Wintersdark

Ooooh you've got a 2016! Yeah, they're way worse. The refresh really improved the fuelling there. You'll definitely want a flash - but when you flash it, remove the booster plug - you don't want both.

Presumably because the intake for the sump isn't on the very bottom of the sump, so when the oil level is a bit lower sometimes it sucks some air resulting in a momentary drop in pressure?

I commented that it supports my weight on the bike just fine. But now we know the upper limit... Apparently, the upper limit is one Jeep Liberty. Being backed into my poor Tracer. The Givi Kappa crash bars did some good work, though, preventing any damage to the engine cases, and fortunately the bar ends hit the ice and didn't suffer any damage. Broke the feeler off the foot peg which was kind of weird, IMHO, but if it's gonna pick parts to break, feelers is fine for me. They're wear items anyways. I'm deeply, deeply thankful I didn't have the hardcases on the bike; definitely would have ended one of those. Broke the front lower panel where the Jeep's spare hit the bike, too: but this really just serves as an excuse to order new, shiny, black front panels anyways. The bendy pumpkin blinkers survived miraculously; even the wife's efforts to pick the bike back up again. I'm kind of disappointed there, as it would have been a good excuse to invest in some spiffy LED indicators. But that'll remain a project for another day.

Hah I was going to upgrade my suspension with this spare bit of cash, but this post inspired me. I hadn't really thought of the decision in this framing before, but basically: I'm aware having the bike sprung for my weight will be a huge improvement, but only academically. I've *never* had a bike sprung for my weight, and from my perspective the Tracer has the best suspension I've ever used, so while I'm aware of problems, I don't know what I'm missing, not really. And those problems are really only an issue at edge cases (hard performance riding) which while very important to me, only affects me sometimes. But my sore butt affects me every time I ride, be it performance or just riding to work. So a new Bagster Ready Luxe is on its way

This is something that kind of concerns me too. I mean, it's theoretical really as track days are basically impossible for me, but that comment really doesn't make me want to try track days. As it stands, street riding is what I enjoy most - of everything I do - and if I were to stop enjoying it in favour of something I could only do a couple times a year, that'd be a huge loss. I mean, back in the day when I only rode old 80's machines I'd cobbled into running bikes, I still enjoyed driving too. But after getting a more modern bike that I can really push in ways I was never confident enough pushing a 35 year old machine? I just completely lost interest in driving. Does nothing for me anymore. So I can see that happening.

I assume because there is oil pressure, as the bike is running. As I said above, even when full of oil if you kill the bike and restart it quickly you'll sometimes trigger the low oil light.

Yeah, fill it to the top line, so you've just got a tiiiiiiny bit of air showing. It gets pissy otherwise. Also, I find you can get the light to turn on if you kill the bike suddenly then restart it without flicking the ignition off and on again. Such as by forgetting the kickstand is down when you out the bike into gear then quickly restart hoping nobody noticed your shame whilst you furtively glance around. Or so I'm told. I'd never do that.

Well, got impatient and just ordered the Luxe version. It was about $100 more, but I figured if I was going to be spending that much (350/450CAD) I may as well go all in. And really, even at $450, I figured it was a pretty good deal; seats cost, and having a wrecked old seat redone cheaply was still ultimately $150-$200ish, so a decent custom job on this would probably weigh in around $300, with no guarantee as to how good it'd be vs Bagster who basically are *the* aftermarket seat manufacturer worldwide. Here's hoping it ends up as good as people say they are!

They're super rare here abouts, and I'd not seen any of the press release stuff but I had seen an older FJ09 that was at a local dealership, and thought it looked pretty interesting. I've been riding for a really long time as well (and for most of it also buying older bikes, restoring, flipping, and repeating for a big chunk of that), and had fairly recently decided that I was just not into the treadmill anymore. I'm getting close to 50, have a couple young kids, and just no time to do all the work that riding old 80's machines entails. I'd bought a 2018 MT07 (which I freaking loved, by the way - amazingly fun bike) but I'm somewhat of a giant, and was pretty cramped on it - though I'm pretty cramped on practically every bike, so that's normal. Was in at the dealership having some work done, and kicking around in the showroom, and happened by a 2019 GT sitting there with a CAD$12000 price tag + first service included. I'd thought about trading in for a MT09, and here this was, an MT09... With a lot of extra height and length! Gave it a sit, fell in love, dropped in here with some questions, and that was that. Bought without so much as a test ride, though, as it was November and while I ride happily through the winter, dealerships get really sketchy about someone test riding a bike in the snow. I still feel it's a killer bargain of a bike; to get all these features at that price is amazing. And it's *way* more fun to ride than it's contemporaries that are anywhere near it's price (V-Strom, Versys) and IMHO pretty competitive with bikes that cost nearly twice as much (BMW, multistrada). I've put 15k on it over the year I've had it, including a pair of winters, and it's held up like an absolute champ. 47 tooth rear sprocket adds some more fun particularly at the lower end (but also increases top speed as we're power:drag limited, not RPM limited) and keeps me pretty much even with my buddy on his Hayabusa up to around 140kph. Side note: I thought the quickshifter was dumb initially, and planned on never using it. I was so wrong. They're totally unnecessary for sure, but holy hell are they fun - not really for cruising, as it doesn't work so well there, but when you pin the throttle open, banging through the gears without even backing off on the throttle... Good times.

