Wintersdark

Yeah. It's a huge luxury expense for maybe 3 uses per year - I mean, if you've got the cash, I'm sure it's super rewarding, but that's just not gonna work for me. I mean, I'd far sooner get a brand new rear shock I'd enjoy daily than a set of leathers I'd wear only for that. If I could be out on a track more regularly, it'd be different, but access is way too limited here. And we've got the same issue: no empty parking lots. I mean, I can tool around in a Walmart lot at night (and almost certainly get a visit from curious boys in blue), but there's nowhere in town I've found I can occupy a parking lot with cones and such during the day.

I too *really* like the bike with shorter gearing. The 16/47 2.9375 works really well for me (and is functionally identical to 15/44 at 2.9333), but I'd be lying if I said I hadn't considered dropping to a 15t front as well to go to 3.133. The bike is really fun with that extra torque. But, like @betoney, I'm confused by what you mean in the quoted bit above. RPM per gear doesn't change from stock; you just shift at different speeds - the engine is going to run at the same RPM's either way (assuming you're keeping the engine around the RPM's it likes to be at) and you just shift a little earlier.

Yeah, behind the dash (take off windshield -> windshield bracket -> metal plate there are two connectors that aren't connected to anything. One is intended to install the second power port (throttle side of the dash, has a rubber plug that covers the hole) and the other is just an accessory one. Both are switched. They're fused at 2.5A however, so you're limited in how much you can draw there, but lights are fine.

Yeah, I looked pretty hard into Castrol, as that's the closest to me (I'm technically in Calgary, but more like Okotoks), but that was kind of a balking point. There are "open" track days - one or two days a month - but to do them you need: An annual membership, roughly $100, to EMRA Entrance fee ($225) A single piece or zip together leather riding suit (omg so much) Full length gloves A full face helmet (mine fails as while it's ECE0.25 rated, it's modular and modular helmets are a no-no there) Proper full length riding boots (I've ridden in leather work boots my whole life - getting a set wouldn't be bad for sure, but it's another big cost) The safety licensing class So it wouldn't be bad, but despite having armored pants and jacket, leather and steel boots, gloves and helmet, I'd need a full set of separate gear specifically for that. It'd be awesome to have for sure, but $$. Realistically, I'd need a trailer too, and a hotel - you need to bring your own fuel and such, and I don't know how much I'd be into a 3-4 hour ride home after a track day. Just makes the whole thing really expensive to get in to, and again - there's only a tiny handful of track days per year. A huge expense to go maybe 3-4 times in a year. Ah well, it is what it is.

I am jealous. I'm a 6'4" 300lb guy. Particularly on smaller bikes, I'd often need the other guy to be riding two up for a fair run

The extras always get you, as they don't increase selling price really at all. I think even at 9k used that's going to be pretty tough, given you can get a shop floor 2019 GT with zero miles for ~13k CAD/9900 USD. There's three at my local dealership. Of course, that's here, can't speak for Sweden.

@TheBigG Ooooh! A buddy of mine *just* bought an identical FJR. That blue is amazing; sooooo nice.

The best "deal" I've found, with loose rims, is $120 + the price of the tires. Oh, sure, they say it'll be $50/tire, but there's always fees and taxes =/

Followed Dave Moss' advice with regards to front tire and front brake caliper alignment: So, to be honest, in 25+ years of motorcycle maintenance, I've never done this. Literally never. Put calipers in place, tighten them up. Put axle in, tighten pinch bolts. I've never done the bouncy thing to let the free leg center, nor spun the tire and held the brakes to get the calipers centered. What he says makes so much sense, and for sure, when my calipers are even half a turn loosened I can wiggle them around quite a bit. It's always interesting to learn The Right Way to do a simple task you've done wrong for ages, without ever even knowing what you didn't know. Incidentally, this moved my free leg with the pinch bolt pretty substantially from where it was, it's about 2mm more out. Gotta impact fork friction, as well as alignment.

The US has lots of motorcycle schools (and tracks!), though of course it's location dependent. The youtuber Greg in the video is a huge proponent of them, for good reason. Sadly, here in Canada, though, they're extremely rare because people get all "not in my backyard!" about "nearby" racetracks. Nearby being defined as "within earshot on a quite prairie evening" or "within two hours drive of my house". IIRC, there's a few in Ontario, but they're some 6000kms from here. Stupid big country. There's a track in Edmonton, though that's still some three/four hours out. Dunno if there's an accessible intermediate or advanced school out that way, but I'd assume so. I'd consider taking a trip out for a weekend course.

They're white here too, the reference to yellow signs is that they're not the speed limit signs but rather cautionary recommendations of what speed a laden vehicle should take the corner at.

God, I'd love to go ride around Scotland. So beautiful.

So yeah, as others have said: The FJ-09 and the Tracer are the same bike, just different naming. Much like how an FZ09 is an MT09 and an FZ07 is an MT07. For whatever reason, up to 2018 Yamaha had different branding in North America FZ, FJ instead of MT and Tracer, despite them being identical machines. Fun fact: The Tracer is an MTT09; MT09 Tracer. This was hilariously complex when I was first registering my bike here in Canada, as there was some dispute over what it was officially called: FJ09, MTT09, Tracer 900 GT, etc, as you can find different naming all over the place on Yamaha's own documentation.

