Wintersdark

Haven't had the Tracer long enough to have replaced it's battery, but my experience has always been 4+ years... In that I've never had to replace a motorcycle battery unless it was dead when I bought the bike. However, I've changed bikes at about that rate, so I don't know how much longer they'd have lasted. But, I ride year round, with a substantial number of kilometers - I've never had a motorcycle sit more than a week without running and that's during vacations, basically, when it's typically on a battery maintainer. As far as I can tell, they last a REALLY long time when used every day. It's sitting that kills them.

Huh. I wonder why the extreme difference in mileage. I ride really hard, too, not like I baby mine, and others I know with them get good mileage too. Interested in how the Dunlops work out for you.

Could be, if it's just "feeling light" but not actually lifting the frount, but if you're in A mode and on the throttle, the FZ09 will actually lift the front with minimal effort. Changing the spring shouldn't really impact that. Even my GT with it's longer swingarm will wheelie with minimal provocation, though not like an MT09 will. I mean, even my MT07 would power wheelie through the first two-three gears. Though I suppose most aren't as heavy on the right wrist as I am. *shrugs*

9500km? But how though? What pressure where you running? I got 15000km on my last set... Though there too, the front wore out first.

2" of swingarm is a big change. Moving back maybe 1/2" though... Not so much. I haven't ridden an older FJ, but I've been on an MT09 and it's *wildly* different compared to my GT. It's a straight up unicycle, while the GT is substantially more planted under acceleration.

I guess you could swap in a GT swingarm? Not sure how much all changes otherwise though. Obviously chain length, probably shock?

Aw, man. Glad you're ok, and all the feels - even a relatively minor booboo like that sucks so, so bad on a new bike.

There's no issues with legality of them in Canada. Typically much cheaper on eBay though as there aren't really cheap auto parts stores here

I use a Bluetooth reader from ScanTool, as it allows me to use an app on my phone to monitor engine status. I haven't used it with the Tracer yet, though, as I need an adapter and will probably have to custom make one as the Bluetooth one isn't self powered. You can use any random ODB2 code reader, though, and you can buy them with the Yamaha plug already on them on eBay.

Plug your code reader into the adapter, the adapter into the 4 pin harness under the seat, turn the ignition on, then use the code reader to list fault codes and clear them. Specific instructions depend on the code reader, but they're basically all pretty simple and straightforward.

I measured mine. With the baffle in (again; loud exhaust was not a goal for me, just something unintended and actually unwanted) I measured mine 6' in front of my bike at 80db. I was measuring, in fact, as I was really concerned with how loud it was. I never did bother measuring without the baffle, as that was physically painful. As an audio guy, I'm sure you appreciate that while not horrific, that is decidedly loud. It definitely was not a "you can barely hear it" sort of thing. All the videos, like the one you posted above, talk about this at speed. It's very different in situations like a parking lot. Now I'm NOT saying people should mount loud exhausts for safety - and indeed 99% of people claiming to do so are full of shit, they're mounting loud exhausts because they want a loud exhaust and that's an excuse. However, an 82db source in a parking lot absolutely does make you more noticeable. It's not already loud there - you're not trying to be heard over cars at speed. But there IS greatly restricted visibility (what with all the parked cars and trucks). It *absolutely* made a very immediately noticeable difference, and I wasn't looking for it. I did notice it immediately, because I'm quite alert to the dangers of parking lot denizens while you're on a bike. Arguably terrified of it. Accidents with people backing out into other cars is really common, after all, let alone small bikes. I'll get on board that MC noise pollution *should be* enforced. That's irrelevant, though - all I'm saying here is there absolutely, factually is a difference in lower speed limited visibility environments. This can clearly be seen with how often forklifts are fitted with audio indicators - I work in a factory (a loud factory, in fact) and all our motorized lift devices have alarms while in motion simply because even if you can't see them/have direct LOS to them, you may well hear them vs. getting crushed. And they do work quite well, again even if the lift is on the other side of a wall, so you're hearing sound that's been reflected a few times.

Which is doubly stupid as bikes stop WAY FASTER on sticky rubber than they do on metal footpegs and bar ends. There's no reasonable situation where you're better off laying the bike down.