A good option here, if you just want to tamper down that twitchiness on/off throttle, is a Booster Plug. It plugs in alongside the air intake temperature sensor, and causes the ECU to read air temp colder than it is, so smoothly results in a slightly richer mixture. They're inexpensive, work surprisingly well, and can be installed (or removed) in like 5 minutes. It ONLY impacts the F:A mixture at idle, low RPM, and under hard acceleration. This is because in these situations, the ECU just calculates the F:A mixture based off the fueling maps, throttle position, and air temperature. Once you're cruising, the bike uses the O2 sensor to trim the mixture, so cruising fuelling is unaffected. The major impact of this change is that the bike will be MUCH smoother going from idle (zero throttle) to some amount of throttle, and also will run MUCH smoother at low speed and low RPM. I found that stock, my 2019 GT was very difficult to ride smoothly at low speed (think school zone speeds) without it being kinda jerky/lungy unless I was basically riding the clutch all the time. After plugging it in, nice and smooth low speed travel no problem. IIRC it's about $80USD, and has the upside of no danger of violating the warranty, while flashing the ECU *may*. Because it's so easy to remove, you can simply disconnect and remove it in 5 minutes should you ever need to have warranty work done.

So I'm looking at seats, and Bagster has been well recommended. Does anyone have experience comparing the Ready vs. Ready Luxe line of seats? Is the increased cost of the Ready Luxe worth it? They seem pretty similar, but the Ready Luxe has "Bultex" foam. That's just words to me, though.

Mine won't shift down through all the gears when completely stopped, but that's not unique to the Tracer, basically all my bikes have done that. Need to partially let out the clutch to let the transmission "set" into gear before shifting again. That *only* happens when gearing down multiple gears while completely stopped however.

Something like lots of real hard clutchup wheelies, I'd imagine. Pin throttle, dump clutch. Lather, rinse, repeat.

So, as it's tax time and I'm gonna have some extra cash, I'm looking back at this. We don't have local suspension shops, so that's not an option for me, and I'm finding looking through various vendors it's very difficult to figure out exactly what I need. I'd like to keep the cost down - don't need a remote adjuster, for example - but it's hard to see what I'm looking for - particularly when I'm not really familiar with brands. Fortnine is usually my go-to for finding parts, but they've got *thousands* of shocks without any useful fitment information or spring rate choice, so... less than useful, if I don't already know exactly what I want. Edit: Thankfully, Racetech has their spring rate calculator, so I can at least figure that out.

I'm definitely curious how it all turns out too. Likewise, I'm reluctant to get into custom seat territory as it very quickly becomes *extremely* spendy, particularly as most are not Canadian - Once you're dealing with American vendors, the exchange and stupid shipping rates push prices through the roof.

Mine's seen a lot of hard miles, and it's always been smooth. Not light, but smooth, no jerkiness or binding in it's travel. It does lead me to wonder if there's some damage in the clutch basket - in those slots that the tabs of the friction plates slide through, little burrs that the plates snag on as the plates move. Just spitballing here, though; I'd really want to just look through there and see if there's any visible wear anywhere. The bike is way too young for there to be any wear that would be considered normal. I do think at this point you're best asking the dealer to check it themselves when the bike is in for the recall (can't hurt to have a pro look) but if you don't get somewhere there, I'd pull apart the clutch and look for worn bits. If there are some marks in there, a gentle kiss with a file could smooth things up. Warranties generally speaking won't cover the clutch as it's a wear item. Out of curiousity (and my apologies if you've already said) how long has it been since your last oil change? Not that I think this is the problem, really, but just to cover all the bases: What oil are you running? It's a wet clutch, so it's always running in a bath of engine oil - and thus engine oil can definitely impact it. Not that what brand of oil is important (it's not), but is it new? Does it meet all the required specs API Service SG, JASO MA? Correct viscosity? The correct amount (measured when the bike is upright, not on the sidestand)?