You have advanced riding courses up there? There's nothing locally. I'd love to do a nice intermediate/advanced course - something beyond parking lot fun, as I do plenty of that on my own. I think I'd really enjoy something like that, as it's fun to get a good discussion of techniques going on in an instructional situation where hopefully people can put egos aside. My experience has been people in "in person" discussions such as on group rides and whatnot tend to struggle to put ego aside and really talk about what works and doesn't for them, and listen to other ideas. It gets worse the more people you have, too, where nobody wants to look like a "noob" or whatever. I love it, personally. I'm always hearing new, different techniques, which I always try out. Some get adopted, some don't. Some work a bit better than what I used to do(only using the inside hand to steer, as per Total Control), some are literally game changing. I just learned to trail brake properly last year, and it totally changed how I ride solo. Once you get into a course, while you'll always have That Guy who Already Knows Everything, people are generally there specifically to learn, so it's a more conductive atmosphere. But yeah... 2020. *sigh*

Yeah.... For the FJ, not the new Tracer. Mounts are different. For the 2018+, they start at $100cdn I'm a big fan of the cheap ebay windscreens, too - I keep checking back in case some nice $25 ones appear, as they did for my MT07, but no luck so far.

$10 for mount and balance? That's insanely good.

Hah I watched that as well; want to get some. Mostly just to make washing the smashed bugs off easier. Here on the prairies, riding *anywhere* near dust makes your bike look like it's covered in carpet.

Hah nice. His is one of the channels I always recommend to newer riders - less entertainment, more real, solid, no-bullshit information.

Got a source for these? Yeah, it's kind of funny. I find the stock screen is kind of terrible here: It's short enough to direct all the wind at my helmet, but tall enough to keep the wind off my torso so I'm extra hot and so I can't lean on the wind pressure. It keeps my chest bug free, though. That's... Something. Yeah. TBH, I prefer either having a very large windscreen that keeps stuff out of my face, or basically none at all so I can just lean on the wind without buffeting or other such nonsense. I really dislike the stock screen, but haven't found a short screen I like and isn't silly expensive.

Mine's the same - strips like this on the rear while scraping steel. My MT07 was like that too; can't get anywhere close to the edge of the tire. Presumably because I'm pushing 300 lbs with gear, though, and still on the stock springs. Looks like an awesome ride!

1. Yes. The boosterplug works wonderfully for low speed performance, cleans up the hunting/surging it tends to do when moving about at idle or partial throttle, and increases it's go on sudden throttle roll on from the same. 2. No. I measured out first, as the Gearing Commander (gearingcommander.com) shows the total amount of rear wheel movement you'll need so you can figure out if you need a new chain too. I had the 8.5mm required adjustment (though it was pretty close!) 3. Absolutely. Now on a straight pull in first at WOT as it crosses 8k RPM it starts lifting the front - without touching the clutch. Mine vibrates at 4500-5000 rpm. Not much below or above, but pretty substantial right there. The gearing change actually helped there because it got me cruising just outside the "buzzy spot" instead of right in the middle of it. You're looking at ~+550 rpm at any given speed.

It'd be pretty fine. You'd be better off when you're loading up the bags, and a little stiffer when unloaded. Back off the preload and call it a day. That's said, springs are pretty cheap - about $100 for the forks, and $100 for the rear. But tbh I wouldn't worry about it there. It's easy to get the weight up when you've got the cases on Tbh, if I where shopping around now for a very lightly used model in a dealership, I'd probably get a base model Tracer. I love my GT and all it offers, but the 2019 Tracers can be had for a *steal* now as the GT's sold quickly but the base models stuck around. Either Tracer is a hell of a value from the get go, but the base model even moreso now. MCCruise is fine. Quickshifter is awesome.fun but 100% a toy. Bags are pretty easy to source or even make (look around here on the forums, a bunch of people made their own hard cases!). You don't get the spiffy TFT dash, but... Eh.

Your MT09 in the states. They're MT09's everywhere now, Yamaha dropped the FZ branding in NA in 2018. The difference is the SP - the SP model is a much improved version vs the base MT09. There's base MT09's over the water tooz the just also get the "polished" version.

Hah that happened to me a couple times when mine where new, but I just moved my feet back a bit. Not really terribly important as in an emergency stop where you need maximum braking your going to lift the rear anyways.

Ugly and heavy, sure. Heavy is fact, ugly is subjective. But. Cause damage in an accident? No. Not these. That's just silly. If you're hit laterally so hard the crash bars themselves damage something, then whatever hit the side of your bike would have trashed it anyways. Without bars, simply tipping over gently and sliding will trash the engine covers. Sliders ON the engine covers are worse than bars, in that there's no give - an impact can bend the bars into say the clutch cover, but there's a fair bit of gap before it actually hits. Any impact that would bend the bars would push a slider *into* the clutch cover, as it's way, way softer than the bars.