would consider Sus-1 for twisty riding and Sus-2 for straight riding for the following reasons: sus-2 is wonderfully smooth but will pogo in the hard corners, but it’s also fantastic on straight smooth roads at damping out bumps and sewer lids; but because it will pogo when you push it too hard sus-1 should be used for all aggressive riding regardless of road condition, you’ll need its stiffness to feel the front wheel and you can just deal with the harshness. Sus-1 is very stiff though, I would only use it when you are taking a twisty joy ride or on the track. TCS1 has less of the “leans itself over” feel than TCS2, definitely lets you ride the bike more than it “riding itself”. Anecdotally I think I’m faster in TCS2, it pains me to say that but the computer “helping” in the corners definitely works. Drive mode 1 is much smoother than the old A mode on the FJ-09, no more dirt bike “on-off” feel. I will probably use this for 90% of my riding. BCS2 (cornering ABS) is nice to have? I couldn’t trigger it; even my “oh shit” braking into a posted 10mph curve didn’t trigger it, but I have progressive braking drilled into my head. Owner’s manual states that BCS2 will change cornering characteristics if you’re on a track pushing it hard, so maybe this is only for extreme cornering. Quick Shifter: It is a little spongey below 3k RPM so I’ve pretty much stopped using it when going from gears 1 to 2 or 2 down to 1 when putting around in town. Other: Side cases fit my XL full face helmet, but you must flip the helmet upside-down. Take the saddlebags off and the stubby back end makes the bike kind of look like a streetfighter. Radiator hose is routed differently and is now as low and exposed as the painfully unprotected oil-sump; at this point the bike needs to just come with a guard or plate of some kind from factory. Passenger grab handles are very solid, now retained with a tamper-proof torx. The entire subframe seems to have been greatly beefed up, I had my camping gear on the back the entire time and it never seemed to upset the chassis. The blue wheel paint gets a lot of attention and comments from people, like every stop. Bike is running beautifully at this point; just going to do an oil and filter change for the first service and look everything over. If anyone wants pictures of anything specific, please request! Cheers, and a happy 4th to those of you stateside! J

Would anyone here be willing to measure their 2020 900 GT windscreen mounting points just to double-check before I go making a $200 purchase? 😋 For my 21 T9GT I got the following (eyeballed due to curve of windscreen): Horizonal distance Between top bolts: 205mm Vertical distance between top to bottom bolt: 125mm Horizontal distance between bottom bolts: 145mm Thanks in advance!

On paper the instrument cluster should be a knock out of the park, it shows tons of relevant information and it's very easy to navigate through the modes with the left hand trigger, or different stats with the right hand wheel. In practice: it's too low, I have to take my eyes off the road to glance at it, it's angled so there's a lot of glare especially from the silver handlebar, and even at max brightness it's not enough to overcome the glare. Currently there's no option to switch it to a white background, which would help. I hope Yamaha releases an update to increase the brightness or allow an "inverted" color scheme to get a white background with black text. If not, it's nothing a polarizing film mod can't fix; which is a popular mod on the MT07 and MT09.

Objectively the new radial master cylinder is better since the force is applied directly onto the piston inside the master cylinder; not sure if I'm actually noticing a difference since I haven't found the time to go on an extended aggressive riding session yet. I was going to comment on the foot peg positioning in my next update. You are correct: the wider pegs make the bike feel taller than it actually is because you have to spread your legs further from the bike to clear the pegs. I can see this being an issue for shorter riders; I've found that I'm ok just putting my legs forward "in front" of the pegs, it's a matter of retraining my brain. I'm glad you brought up the stock exhaust, it is the going to be the unsung hero of this bike: it sounds great, is a good volume, and gives the bike a tidy look as the entire assembly is underneath the chassis. I wonder if it helps warm up the rear tire faster 🤣 Got some landscaping to do this weekend but hopefully I can get out and finish off the break-in period with a day of twisties and I can make an update post at the first service interval.

