autiger

I was wondering about that as well. Since I will have 8K miles on the clock when I change tires, I think I will just go ahead a get the best quality chain I can find. Hopefully it won't make things worse; I can live with the current vibration levels.

Update on my 2019 Tracer regarding vibration: After 6000 miles, it has smoothed out a lot I would say. Sometimes it's butter smooth, particularly when pulling out on the road and it's still "cold". After it warms up it usually settles into the current vibration patterns which are usually at higher speeds. I do get the right-mirror buzz on the interstate, but for back road riding, vibration is perfectly acceptable even if it's a bit unpredictable. That is, some times it seems smoother than other times. I've concluded that the problem is the drive train and will be changing the front sprocket to the non-damped variety when I change the tires in the next 2k miles or so. Hopefully this will help. Overall, I've come to like the bike for back-road touring. I added Shadd paniers and top case and took a 2k mile round trip to Illinois and back through Nashville and the Natchez Trace south before heading back Atlanta way. I got a good idea of the bikes personality. It handles better than I thought it would given the soft suspension and long forks. Gas mileage is awesome which equates to decent range between fill-ups. ( 56 to 58 mpg for me ) The engine is an awesome combination of power and economy. Interstate riding is interesting, or terrifying in certain situations. The front forks and handlebar combination with the hand guards and mirrors are just too susceptible to wind and the wobbles can scare the crap out of you when surrounded by heavy metal going 80MPH. The windshield is "OK" for fair weather, but when it rains, it's not so good. The seat is not that padded and slides downhill into the tank; it's not that comfortable for longer rides. (I have an airhawk cushion but the sliding is annoying as heck) If Yamaha were to put a real fairing, shaft or belt drive and an extra gallon of fuel on the bike, this thing would be a super one-up tourer. It's really good as is but one can imagine...

I've run 87 in my 2019 since the day I got it and have had no "noticeable" issues in those 6000 miles. I am however very light on the throttle as I have become fascinated with the fuel economy of the Tracer (compared to my FZ1 which I am lucky to get 40MPG on a good day this is awesome!). I'm currently getting 56 to 58 MPG depending on the roads and conditions (this does not include interstate travel as all my discipline disappears when mixing it up with high-speed autos and trucks). Riding like this presumably keeps the engine temp and revs down thus reducing the potential for detonation issues. So far so good. Still, I occasionally add a little octane booster and cleanser to the gas if I think about it. Also, I would use premium if I were planning to explore the performance potential of the CP3 engine.

Definitely could have been worse. My gear did a phenomenal job. I hear you on the foot injuries. I dropped the FZ1 in a parking lot about three years ago -- barely moving -- and it fell on my big toe. Had my cowboy boots on. At least I looked cool falling. That took over a year to heal. Dress for the slide.

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to take a spin up to the Boggs Creek day use area to try out my hammock and new tarp. This is just off Georgia highway 129 and a few miles before Neels gap on Blood Mountain. While I was there, it rained which was the perfect test for my tarp. After a long relaxing repose in the hammock, the rain stopped and I packed up to head back to Cleveland. It was later in the day but not too late, so I decided to take the long way around and do the Blood Mountain RR Scenic loop. This is one of my favorite rides and I've done it many times. The roads were damp in places but overall conditions were good. That being the case, I was riding at a spirited pace but not over the top by any means. Long story shortened, all was good until the two curves right before the Raven Cliffs Trailhead parking turnoff on RR Parkway. The first left curve is one of my favorites and it was sunny and dry so I zipped through as usual with no problems. As I exited that curve, the next right hander is heavily shaded and I could see the roads were a bit damp. No problem so I slowed to about 40mph to be on the safe side. As I entered the curve, I noticed something on the road more than dampness. At that point I was sliding down the road behind my bike which seemed to be sliding faster and farther. While sliding, I was surprised how painless the whole experience was. When I stopped, fortunately I was still in my lane. My bike landed in the middle of the road and was straddling the yellow lines. I immediately got up and tugged the bike in the other lane to try and pick it up. After quite a while struggling with the beast, a car I had previously overtaken arrived on the scene and the young fellow driving asked if I was OK. I assured him I was, and asked him to help me pick the bike up; he obliged. How embarrassing. There has been so much hiking since the trails reopened, many people park on the sides of the road and that day there was a lot of mud tracks on the road. The previous rains had smoothed the mud but not completely washed it away; it was really hard to see, kind of like black ice. When I went down, I was not leaning that far and the thing just squirted out from under me. The bad news is my favorite gloves are trashed and my favorite jacket has two holes in the lower arm and shoulder area. Also, my bike has some cosmetic damage that may or may not get fixed. If I hadn't had frame sliders, I don't want to think about how bad it would have been on the bike. The good news is I was wearing full leather; I even had my knee pucks on. I didn't receive any injuries at all. In fact, I wasn't even sore the next day which was a mild surprise due to my advanced age; I remember watching the Beatles debut on the Ed Sullivan show. And the best news of all, I wasn't riding my brand new Tracer 900! I was on my 50K miles FZ1!

