wanderer

The pumpkins are ugly, but I wouldn't have changed them for that. I changed them because they stick out so much that they were the limiting factor getting the bike in and out of the garage. I scratched my car several times trying to squeeze by. Combine the ugliness with being reminded about it every single time I went in or out, and it was a hatred that just kept giving. Then I changed out the rears because I changed out the front. 🙂 Also, I figured with the new relay (instead of resistor) to fix the hyper-flashing, the bike ought to be able to run the hazards for much longer without running down the battery.

I expect it would work. I don't speak from direct experience, but by induction ... The 2018 Tracer 900 GT comes with a side case stay (or perhaps aka "mounting bracket") attached to the passenger foot peg bracket. I removed the whole thing (those passenger foot pegs crowded my heels), purchased and installed the older model FJ-09 side case stays. These work perfectly with the T900GT frame and side cases. I infer that all the dimensions must pretty well match. Either that or it is a coincidence of cancelling mismatches. This all assumes that the side case hooks mounting onto the frame itself is dimensioned the same, which I believe it is. I would go further and suggest that you should be able to put the obnoxious T900GT passenger foot pegs onto the FJ-09, if you like crowded heels! or if your pillion wants more leg room. So I think you could use the T900GT side cases, using EITHER the FJ-09 side case stay OR the T900GT passenger foot pegs with side case stay. I had a post "Tracer 900 GT foot pegs" a year or so ago describing this with some pictures.

Thank you for running the forum! It's friendly, informative and useful. I don't post all that often, but I check it out almost every day.

Obviously this cannot happen very soon what with SARS-COV-2 and us all locked in our houses and all, but hey guys, I am disappointed we're not finding anyone in San Diego! Having lived in San Diego in the distant past doesn't really help!

When I was in high school I had an old Mercury Lynx I named Liz, and the name stuck when I left it with my brother. Liz was an important vehicle to me. First taste of freedom. In college, I had an old silver Datsun 210 station wagon I called the Fish, for reasons I don't exactly recall except the color reminded me a fish scales. It had a Humboldt State University sticker from a prior owner. Some of my college friends called it "the HSU". Maybe it had a fishing related sticker as well. We named my dad's Nissan Stanza Stan, because, well, Stanza. My mom's car had a name I don't recall. At this point it started to feel forced. Liz holds a special place in my heart, but I've not named a vehicle since college.

Anyone in San Diego up to get together for a day ride? Where? Depends on where ya'll are. I'd suggest either a Sunrise Highway loop or Mt Palomar. Either is good for me. I could be up for lunch in Palm Desert with a run down and up SR74. I'm in Scripps Ranch (near Poway).

I see! http://www.dzell.net/98/?idx=172 I still think I'd prefer the looks of the Denali though (https://www.twistedthrottle.com/denali-drl-daytime-running-light-with-waterproof-flush-mounting-kit-amber-or-white).

I believe that these DZELL lights fit the old FJ-09 hand guards, but not the new Tracer 9000 GT.

Glad all is not-too-bad. I'm curious, what was the approximate speed of the get off? Moto accidents seem awfully arbitrary in the penalty points. From down at 65mph on the freeway and walk away, to down at 10mph in a parking lot and break some bones and suffer long term concussion symptoms. As long as you don't puncture a lung, rib breaks are mighty painful but with excellent recovery prognosis.

Yes. I got a late start at this. I picked up my first bike (CB500x) on my 46th birthday, about 4.5 years ago. I got the T900GT in December 2018 after a little more than 3 years of riding. I've done about 45,000 miles in that time. I find I'm obsessed. Where I used to fly from San Diego to San Jose for work meetings, I now ride there and back, with one direction being a two day Saturday and Sunday explore (the other direction is the less fun mid-week I-5). Every time I take any trip, I am thinking about how to add a bike explore. Visiting an office in Germany for work, weekend in the Alps. Conference in Florida, ride there from New Orleans. If my wife leaves town, my first thought is "where can I ride while she's done?" I read this very forum obsessively, although generally lurking quietly. It's not all of my fun by any means, and indeed my best friends don't even ride (or not much) since I picked this up only recently. But it is always on my mind, how to make a bike experience out of anything I have going on.

I mostly lurk, rarely post unless I have a real question, some maybe useful information to share, and maybe a ride report. But I check out the forum just about everyday. It's my daily bike fix if I don't ride. The forum is great!

Yep, details with some measurements: https://www.tracer900.net/topic/5954-tracer-900-gt-foot-pegs/ Actually, I still don't have rear foot pegs, just the FJ-09 sidecase stays so I can use the sidecases. It's worked great for me. I think if I added the FJ-09 passenger foot pegs themselves I would again feel a little cramped in the heels (but better than stock of course).