Agreed, when the FJ-09 & MT-09 were released they were "value" bikes and a 298mm rotor was acceptable as they were built to a price. I wouldn't consider the T9GT in the "value" segment anymore and it's unacceptable that it doesn't come with bigger rotors; the Ninja 400 comes with a 310mm rotor... even if it's only 1, still.

The 2021 T9GT touring windscreen looks identical but it is a different part number. You could maybe ask another forum member to measure the distance between the mounting points to determine if a 2020 & 2021 windscreens are compatible.

Yes it is a bit baffling, not sure if other bikes are this way too. This is my first bike with both up and down QS. I did a deep dive into the BMW S1000XR when looking at bikes at sat on a 2016 before I put my deposit down on the r1250r. Issues I found were handlebar buzz is bad until 2018 when they revised the handlebar bushings. Then the 2020 revision came with a new seat that is generally viewed as uncomfortable and puts you in a seating position "in" the bike instead of "on" it. So the magical beast would be a 2018 S1000XR for <$15K 😎 Sounds like you got your fudge-9 sorted just the way you want it though.

Is your rear brake dragging? Set it on the center stand and see if the wheel spins freely; or go for a quick ride and see if your rotor is hot to touch. EDIT: Tedski beat me by a minute 😁

Been on the hunt for a new bike after my 2015 FJ09 got a hole in the engine; on a whim I called all the dealers within 250mi radius yesterday and asked for OTD prices on their 2021 Tracer 9 GTs. One dealer roughly 160mi from me gave me an awesome $15,295.xx OTD price ($13,899 for the bike) so I went and picked it up today. Remember I'm coming from a 2015 FJ09 so some of the below improvements may have happened on the 2018-20 GT models. These are my first impressions with about 40min of interstate riding (75mph), 2 hours of state-route riding (wide sweeping turns and 55mph straights, 20min of that in a thunderstorm), and 30min of twisties in one sitting: Engine & Throttle Power comes online a bit lower in the rev range than my 2015 so I'd call it more "useable". This does not come at the cost of the top-end at all, it is up on power across the board and it is noticeable but only in a nuanced way. I didn't notice any jerkiness riding in mode 2... which I think is the equivalent of "standard" on the FJ. Engine braking is strong, it caught me off-guard the first few times. Windscreen Still sucks, either have it all the way down and and it's loud but clean air. Or have it all the way up and give yourself a neck workout from buffeting, but quieter. I'm 5"10 and lean a little bit into the wind. Vibrations Nearly completely gone from the foot-pegs, handlebar vibes are much reduced but it seems like they were just moved to the brake and clutch levers. Seat Much better, I was surprised this was such a big improvement: flatter, and much wider. When I noticed a hot spot on one side of my rear I shifted my weight for about 10 seconds and went back to normal and was comfortable again. Brakes I think these needs to be worn-in, they're really bad until about the 130mi mark when I noticed them start having bite. Suspension This is the big one. I had my doubts that a semi-active suspension would be adequate, especially coming from my '15 FJ09 Ohlins setup. I cannot stress enough how good the suspension is. I had it in mode 2 - "road" mode and the best way I can explain it is that it smooths out all but the largest of bumps without losing any feeling or adding pogo. I can pay it what I consider the highest compliment: I never had to think about it, I started to forget that it was there. I'm 170lbs for reference. Mode 1 tightens everything up and seems like it'd be great for aggressive riding but I'll have to test that further. Quick Shifter Has auto-blipper for downshifts. It's good! I don't have another point of reference but upshifts are lightning fast and smooth, downshifts take a firmer foot press but is equally smooth in how it blips the engine and shifts. The firmer foot press requirement makes it a little "clunky" to interact with, but the execution is flawless. There are two arrows on the digital dash that light up when you can use the quick shifter, one for up and one for down. The QS does not let you down shift unless you are off of the throttle. Electronics Cruise control is very intuitive; works perfectly and like a car's. The bike feels like it turns in "on its own". This is due to the traction, slide, and lift control systems of the IMU; TCS measures rear wheel slip, SCS measures lean angle, and LIF measures front wheel lift to keep you going through a corner as fast as possible. These are adjustable from levels 1-3 with 1 being least amount of intervention; I rode on 2 for today. ABS works fine, I found it a little less intrusive than my FJ09 but maybe that's because the brakes suck until worn-in. I kept in BC1 which doesn't have cornering ABS; will test BC2 on a more aggressive riding day. Misc. The silver paint is a deep silver, and the blue on the wheels are kind of a satin finish. I liked the red better in pictures but once I saw both in person the liquid silver and blue stole my heart. Passenger seat is big, also max payload has increased over the previous chassis so 2-up touring should be more manageable. The seat is also flat with the grab handles which served as a large even surface to set down my backpack to change into rain gear when the storm hit. Storage compartment under passenger seat is much larger than the FJ09. Digital screen has a lot of glare, max brightness isn't bright enough and combined with a weird angle it's hard to read. Needs more testing: Heated grips, tires, fuel economy. All in all I'm happy to the extent that I'm ashamed I ever considered buying a different bike; got my deposit back from the 2020 BMR r 1250 r. If you're rocking a 2015-2017 model year FJ09/Tracer without any updates added to it like the slipper clutch, cruise control, suspension, or need more passenger room I think it's worth an upgrade. Cheers, J

