Clegg78

you also drop the front forks ~ 14mm or so? I've been pondering picking up a set of the lowering brackets to just test. I am 5'9" and generally wear a 28 -30" inseam. The bike is tall, for me, but not anything I cant plan for or handle. But a slightly shorter bike could be nice Not sure I want to give up the ground clearance though.

My best description of big group rides is “an articulating bus piloted by grandmas” I don’t like riding with others of any count, but big groups… yikes!

Yeah my 2019 GT says this

On the old oil pan design, you just need to drill a hole to get access, on the newer one you likely need to remove the plate. I do for mine ... its 6 screws... adds about 3 minutes to the oil change. Its also nice to clean the plate. It's not an issue at all. I was thinking of throwing a Fumotovalve on my bike to see if I can avoid using tools and removing the plate to change the oil in the future... but really... removing the plate is very fast.

Get out there! Riding in the rain is fun, and in general a great way to improve your riding, and learn the bike!

Had some new T32's mounted on the bike replacing my burned up Pirelli Scorpion Trail II's. The Pirelli's were great for some mild offroad/dirt/gravel riding, but after ~ 5500+mi with the last trip including about 1000mi of 80-90Mph freeway riding in 100+F weather... the rear was trashed. It made for some real twitchy riding, and was down to the wear bars. The T32's even with a quick 100mi twisty canyon ride around the front range around Boulder, CO to rub them in... are so damn nice. Gave a new confidence to the bike (especially with the full Ohlins front and rear setup working to its fullest). It was funny, I wore down the molding nubs off the center and a lot of the side of the rear tire, but the front, even after some aggressive downhill braking still looks new, didn't even wear the nubs off! And I think they look pretty damn nice as well.. better than the R5's. Went with the non GT as the bike even loaded is barely to the weight recommendation Bridgestone has for those tires. I personally want a more compliant tire that grips more when pushed hard.

So…. If you look at what almost any of these are… they are meant to bend and give at the mounts…. If they don’t, they will likely break your engine block mounting points. None of these attach to frame hard points so there is no way for a pan like this to not fail and also not damage the engine on a severe hit. the cheap eBay ones will fail like tin cans, the sw-motec 7000 series aluminum is very strong by comparisons, but the mounts are still designed to bend and flex before you engine block fails. Those mounts can be bent in shipping, they are just stamped steel. I reinforced my motec plate with steel and some cushioning rubber because I know that in a strong hit it will compress onto the sump, and wanted something to spread the impact energy over more. Don’t confuse the plate as more than what it is.

That's a haul! I still need to sort out my seat for those kinds of distances... 550mi is the most I've done in a day and that was a looong day. Bummer is the only way to do those kind of distances is to just use the interstate... zero fun roads can be had and cover that kind of ground

Ohh , I also adjusted the bars on the bike, just angled them down (toward me, but slightly lower then) by a few degrees, and it solved my outer hand pain issues I was having. Super minor change, and reangled the levers after the adjustment, but a real difference for all day riding.

Yup! I cant say enough for the crash bars on my bike, they took the entire hit (other than the cases... which cant be avoided if they are on), This weekend I am going to sand the scratches and hit it with some good rattle can paint if the bars werent on the bike I imagine the damage would be far more and more expensive.

Wrapped up my 2nd trip in a month, 1100 miles in 3 days. Every day riding in triple digit heat. Dropped the bike (mentioned above) in a sketchy parking lot. Rode on the skirts of some crazy super cell storms near Taos, pretty much burned up the rear tire (5500mi on it, mostly done touring. Rounded off the flat area nicely this last trip, but still burned past the wear bars in the center) - replacing with T32's this week, and smashed all the bugs on the wind screen Those Pirelli Scorpion Trail 2's did well, handled a lot of loose ground rather well. But they wore very weird... the sides seem pretty firm and hard wearing compared to other dual compound tires... I hammered corners and they still look new. The center though evaporated fast. Max air temp the bike reported when riding on the freeway near ABQ - 112F. (rear TPMS sensor maxed at 140F at one point). Riding in full pants + touring jacket + helmet. I wetted my shirt a bunch and in the dry desert air it kept me nice and cool even at those temps. Totaling close to 2800mi of riding in under 4 weeks.

