StealthAu

Traded the tracer in today. It was a good bike, a bit of a hooligan machine as it eggs you on to give it a little more...

For inflating the rear wheel, get an angled valve at the next tyre change as mentioned. In the meantime, you will notice there are large holes through the hub of the wheel. These are there for a reason. Feed the air hose through the holes to the valve, makes it a lot easier. Same on the tracers and a bunch of other yamahas.

105n/m is about as far as you can go on the stock shock. With a 105 I set my rebound at 4 clicks out, 10,000+km later I'm at 2. I'll likely replace the shock before it hits 20,000km. To replace the spring - Compress the spring. The collar falls down, little piece inside the collar comes out. Hard to describe but easy to see once the spring is compressed. If you don't have the tools/your tools aren't suitable, take the shock and spring to a shop. It is a quick and easy job with the right tools so wont cost much. Replace fork springs too. You might think you don't need to now, you'll realise you should have pretty quickly.

+$400 over the base model makes it an easy decision. That's awesome value with the ohlins shock.

I feel with the mt09 the base model and upgrading the suspension is a better choice. The MT10, I'd rather the sp model. The semi active ohlins setup is great and worth the extra. It all comes down to the individual. Ride them both and decide from there. Is the sp right for you, or could you have a better ride buying and upgrading the stock variant.

I haven't gotten around to it yet, but as mentioned in this thread, adding a time delay relay to the circuit will result in traction control defaulting off.

Get new springs. Even if you can get the bike into the right sag range, it doesn't mean it is sprung right for you.

Yes, this too. I don't really think much of this point as the temperature variance is minimal winter to summer here.

As you ride i, fork oil breaks down. Oil gets thinner, both rebound and compression damping effects reduce. This results in suspension behaving differently over time. With external adjusters, you can increase damping over time to compensate for this. Or, you can change fork fluid more frequently. I have one bike with no external hydraulic adjustment. I find myself replacing the fork oil every 5,000km to maintain the performance I want. Bikes with external adjusters, I'll let go up to 20,000km (max) between fork services, making adjustments periodically between services.

The Pierelli Angel GT ang GT2 are way better than the ST were. ST were good tyres with pretty ordinary mileage, I think they were a single compound from memory. The GT's will get you twice as far between changes and have great grip in the dry and wet.

Your diagram is right for marking bottom out. Forks need to be fully extended when doing this. The zip tie is more for measuring how much suspension you are using. Get a friend or two to help you set your sag. with you on the bike, you want both the front and rear to be compressed around 40mm from fully extended.

Your old bikes could still be adjusted, just need to open the forks to do so. For the Tracer... you have 137mm of fork travel available, as per the manual. For those wondering how fork preload effects total travel, it doesn't. You would need to compress the springs a hell of a lot more than the preload adjusters can to limit total travel. Anyway, back to you, and others working out how to setup the forks. Lift the front wheel off the ground and measure 137mm down from the fork seal. Mark the fork tube here with a sharpie so you have a visual representation of where bottom out is. Chuck a zip tie on that fork leg so you have a visual representation of how much fork travel you are using. Set your sag, front and rear. Around 40mm (+/-5mm) is good. Keep it consistent front to rear. If you can't get it in this range, you need to look at new springs immediately. Not after the new exhaust or whatever else. Set your sag before you do anything else! Set your rebound front and rear. Push down on your forks and release. it should come back up and stop. If it bounces, add more rebound damping. Do the same to the rear. You want the least amount of rebound damping that prevents it from bouncing. Go for a ride with a small flat head screw driver. find a road with some bumps, rough surface or the like. Open the compression damping and see how it feels. Close it and see how it feels. Know what bad feels like so you can find the right setup. Set it back in the middle and decide from there, do you want to try two clicks less or two clicks more? Find where you want it. Now you need to see if that setup works. Each time you take a break, get where you are going, note where the zip tie is and lift it back up. Start by taking it somewhat easy, check where the tie is. Ride a little harder, check the zip tie. If the zip tie isn't approaching bottom out, it is safe to try some hard braking, really lean on them. After some hard braking, you want a good 10mm or more gap between the tie and the bottom out mark. If confidence is preventing you from braking harder, allow for a 20mm gap instead of 10mm. If you don't have enough of a safety gap between it and the bottom out mark, add a couple clicks of compression damping. If you need to add so much compression damping that it poorly effects ride comfort, you need stiffer springs. Check the zip tie regularly. Check the rebound regularly. As the fork and shock oil age, you'll need to increase damping.

Bottom out is something like 18mm up from the bottom of the tube. Meaning, they'll bottom out internally while some fork tube is still showing.

You could likely find a stiffer spring that will fit the stock shock, but you are limited by the stock valving. 105nm/mm is probably as far as you want to go. Rebound damping won't do anything with a 130nm/mm spring.

I bought mine from Brooks Suspension in the UK. It is a Ktech spring, you will likely have a Ktech dealer closer to you. Yamaha Tracer 900GT K-Tech Shock Spring (18>) Yamaha Tracer 900GT K-Tech Shock Spring (18>) from the UK's leading...