Yes, I've a friend who has used it a couple of times because he doesn't have a bike. The most recent time, he rented a Suzuki VStrom 1000. It suffered a presumed thermostat failure and overheated, cutting his trip short. He rented a pickup and drove it home. RidersShare did cover all the costs. RidersShare would not support a point-to-point venture, since you have to return it to the owner. But what I'm looking for is, for example, how do I get my bike to Vancouver BC so I can take a week and ride it back to San Diego. Of course I would rather take two weeks and ride up and then down, but sometimes time is the constraint.

Just curious at this point, building knowledge for future possibilities ... Has anyone used a motorcycle shipping service? This could help to create a good one way multi-day ride, getting further from home than an out-n-back or loop in the same amount of time. I've found it convenient to do point-to-point with EagleRider rentals a couple of times; never done it with my own bike. Are there good ones out there? How'd it work out? It would seem much easier to (a) ride away from home and ship it back home, than (b) ship it away from home and ride it back home. With (b) timing the shipping arrival is critical and/or some shipping-destination storage is necessary. With (a) as long as you can conveniently drop it off at your distant destination, the precise shipping-arrival back at your house is less critical. Have people tried both ways?

Yes :). If I'd had my way I'd have been on a 4 cylinder FJR1300. The BMW was refined. It wasn't as lusty as the Tracer900GT.

First of all, this thread exemplifies why I love this forum. I don't think I'd ever have thought to grind down a cheap socket for this! In my case, I mounted it on a drill and used a file (with an extra pair of hands) to get the job done. The stem is currently secure, but ... I don't see a way to tighten this where the mirror meets the stem in the ball/socket joint. The loctite idea (@fjrpittsburgh) might work, but first - did the warranty play work out?

Those from dzell also look like only white. I'm also looking. I'd like them as amber running lights + signals, functionally similar to the stock ugly pumpkins, without sticking out so awkwardly. The Denali DRL (amber) looks fairly decent. Nice simple style. With the low beam / high beam settings it should be possible to wire for running lights + signal. https://www.twistedthrottle.com/denali-drl-daytime-running-light-with-waterproof-flush-mounting-kit-amber-or-white I kind of like the Barkbusters, but I don't think they wire for DRL+signal. https://www.twistedthrottle.com/barkbusters-led-indicator-lights-for-jet-storm-vps-plastic-handguards-amber-1

Looks like they have new ones for the Tracer 900, I don't suppose anyone's tried them? (110,000 SK won = ~ $94). http://www.dzell.net/98/?idx=172

I went and bought a handful of Tail of the Dragon pictures. Handy to have someone taking them so I can have a pic of actual riding in addition to selfies and scenery ...