For the FJ there are. I'm a big fan of the ebay clones and have used them on bikes in the past. The Tracer has different mounts, though, so no go there; the only ones that fit the Tracer start at nearly $100

So, I actually did make my own - I used those ebay coils that sell for $5 each (actually, pairs of coils, you can get the triple sets too but because your phone always sits in the mount in exactly the same place, even a single coil is fine if you position it properly) and it's worked fine through a summer, fall, and winter of riding. Turns out they support wireless fast charging, too, so for $5 you can turn your existing RAM X-Grip (or whatever else) mount into a wireless charger. I just peeled off the rubbery RAM X-Grip sticker and replaced it with my coil. I just poured resin over the coil for waterproofing. It's critical that there's as little space between the coil itself and the coil inside your phone, as the charging power available will fall off exponentially with distance between the coils. It was thrown together really quick and dirty, but it's 100% waterproof and has weathered every kind of, errr, weather:

Link works, just the inline image doesn't. https://www.amazon.com/Official-Creality-3D-Printer-Source/dp/B07D218NX3 It's the Creality Ender 3 - Two friends of mine have these, and they're really great printers at a good price. $200 US from amazon is pretty sweet. My only complaint is the build volume is only 220 x 220 x 250 mm - not a dealbreaker (I had an MP Select Mini, which was great but it's 120mm cubic build volume *was* a problem) but it's just a little smaller than the 300mm/roughly a foot cubic volume you get on the full sized printers.

I can see how it could stop a very specialized thief - that is, one intimately familiar with how the Tracer is put together, with a fairly particular tool - from popping the seat, but... Eh. I'll take my chances, there. That seems like an incredibly remote possibility, and likely well behind all the other ways to readily steal a bike. Like most here, I put mine back the first time I took it out, then tossed it somewhere at random in my garage the second time, likely never to be seen again. And at least it'll be easier for me to get my own bike back on the road without damaging anything should I lose my keys on a road trip 😃

I adjusted mine down as well - 2019 version, same adjuster setup. I've never touched the side to side adjustment, just turned the knob to lower the high beam down, and I leave mine on all the time. I just hate the single-eye look with both "eyebrow" led strips on, more than anything else. But I tell people it's for a bit more safety.

Ooooh, I like this windscreen. If only Puig didn't overcharge horrifically, or if I weren't so cheap.

This is a very good answer, too. *Definitely* put the stock level back on first, because yeah, they will absolutely blame the aftermarket lever - not necessarily the shop, but Yamaha will.

I've wanted to get some magnetic connectors mounted on my bike's panelling so I can walk away and they just safely and simply detach without any yanking, but they're expensive. MagCode Set 12V DC Power Clip, Power Socket for Car Boat Camper Motorcycle | eBay Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for... They're only live contacts when the plug is connected - the contacts inside are closed magnetically when the two parts are pushed together - so there's no live contacts exposed. And it's just held on magnetically when connected, so you can just walk away without worrying about damaging anything. I'd probably put this up on top of the bike, actually, on the black plastic cover (not the side scoop cover, mind you) so I can see and reach it really easily while riding. Mostly because I've ridden off having forgotten to attach my heated gear connector and doing that while riding when it's a loose barrel connector is sketchy, whereas attaching this in front of me would be a lot easier and safer. But they're stupidly expensive. With that said, I just use a basic barrel plug, and I run it out between the tank and frame on the left side, with the cable literally tied to the frame so if (when) I walk away with them connected, it just yanks the barrel plug out and pulls on the frame vs. on the connections inside the bike. I ride in the winter, and use an extensive set of heated gear (jacket, gloves, helmet) so it sees a lot of use and abuse, and holds up really well.

Definitely sounds like wearing cable. How proactive are you with cable lubrication? Do you do it regularly, particularly when riding in rain etc? That said, it's not really a light clutch, even being a slipper clutch. It's REALLY unusual for a cable to fail inside of a year of ownership even if never lubed. And are you really sure there's a problem, and that you're not just paranoid and imagining things?