I picked up a 2019 Tracer900 last January for an unbelievable price. Throttle response is really not that bad. I also have a 2006 FZ1 and the throttle response on that thing was horrible until I got the ECU reflashed, so I know what bad throttle response is. In fact, I'm not sure I want to get the ECU reflashed on the Tracer. Mode A for me works quite well. My biggest complaint is vibration. I suspect my throttle bodies need syncing but I haven't had a chance to do that to see if it helps. I'll try and get to the sync soon, but I'm not going to pay $450 for a 600 mile service. I really like the bike but I'm perplexed about the vibration. I don't know whether to try and fix it or sell the thing.

Nope. It's bone stock other than a side-stand pad, radiator grill/protector and pannier mounts. It was vibrating really bad before and after these mods.

Thanks, that will be good info to have. I'm tempted to get a carbtune myself see what's up. I've already put a radiator grill on, so I'm familiar with removing the body work. Shouldn't be that hard to do the sync. Either way, I'll ping the Yamaha guys for their opinion.

I have an FJR-1300 and GenII FZ1. The FJR is reasonably smooth and my FZ1 is like butter. The FZ1 has a slip-on with Ivan's ECU reflash.

With the weather being so nice lately, I finally got to put more miles on my brand new 2019 Tracer goo. Dang I want to like this bike, but I am totally disappointed. For the most part I like the bike but, the engine vibration is really bad. I can't believe all Tracers vibrate this much, something must be wrong or out of sync. The engine is relatively smooth until power is applied. Between 4k and 5k rpm it feels as if the engine is going to rattle out of the frame whether accelerating or just maintaining speed. The vibration intensity correlates to the power output. It's almost like the instant fuel consumption indicator is an inverse vibration indicator. That is, the lower the MPG reading, the worse the vibration. Hopefully it's something that can be "fixed". Perhaps the throttle bodies are way out of sync. I plan to speak to a Yamaha tech for advice, but if this is normal, it's a deal killer for me and I'm selling this baby. Stay tuned if you're interested in a good deal on a new Tracer. Currently less than 500 miles on the clock.

Just picked up a brand new -- one mile on the odometer -- 2019 Tracer 900 on Jan 3, 2019 from Big St Charles Motorsports in St Charles, Mo for OTD $7,157. That of course does not include Georgia State tax. The deal sounded almost too good, so I decided to rent a van and go get the bike instead of wiring money and having it shipped. I also was concerned because I had read some unflattering reviews about Big St Charles. As it turned out, they were great with a 100% accurate representation of the deal. I wasn't totally serious about buying a new Tracer; I usually buy low mileage used and was hoping to find one this winter for $5K or less. However, CycleTrader changed my mind when I saw the quoted price of $5999 for this deal, which was $1K less than the next best deal on CT, so I immediately called the dealer and made a deposit which was a good thing as a "special" rebate expired the next day. Or at least that's what I think they told me when I picked up the bike. Whatever 🙂 What made the deal even sweeter was Enterprise had a special cargo van rental rate with unlimited mileage for $59 per day. As a bonus, the van I got was brand new; it had 26 miles on the odometer. Long story short, I left Atlanta Friday morning at 8:00AM EST and got back Saturday morning at 6:00AM EST. I returned to the van to Enterprise with 1238 miles on the clock. My biggest expense was gasoline for the trip. Another successful adventure buying toys, but if I deal with Big St Charles again, I'll definitely wire the money and have it shipped.

