Wintersdark

I always used to use the exposed thread distance on the adjuster nuts (measured via calipers), but on my Tracer, that does not result in a straight rear tire. Maybe something about the bolts, the nuts, or whatever, I don't know, but it just doesn't work. The bike ends up tracking very slightly left all the time, and once I got a chain alignment tool (linked above) it was immediately obvious that it wasn't actually straight. So, yeah, the measuring method works, sometimes, except when it doesn't. Get an alignment tool and be sure.

Fortunately, even cheap tool shops(harbour freight/princess auto) sell impact sockets in that size individually, so it's pretty easy to get one for just a couple dollars. Don't strictly need an impact socket, but given they're like cup-of-coffee money, it's probably best to have a beefy one: sometimes dealers torque them on really tight. Get one, and get it soon. Running too tight can damage your bike - I'm not sure if 15mm is enough that you'll remove all the slack at full suspension compression (really bad) but when too tight, you're putting tons of strain on the engines output shaft. Chain maintenance is really important, and will save you a lot of money. Replacing chains and sprockets frequently gets spendy, but if a chain breaks it can do bad things:

Having done a couple long slides in my day (lowside at 120 yo!) if you're sliding on your face or the back of your head, that's good, and you don't want to lift it up unless you're getting all the way though the helmet. If anything, transfer some weight to your helmet, away from other parts of your body, depending on gear. Because one thing helmets are very good at is abrasion resistance. Way better than leather, or textile. And the helmet is done after the accident no matter what, so preserving it has no real value. May as well use it as a slider, and spend less of that sliding time as a crayon. Road rash sucks... Less so because of the injury itself, and more so because of how horrible it is when they clean it.

Jesus. Imagine if that wasn't a full face helmet. That'd be a lot of missing face. *shudders*

Weight's always worth losing for performance. I don't like getting into the "my weight loss vs bike weight loss" as the two are unrelated. Obviously losing weight myself is even better than losing it on the bike even from a performance focused standpoint given the height of the weight, but it's not either-or. Now, as I'm not American, US-made means nothing to me, but yeah, I do agree: buy a quality battery and maintain it properly. TBH: I've just bought name brand batteries, whatever the local shops stocked, for 25+ years and 6 bikes. Even with Canadian winters, I've never had to replace a battery other than ones from other people (Previous Owner Batteries, which interestingly I always have to replace regardless of brand or location of manufacture). I have literally never had a battery of my own fail. But I always have batteries on trickle chargers when my bike isn't going to be used for more than a couple days in the winter, or more than a week in the summer. A $25 battery maintainer attached to an SAE plug saves a fortune in battery costs. All that random rambling aside, if I only rode in warmer climates, I'd probably get a lithium battery to save a couple kg's and because they're cool, and I like spending money on my babies. Farkles that have legit performance gains beat farkles that don't, 100% of the time. But the actual gains per dollar are pretty low here, so I'd probably not do it unless I'd already done so many other performance related upgrades that matter more (HH pads, suspension, good tires, flashing the ECU, etc) unless I already *had* to replace the battery from some reason.

Nah, it's not close to the chain. But yeah, the bike will do a ~51 degree lean stock, while that's clearly not motoGP it's enough for some really gnarly cornering. The likelyhood that the bike's max lean angle is the limiting factor on cornering speed for street riding is extremely low (unless you're a really, fantastically good rider), and if you're scraping hard parts it's almost certainly because of poor body positioning. Particularly if safety at speed is the goal, body position is more important - you want to keep the bike as upright as possible while cornering because that directly impacts how well the suspension works. Keep in mind, at 45 degrees lean, you've effectively lost half your suspension. On a track this isn't nearly as much of an issue, but on the street - unless you live somewhere that has way, way better roads than anywhere I've been - it's pretty critical. Also, of course, the less you need to lean the bike, the more "oh shit" room you have for corners that get tighter than expected as it's much easier to adjust lean angle mid corner than it is to adjust body position mid corner. If you're covering poor body positioning with increased max lean angle, you're not safer, you're putting yourself in a more dangerous position. To be honest - in 25 years of riding, so many groups, friends, etc I've ridden with, I've literally never met anyone who's cornering ability was limited by their bike's max lean angle (on a sport/sport touring bike with 45+ degrees of max lean). Of course, those people are out there, and there's some here that I'm pretty sure fit that bill, but... Yeah, most of us just aren't that good. And if you're not that good (like your's truly) working on the skills is much better than modding the bike to push it over further.

Ah ok, I thought you'd bought them like that. Yeah, mine are wrapped currently, I'm going to plastidip them whenever the wrap fails. Wrapping gave an excellent result and I'm pretty happy with it, but the very sharp corners are really difficult and I'm not super-keen on doing it again. Spraying on some PlastiDip would be a lot easier

You can trim the rubber bumpers on the centerstand so it sits higher. You *can* fully remove it (and generally should if you're tracking your bike and looking for the best possible times, but... why a Tracer if that's your goal?) but you'd probably be better off working on body positioning to reduce lean angle. I mean, I ride dumb fast on the streets, but even so I haven't needed to remove mine. There's no point in removing the peg feelers, though, they just communicate lean angle to you but don't endanger you because the pegs just lift and fold back.