Hah yeah, this is the way. Been in 4 big motorcycle accidents now, and that's always the way it goes. You lay there for a couple seconds after you've stopped moving, making sure you're able to breathe and don't feel like you're immediately dying, then you start doing the "check for limb presence and function" - wiggle toes, fingers, arms, legs - not a lot of movement, just a little to see if you can. Thankfully shock usually dulls the initial ouchies making that more doable. Lowsided my old sportster at 120, and slid into a steel guard rail. I was "lucky" in that I hit the guard rail with the entire length of my body at once, spreading the impact and miraculously not breaking anything, but those moments of self-checking where really tentative. I knew I was going fast, and I knew I hit that rail really, really hard. I was *sure* I really broke myself.

It's funny, there's a lot of talk about the whole "loud pipes save lives" thing being BS because people can't hear you coming when you're riding up behind them. There's some truth there for sure, but it ignores parking lots. My experience when I swapped the exhaust on my MT07 to one that turned out to be way louder than I expected or wanted was shocking there. Way more useful than hi vis, people turning/pulling out in parking lots would stop and visibly *look for me*. I'll never be a loud exhaust guy, but it made a HUGE, immediately noticable difference in my "visibility" (people's awareness of my presence) in low speed traffic and parking lots. As to the death machine bit, yeah. It's wierd, and I think a lot of dedicated cruiserfolk have simply never ridden this sort of bike. On my last bike trip, had a group of guys saying that about our sport/sport touring/naked machines, and thought it was pretty amusing. Better handling, better braking - you're much safer when it's easier to put your bike where you want it, and to stop it faster. There's a reason bikes like these (nakeds, upright sport touring/adv style) bikes are eating big cruisers lunches. They're objectively better at everything - just the cruiser aesthetic that's left.

They don't. At least the Canadian ones don't. Edit: I assume (but obviously can't know) this is why the Tracers have the longer swingarm and narrower bars than they used to - increased stability at speed - so the limiter isn't necessary.

Got a set of these, installed myself. Installation is very easy but be careful identifying which screw and which spacer is which, as there is a variety. No negative impacts on the bike, fit was great, and they're rock solid on the machine. I haven't tested mine (and hope I never will) but I'm confident they'll do their job if need be. They feel very solid.

Hah yeah, I've got a thread in the parts and reviews section reviewing them. They're surprisingly effective. Good grip in temps down to around -20c (gotta be more careful below that) and decent in slush, light snow, and light ice (that is, frozen condensation or packed down snow, but not big flat sheets of ice).

And of course winter tires for traction at low temps. I've no issues leaning until it's *well* below freezing. Even without winters, good rain tires (see: Michelin Road 5's, etc) are formulated for better cold traction. Specifically for wet and cold, but they work great for around freezing temperatures. Salt... Yeah, that's a thing. It's harmless when cold and dry, but you for sure need to rinse it off when it warms up and gets wet. Fortunately, Alberta is quite a bit drier than Ontario, so there's way less snow and wet to contend with.

As to fault codes, service manual 8-50 and onwards lists them. If you don't have a service manual, PM me.

What sort of reader are you using? I've got a lovely Bluetooth ScanTool reader, but I suspect it'll need some extra wiring (power at least?) to work. I'd love to be able to pull live ecu data on my phone while riding.

We're mid-chinook here, so it certainly feels like spring. Nice warm 9C ride in to work today, didn't even need my winter gloves or thermal pant liner! Was wonderful, got to push the GT up over 200 for the first time. Side note: the Anlas winter tires feel great up to around 180, but at higher speeds start to feel.... Wiggly? I guess it's just what happens when you've got big bitey tread going on. I suppose that's reasonable though. Still, nice to have a couple weeks of spring before it drops into -40 territory again in February.

Yep. I wrapped mine, but I feel Plastidip is probably an easier (and still non-permanent) way to do it. For @pavanchavda : Was cheap, easy to do, protects the original paint and is removable.

Welcome @ABlast82! Calgary here; huge fan of the Okanagan. Beautiful country!

Could be. The one we had here was decidedly not orange. Very similar to that, but even the photo looks way more orangy than the model Yamaha had here. I was seriously, seriously considering scrapping my wrapping work in favour of just grabbing the red panels. The black imho is a little too metallic, though. I mean, crazy metallic. Glittersparkles.

? The 2020 I looked at at the local bike show was all black, except the lower forward panels and little underwear panels, which where both a really awesome deep red. Beats the hell out of my 2019 Gray/White/Red GT