PhotoAl

Fortunately I fit just fine in the Miata. I wanted to go to something steadier but still want the out in the wind stream experience as best as possible. Not the same but still able to look all around and see everything. Wanted something that was good for long trips with a minimum of fuss. Early in my thought process was the CanAm Spyder but it seemed more of a cruiser than a sport vehicle. Every trip I wind up going thru one or two larger cities. The interstates are crowded and fast paced. The Tracer can handle that just fine, with good reserve power available even if running "with the flow" at 80MPH. The CanAm seemed to not have the reserve at those speeds. My base requirement was something that would be good for a long trip like I've been doing on my Tracer yet still have the open air out in the elements feeling of a motorcycle. Knew very little about the Miatas but have seen lots on the track particularly the older ones. The older ones are way down on power. After a bit of research figured out there are 4 generations of Miatas (NA, NB, NC and ND). The ND started with 155HP but went to 181 in 2019 which is not too bad in a 2,400 pound car. Have seen a ND2 on track that looked stock but was going very nicely. Other cars I thought about were the BMW Z4 and the Honda S2000. The BMWs with good HP gets expensive and the S2000s are great but older. Wound up with the Miata, 2 years old and low mileage so should be an easy car to take on a long trip with less chance of a breakdown.

I bought an electronic copy off of eBay. Not sure if it was the US or British or something else but had the info I needed.

I did a lot of long trips on mine and the previous bike. I had in my head 45 to 50 thousand miles as when I would thing about replacing. However! If the bike has been regularly serviced and maintained then I would not shy away. With advanced age and mileage come things like clutch, stator, suspension, steering bearings, chain, sprockets, and electrical connections. Again maintenance and how it was ridden play a big part. In general if it has had regular oil changes with good oil and the owner let it warm up before riding harder then the engine should last a very long time. If the history is good and the bike rides well I say go for it. I would go thru and check and grease the steering head bearings and the swing arm bearings. Really a very through going over to make sure everything is in perfect condition and it should go a long time. What scared folks about high mileage and older models is there are a lot of small things that can go wrong and be a hassle to deal with. LOL this does not mean a newer bike with less mileage is guaranteed to be better. If you like to tinker and have the time to spend to do all the many small things from lubricating/greasing the kickstand and shifter bushing, changing the brake fluid etc. it could be a very good bike.I don’t know about the UK market but seems like a descent price.

Thanks all! Last week I rode it to the bike shop for a presale inspection. It was a bittersweet ride but a lot of fun. LOL got it all in, some good acceleration, a couple of good corners and the idiot who moved over on me on the interstate. Sold it to the bike shop - know them well and have done business with them before. Asked if they would be interested in the bike sent some photos and they made me a good offer. I have been in there many times just checking out bikes and hopefully it will go to a good home.

Due to my sport bikes I've always like "hugging the tank" when going quickly. Found myself doing it even on the Tracer. I'd lean forward and down to get closer and tighter to the bike. Never felt like my Tracer was unstable at higher speeds although it wasn't as planted in higher speed turns as `i would have liked. I did drop the forks 7mm which IMO made a difference. Always liked the way the Tracer can make the quick turn in and transitions that were somewhat close to what my 600cc sport bikes did. One of my favorite things on my CBR600RR was how it would make the left to right or right to left transitions so quickly. @NormR give the hip time and it will get back to normal. Took a while to get my knee back but it got there, can tell it is different but not in a hindering way except for kneeling - that is still difficult to to the scar tissue. Range of motion and strength are both the same as before.

Today I sold my Tracer! Dealer made me a good offer and hopefully she is off to a great home the she will be loved and cared for. Bittersweet as I close that chapter and start a new one. One of my favorite bikes.

I was thinking that the front bolt came off and the head the grab bar would come right off and you would have the remains of the bolt sticking out and easy to deal with. Certainly a hassle for sure

Hard to tell but looks like the center part is still there. Either drill or grind it out or get the proper tool like @skipperT says. Looks like mangled part is at the top and the rest of the "flats" are still in good enough shape to get a proper tool on. Many years ago my brother and I were trying to get the case screws out of a small Honda motorcycle. We weren't doing well and my dad came over and showed us how to use an impact driver. Its a cherished memory as my dad has been gone almost 25 years. If it is too mangled for the proper but to fit on it is time to get out a drill and drill out the head. You could drill it out and use an easy out on it but I would probably drill it out, very carefully, so the head of the bolt comes off. Take off the hand rail and then use vice grips to remove the threaded portion of the bolt. Sometime tonight get on Partzilla and order a new bolt. You will want one even if you are successful in getting this one out - it looks bad. Don't worry too much about messing it up this time. Next time you do it is your fault. Always get the right tool for the job. I don't know why they used a security bolt there - worried about someone stealing a girlfriend off the back maybe haha. A lot of fasteners are not torqued that tight but sometimes ... For high torque stuff it is even more critical to have the right tool. I tried to take my rear sprocket nuts off with 12 point sockets. I was very careful and no problems till the last one - LOL well I was a bit careless and mangled the nut. Bought a set of the sockets from Northern Tool that will grip almost anything and they took it right off. Also I tossed my 12 point sockets.