Yeah, if they're good or not depends on where and when you ride. I'd love one, but being a winter rider in Canada, it's just not in the cards for me. My stock Yuasa SLA battery starts fine in -25c, but I'm pretty dubious about a lithium battery doing that.

Aaaaand, yeah, stupid expensive. However, turns out eBay sells the wireless charging coils/pcb for like $5, so I'm gonna make my own

Where did you get the lower side panels, and what did they cost you? I've wrapped mine in a matte black, but I'd kind of like to get a nice, matte black set of stock panels with all the badging.

The Tracer has a 118 link chain stock:

Local dealers always install these on new bikes and most even on used bikes if they're not already there, it's pretty normal. Optimate makes fairly solid connectors too, well waterproofed and reliable. Generally speaking, they're wired directly to the battery through their 15A inline fuse. This may be a Canadian thing, though, where winters tend to be cold and battery tenders are absolutely mandatory.

Huh; I've never seen this. I'd like one. I'd REALLY like one with wireless charging. I bet that'd be stupid expensive, though, because RAM mount.

I'd run mine without problems for years, but the rubber feet where aging and not gripping the posts as well anymore... I'd never really paid attention as it was always fine, but that was on old 80's bikes that struggled to get that fast, so I rarely was much over 160. Well, lessons where learned

Oh! I like those a lot more than mine! Similar offset, but more natural looking! Where did you get them?

I too have used that one for 3 bikes and many, many years. Center mounted on the bars (either via claw, clamp, or bolt) results in far less vibration. I also learned about gluing the rubber feet onto the pegs: This is what happens when you don't use the rubber retaining net, don't glue your tips on, and do 180 down the highway. My poor S8+ Was in a Supcase armored case, which in it's defense did a pretty damn good job for a 180kph impact with the pavement - the phone was still functional afterwards, although I never did find the camera module. Now my feet are gorilla glued on, and are not coming off again!

We don't really have gravel roads anywhere around here, but dirt sure. I find moderately packed dirt roads with some loose dirt/gravel are largely fine with the Road 5's. Gotta be careful, stay off the front brake of course, and like everyone else said, light touch on the bars and let the bike do what it wants to do. If I rode on them regularly (but not by choice - not adventure riding, just having to take some dirt/gravel roads), though, I'd probably go to a 90/10 tire like an Avon Trailrider. I know my winters are massively better on gravel, and still pretty decent on pavement, so a 90/10 sort of tire would probably be ideal.

Yup, mine was thrown in the trash the first time I took the seat off. I'm sure it's a Security Feature as others have noted, but TBH I'd rather be able to get the seat off by poking something in there if I ever need to. I've had more than one pillion lock seize up on me when I REALLY needed to get at my battery, including on my MT07. I'm incredibly dubious that anyone is going to steal my seat, and pulling my seat off isn't really going to help anything. Anyone actually trying to steal the bike isn't going to be faffing around with removing the seat anyways.

One UP on the front? So you tried both ways? Should get better mileage with one up on the front (but... eh, that sounds like a horrible riding experience to me, but then I have decidedly hooligan leanings)... Honestly, I've found my gas mileage to be very comparable with the 47. I'd think the 17 tooth front would result in a smoother ride, too, if a much more sedate one. I do get not liking the 47 for extended highway runs, though. Doesn't bother me at all, but it's definitely a bit buzzier, and you're running at higher RPM's (that part was a deliberate goal for me). I'd say, for Normal People, the stock gearing is really fine. It's pretty smooth, with certainly good get-up-and-go. But me? I finally don't miss my MT07 anymore 😃

Could be a Tracer vs. FJ difference; the adjusters(damn it! makes it way harder to find good adjusters!) and swingarm are different after all. Mine fit easily, with a fair bit of slack. But yeah, I should have been a little more clear there: If I were buying a new chain, I'd *absolutely* buy one two links bigger, Just In Case as brand new chains are quite tight and stretch a fair bit pretty quickly. It's always better to buy a chain two links too big, than two links too small! It's really easy to remove links, but a MUCH bigger PITA to add them. But if you're adding a 47 tooth sprocket to an existing bike with a good but in use chain, yeah, direct swap. Was a really quick and easy job.

The manual's 35-45 mm (1.3" to 1.7", iirc?) Is a good value. 65mm... That's very loose.

Even first. I mean, you've gotta shift a *bit* earlier, but it's like 80kph, certainly not a problem. Feels so, so much better launching and running through the gears, though, you get through that weak spot 2k-4.5k faster, and even in it in first the power difference is noticable. I gained 3kph in top speed, too! Wins across the board. Didn't watch fuel economy too carefully (too busy zooming down mountain roads this evening) but I certainly didn't notice any real difference.

Don't need it. 47 tooth fits with the stock chain, it requires the axle to move forward 8.6mm, and even off the showroom floor I had that.

Apparently iPhone 11's in particular are vulnerable to damage *even when not using the camera*. Lots and lots of reports of it. YMMV, of course - I've never had a problem with my s10+ or previous phones, but.... *Shrugs* phones are expensive, and I like my camera, so I do what I can to minimize that.