Thanks all for the suggestions. This trip finally happened at the end of September, with a route modified by Eaglerider availability. The location in Atlanta that rents Yamahas suddenly went from "everything available" to "nothing available" right as I was ready to book the bike. I knew I might not get my first choice (FJR) as I waited, but I didn't expect every choice to evaporate. I called them up, the guy said it wasn't lack of bikes, it was the inability to process all the bikes out the door in the high season ... so once they reach their processing limit they shut everything down. Sounds like a bad business model to me ... sit on idle inventory for lack of hiring another person ... but c'est la vie. So I changed the start to New Orleans where I could get a BMW. Basically, I was set on avoiding HD. This trip was triggered by a conference in Orlando. Objectives along the way were to hit the Tail of the Dragon and also to get in quick visits to cousins in Huntsville AL, Atlanta GA, Gulfport FL. Plus whatever would make it interesting. Since the Smokeys are not actually aligned well for efficiently getting from New Orleans to Orlando, and also Atlanta is not really on the way from Huntsville to Gatlinburg, there were many miles and I was not able to do all of the cool things on the way (e.g. I completely skipped the motorcycle museums and any hiking). Summary: Day 1 - 495 miles - New Orleans to Huntsville, via a ~220 miles of Natchez Trace Day 2 - 401 miles - Huntsville to Gatlinburg, via Atlanta Day 3 - 443 miles - Gatlinburg to Savannah, via Tail of the Dragon Day 4 - 312 miles - Savannah to Orlando Day 5-7 - Orlando Day 7 - 107 miles - Orlando to Gulfport Day 8 - 325 miles - Gulfport to Key Largo, via Everglades Day 9 - 262 miles - Key Largo to Miami, via Key West. 2345 miles total. BMW R 1200 RT. 8 states (Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, N Carolina, Tennessee, S Carolina, Florida), none of which I'd been to before. It started on a Friday night in New Orleans, with a quick evening visit to Bourbon St. Le Bayou restaurant on the balcony ... excellent! Day 1. New Orleans to Huntsville. Saturday morning pick up. BMW R 1200 RT. Saturday was New Orleans to Huntsville. Notable were the first of many state lines into Mississippi, and the Natchez Trace from Jackson way into Alabama to US 72. Day 2. Huntsville to Gatlinburg. Sunday morning I roused my cousin and his Harley, and dragged him as far as the Georgia stateline. He wouldn't go any further! This was a long day with a social stop in Atlanta, and a few hours wasted unsuccessfully searching for a charging cable for Suunto watch (with which I track the routes ridden), since I had forgotten to pack mine. Ended in Gatlinburg after dark. I was disappointed in Gatlinburg. Naively, I expected a small town nestled in the mountains, not the hill billy themed bright lights "Las Vegas of the Smokeys" plastic tourist destination (Ripley's and all) that I found. Day 3. Gatlinburg to Savannah. Finally got started on daylit Smokeys. I did the Tail of the Dragon only once, north to south. Here at the border. Only once, because I wanted to make it to Savannah for the night. I ended up on Wayah Rd which honestly I enjoyed more because there were fewer vehicles and instead of being on a "destination road" I was just exploring some country road I'd never seen or heard of before. And I found the Appalachian Trail (gotta do that end to end some day as well). Day 4. Savannah to Orlando. Savannah was fun. I actually had some time in the morning to hang out in town and check out some of the nearby sites. Bonaventure Cemetery, Wormsloe Estate were cool stops. Somewhere in S Carolina ... That night, the folks at the Hard Rock Hotel had me park the bike in this little alcove. I thought that was pretty cool. Let's skip over the conference that triggered this whole trip ... Day 7. Orlando to Gulfport. Uneventful. Day 8. Gulfport to Key Largo. Went through the Everglades and had a few gator sightings. Day 9. Key Largo to Miami via Key West. It is unfortunate it was so rushed, I got to Key West and spent about 30 minutes for some pictures and the fastest brunch ever. I made it back to the drop-off in Miami at 3:30pm with plenty of margin to 5pm, but I was a bit paranoid something would go wrong with traffic or a flat or something that would make me late. Key West to Miami is nominally 3.5 hours, I could easily see an accident on a bridge or something making it 4-5 hours. I finally dropped it off at Eaglerider in Miami. While there, I met some Brazilians who had just completed 7000 miles in two weeks, from Miami to Chicago to Santa Monica (along Rt 66) to Miami. All on Harleys. And that's it! 2345 miles. I'd love to have more time to go through the area more slowly and savor it more. Except Florida. Honestly, I wouldn't particularly mind if I never go to Florida again. The highest elevation in the state is something like 330'. That's about all you need to know about it.

Yes. Barber, Wheels through Time, Huntsville rockets. All super cool, and perhaps too much time. At least too much time if justice is done to them. I certainly can't do them all, will have to prioritize. But I am also learning what I could do on a longer future trip, so keep up the ideas if you have them!

Birmingham AL is only a little out of the way, and a friend mentioned the Barber Motorsports Museum.

Palomar Mountain via Mesa Grande. Up the South Grade, down the East Grade. The top of the mountain has Mother's Kitchen for a vegetarian snack. The East Grade has a great view point deck overlooking Lake Henshaw, a place to stop and maybe take a nap listening to the wind and the birds before the ride home.

The first week of October (well after hurricane Dorian) I could have about 3 days to get from Atlanta to Orlando. Atlanta has a relative to visit and equally important an EagleRider outpost that rents something other than HD/Indian. I've got another relative to visit in Huntsville along the way. Chilhowee adds the Dragon for the hell of it. Savannah just seemed like it might be nice to visit. I've never been in the old South beyond Virginia/DC. So this is a rough first cut at a route. Let me know if you have any suggestions based on (a) riding roads, (b) natural wonder or hiking, (c) historical interest.

The side cases might not be important to you, but my solution for more heel room while maintaining the side case stays was the old FJ-09 side case stay https://www.tracer900.net/topic/5954-tracer-900-gt-foot-pegs/ I don't have any rear foot pegs installed, but I figure the old FJ-09 foot peg bracket is better than the new T900 (for the rider, that is), or I could even install FZ-09 foot peg brackets. Unfortunately, all this gives the rider more room, the passenger less. Fortunately, I don't need a passenger.