Thanks for the welcome. I may wait a bit on the cruise control, but I'll for sure get the mount brackets and a radiator guard ASAP. I learned about radiator guards the hard way when a rock off the interstate drained my FZ1 radiator. Handy tip for radiator repair BTW: "Blue Magic 16402 QuikSteel Aluminum Repair Aluminum Reinforced Epoxy Putty" plugged the rather sizable hole on the FZ1 radiator and it's still holding since 2016. Amazing stuff. Cheers

Thanks! That's encouraging to hear about the miles and Ivan's ECU reflash. My FZ1 was a different machine after the Ivan ECU reflash including less vibration, so I was hoping that might be the same for the Tracer. I don't know how long I will ride the bike stock, but I was surprised the fueling on the Tracer is not that bad. I can probably live with it while under warranty. Yes, the north Georgia mountains are pretty awesome. I currently split time in the Atlanta suburbs and the mountains. I prefer the mountains. 🙂

Hello everyone, I've been very curious about the FJ/Tracer 900 since its introduction in 2015. My current rides are a 2006 FZ1 with Ivan ECU reflash and a 2006 FJR1300 which I have taken to the west coast three times. Part of my curiosity was a desire to replace the FJR1300 with a lighter machine capable of touring with the possibility of an occasional dirt road for remote camping sites. After convincing myself that I was serious, I started monitoring CycleTrader for pricing. I was pleasantly surprised to see very good deals for new standard Tracer900 and was thinking seriously of pulling the trigger when an add appeared that was $1000 less than the lowest I had found. I called the dealer and he confirmed the price was real. I immediately paid a $500 deposit to secure the deal and started looking for a shipper to transport the bike from St Charles, Mo to my north Atlanta suburb. After thinking about it, I became suspicious that the deal might be too good to be true and was concerned about wiring the money to the dealer and having it shipped by a third party. That's two unknown entities where the deal could go south. That being the case, I decided to take some cash and go and get it myself. I got lucky as Enterprise had a special for their cargo vans with unlimited mileage and only $59 per day. That pretty much finalized my decision, so I departed early Friday morning on a brand new Dodge ProMaster van with 26 miles on the odometer and headed to St Charles, Mo. My concerns about the dealer were unfounded and they turned out to be awesome. So after 24 hours and lots of driving through rain and wind -- the Dodge ProMaster is a beast to drive in those conditions --, I pulled into my driveway Saturday morning at 6:00AM with a brand new 2019 Tracer 900 strapped into the back of a Dodge van with no idea how I was going to get it out before I had to return the van before noon. I was worn out, so I decided to take a rest and worry about unloading after a nap. When I woke up about four hours later, I got my wife to help unload the bike. Fortunately, I had been doing some work on my porch stairs and had a 2x12x8 sawed in half which made for a perfect ramp with a walkway. It took about ten minutes to unload the bike, even though it started raining while we unloaded and I was concerned about my footing on the wet 2x12. After storing the bike in the garage, I took the van back and relaxed for the rest of the day. The next day, the weather was unbelievable and I took advantage for a good long ride on the new Tracer. I took the bike up to the Georgia mountains north on GA129/blood mountain and back through highway 384 and Helen, Ga. I didn't push it too hard given the new tires and the roads were a little dirty due to random debris from the recent hard rains. Overall, I was pleased after my ride on the Tracer. It performed well on the mountain roads and was stable on the Interstate riding up to the mountains. I had never ridden a tracer before, so I was a little surprised about some things since I had read/watched every review on the bike that I could find. I was particularly surprised and relieved regarding highway stability. That was the major area of concern for me given reports of instability and the spindly looking longer forks. I did notice the bike seems to be a bit more susceptible to wind regarding the front end stability, but not to the point of major concern. The biggest surprise was the vibration, particularly under hard acceleration. I don't know if I glossed over that when reading reviews or maybe I'm just comparing it to my well-sorted FZ1, but it's not insignificant. For touring I don't think it will be a major issue, but I was a little disappointed. From reading all the reviews, I definitely wanted the GT version. With the discount I got on my Tracer, that made no sense. The GTs weren't discounted very much, so the difference in price would have been almost $5k considering the deal I got. That being said, the GT only had two things I really desired and those are the cruise control and suspension upgrade. I can add cruise control for about $500 and I was pleasantly surprised with the competence of the standard suspension on my ride though the mountains. For my purposes, I think the standard setup will do just fine. Anyway, I hope my introduction wasn't too long. I appreciate this forum for all the timely information and advice and hope to contribute in the future. Here's a picture of my new steed with 175 miles -- my ride yesterday - on the odometer.