My 2015 FJ was also really noisy when the clutch was out, it didn't get the slipper clutch the 2018 and onward models had with rubber dampers and different springs. The springs in the '15 wear out over time and get louder, it's considered a wear item by Yamaha apparently. Take a video of the noise so we can see what you're doing and hear the sound.

25k miles on my '15 FJ-09 and I did a 570mi round trip in 95F weather last month; I've never noticed the engine heat on this bike, it's nonexistent. Like others have said already, this hasn't been an issue on any of generation of this bike. It leads me to think something may be defective on yours, maybe a distilled water flush of the cooling system would help.

@2and3cylinders It was a pretty large concrete slab, maybe just under a foot high and roughly 3 inches wide? Was hard to pick the proper route through the debris when going highway speeds. Without the construction going on I would've had an extra lane to get over, I'm sure I could've prevented it if I had focused one less second on the car accident and more on the debris. I would like to think a skid plate would've taken enough force out of the hit that even if it damaged the sump it wouldn't have taken the chunk out of the engine case in the picture. I can replace a sump and header pipes no problem; I probably would've just put he stock exhaust back on for a time. I'm always in helmet, gloves, Stylmartin boots, armored jacket, and riding jeans; I may sometimes skip riding jeans for a grocery run. Have gear for every season, I try to get 10-months of riding here even with our cold wet winters.

Buy a skid plate when it becomes available for the bike to protect the exposed oil sump; SRC's skid plate looks like it may bolt on from the instructions. It looks like you're going to be one of the first 2021 GT owners state side so you will have to be the one telling us what to farkle and change 😁 May I ask what you paid out the door for your 2021 GT and where you got yours? I'm in talks with two dealers currently (one in Cleveland, one in Mount Vernon). It looks like Pony in Columbus is getting 1 soon.

29 turning 30 in Sept, bought my 2015 FJ-09 at 24 in 2016.

Wearing moisture wicking base layers (compression shirts) and drinking water when stopped is the only method I've found to work once the ambient temperature is higher than body temp. It's the only way I can ride when I visit my family in Taiwan. If you're worried about people judging you at your destination there's plenty of normal clothing that's poly/cotton blend. I've found 65/35 poly to cotton will keep you cool if you're moving.

I checked out the mounting instructions for the SRC and it looks like it should bolt straight onto the new Tracer 9 GT, looking at pictures of the 9 GT it has the same bolt placement for the sump as the previous CP3 engine, except for the right sidecase housing... looks like that might be slightly off from the previous engine. 2 dealers near me now each have 1 in stock, strongly thinking about pulling the trigger on one and ordering the SRC plate.