Yup, I am not worried at all. Some sanding and some semi gloss black for the bar, and maybe some touch up paint for the case. I may just throw a sticker over the damage Rode around Albuquerque today and back to Santa Fe , ambient read 112F on the front wheel TPMS sensor (rear wheel read 140F) and the ambient temp on the bike 112… I soaked my riding shirt in water (Ridding full gear even In These temps). Thus may have convinced me to buy a cool vest. At 85MPH+ down the interstate the coolant temp maxed at 206F.

Here is the stupid f’n parking lot that caused the issue. I had backed in, and parked with he front wheel in the low point. Pulling out a guy was pulling in and I had to stop with the bike just getting the rear wheel up and out and had to turn quick and the angle/climb made it so I couldn’t actually hold the bike on one foot to stop for him. the pic on its side is the first frame the innovv cam caught from the rear when it initialized :)

Rode 430 miles, did close to 2 hours with the ambient temp showing 104F (in full gear), dropped the bike in the worst parking lot ever designed, but made it :). Only minor scratches on the Gigi crash bar and case… I can deal with that. carved some awesome canyon riding out of Cimarron, NM and Eagles Nest today.

My .02$ - I’ve replaced a few valve cover stripped screw holes with Timeserts. I like them far more than helicoils for this work. It would be easy to pack in shop towels and such to keep shavings from getting bad places as well. https://www.timesert.com/ I had a similar issue as you with a bike I owned. Found a small oil leak and when I checked it out, found multiple stripped bolts and gasket compound all over trying to fix the leaks… what fun!

Ordering a set next week when I get back from burning up the rest of my Pirelli's I have on right now this weekend (1000-1200mi in 3 days or so).

Big fan of the DuPont chain saver as well. I’ve used a ton of different stuff on my past bike and this stuff seems solid. Little dirt pick up, zero rust, and my oe chain is still perfect at 6000mi, with some dirt riding and rain in there. They sell small 3oz cans , I keep one with me on long trips and hit the chain every couple days.

Also , fun fact, that’s my first real oil change (besides the break in change) in 6000 mi…. Because my first one was by draining the oil all over the highway in NM turns out the sw plate mounts are kinda in the way of getting a socket on the oil drain bolt.

Did some maintenance like an oil change (motul 7100) , checked the chain and slack with a nice tool I picked up (BPA-Racing quick checker), adjusted the bars, and other bits as I am about to throw another 1000mi on this weekend. minor thing of note. I had a screw for the sw motec plate get buggered so I had to dremel a cut into it… but look at the state of the bottom plate after ~ 2000 mi with 100mi+ on dirt. It’s nicely sand blasted and there are 2 nice gouges right under the oil pan area. Worth it! Reinstalled with new screws. also ordered a set of T32s to throw on after this trip and some shorty levers to try and help my hand pain.

After seeing how these oil pans can break and dealing with mine, the aluminum is very brittle and thin in areas…. The blunt flat face is a great target for a rock to be kicked up. A sump guard is highly recommended IMO.

The oil pan replacement is super easy, you do need to drop the exhaust but that’s pretty easy. Order the replacement gasket and if you want the exhaust gaskets as well. I also replaced the rubber o ring on the oil level sensor. I am intimately familiar with the pain you are in … A Motorcycle Trip Cut Short : 2020 Strikes again. – Interwebs of Joe About a week ago I left on a motorcycle trip/adventure as I talked...

https://www.tracer900.net/topic/6642-official-all-encompassing-flasher-led-thread/?do=findComment&comment=127742 I posted my led signal install from a few months ago in another thread. I just put 1600 miles on them last week and they worked great. They are more visible than I would have expected from small strips. They riding lights and brake light features are nice as well.

I was curious about this as well!

works fine on mine! Goes from the big OBDII connector to the small 4 pin connector.

That sounds like what I've had with a past bike with the kick stand switch being broken/shorted/etc... that is likely the wire at fault here. You can trace that in the shop manual for the bike (you can buy/download them on Ebay pretty cheap). Everything you describe can be caused by the kickstand switch being broken or the wire for it being an issue. As far as the MIL, if you have the OBDII converter for the bike you can clear the code with any car OBDII code reader. I do it all the time since I'll spin the rear tire at idle to degrease the chain. The MIL wont cause the bike to have issues if you ride at all with it on... but you wont know if another MIL is thrown.