I loosened the clamp bolts and did one side at a time. LOL that is how I wound up at 7MM. It can be a fit jumpy to get it to move smoothly so when it landed on 7 I thought to myself that is close enough and let's try that. One side was more difficult than the other. It made a difference. I stiffened up the stock suspension and the rear mostly is near 100% preload when touring. It is too soft for spirited riding but for touring and particularly when on bumpy or lumpy or humpy roads it works well. Those are the roads where the surface updates and the Tracer fully loaded handled them very well. On my long trips the road varied from fast and fairly smooth interstates to twisty mountain roads so always a compromise but it did a great job.

I've had several Givi ring mount bags and a SW-Motech. I liked the Givi ones as they were easy enough to lift off. Liked the SW-Motech better but only used it a couple of times. They make a variety of sizes. Mine is large but fit week on the bike. It is more narrow at the front and the wider side pockets are at the back which worked well on the Tracer. Also the SW-Motech could be adjusted forward or backward on the mount. Not sure all of them do that. The Givi might have been able to be adjusted but it was not really apparent. I hadI have 10s of thousands of miles with the Givi ring mount bags and have never had a failure. Without the rain cover stuff inside does get a bit damp in an intense rainstorm. On all my tank bags the top item in the bag was always a towel or microfiber cloth which I used for cleaning my visor - it would soak up a bit of moisture. Stuff in the plastic map window gets very hot. Never ran a phone there but did run my SPOT GPS device there - it would get very hot but always worked. I would press the "I'm OK" button from time to time to let my wife know I was OK and a location. For phones I recommend a Quad lock with a vibration damper. The RAM X-Mount things work well but don't have vibration dampening. I ruined the camera on an iPhone 10S that way. It was on my BMW F800GT which had much more handlebar vibrations than the Tracer 900 GT. It took a several hundred miles or even a couple of thousand miles. How the mount is positioned and the weight can amplify the vibrations as well. I have a cheap (free) Samsung phone that was my plan for backup navigation.

I checked mine at 18,000 if memory is correct. Currently at 28,000 and just going to sell the bike LOL! Seriously have thought about that and was going to check them after next long trip which would be about 36,000. Don't have a sense of urgency but would probably make the 2nd check early as well - not wait 24 thousand after the 1st check. My impression is the valves tend to go out of adjustment pretty early and then do not change much.

I dropped my front forks 7mm - some go 10. Not much but makes a difference. What I love about the Tracer is the engine is wonderful. Suspension can be adjusted, tweaked and modified to suit you. Much better than buying a bike with a great suspension but not so great engine. I put a skid plate on my 2020 900GT and have scraped it a few times. One time in particular was in an out of the way place near Vernal Utah and pulled off to adjust the GoPro. Drop off the pavement was more than I thought and it got a pretty good scrape. It probably would have gotten the oil pan and that would have been a long hot wait for a tow truck. First bike I've put a skid plate on but defiantly needed it.

Good valve caps - I’ve got one or two but can never find one when I need it! Don’t worry about humiliation, everyone has at one time or another done something like that. My best one was parking my scooter on the side of the road because the oil light came on. Got wife to come and get me and went back with van and hauled scooter home. Then read the manual - OH!!!! It’s the oil change reminder light!!!

My 2020 had a recall on the throttle I think. Took it by the local dealer and they had parts and fixed it quickly. Have to agree it is a pretty simple and hopefully painless recall. Worst I've experienced so far is the battery recall on my 2020 Chevy Bolt. Almost 3 years ago recalled because it might burst into flames. They recommended charging to no more than 80% and not less than 70 miles (not sure what percentage that is). Have been patiently waiting on a replacement battery. They have done many 2017 - 2019s and some 2020s but not mine. It's a local car due to poor charging infrastructure around here. Few weeks ago and just days before I took it in for a seatbelt tensioner recall - another problem that could result in flames! While they were doing the recall they checked and another software update recall was available for it so they installed. The software update installed some digital goodness from the folks at GM and monitors the battery. If it does not detect a problem for the next 6,200 miles it calls the battery good and "unlocks" full charging. If it detects a problem they will notify you and have you bring it in to have some of the battery modules replaced. Meanwhile I am hard limited to 80% charging capacity. Problem is I only put 6 or 7 thousand miles a year on the car! So now I have a car with has 20% less range. If it takes me a year to get the full capacity unlocked it will be a range reduction of 20% for about 4 years! WOW really makes me want to go out and buy a GM product. They did say in the initial recall of 2020 thru early 2022s that modules would be replaced and did not specify the whole battery like the earlier models.

Just yesterday was doing preliminary planning on going from Missoula SW and then looping back to Arco. Some great views! In 2021 was in Butte and planned on going to Missoula and then 93 S to Arco but wildfires and smoke changed my plans. I'd be out there in early September and hopefully wildfires would not be too bad. Of course would be in the Miata since the bike is going. Having risen thru fresh chip-tar its one place where I like the thought of a car.

Looks like it is 2021 thru 2023 models, there is a list of VINs on the linked site.

Yes the bike is in Birmingham, AL (a suburb actually). I’ll give a free admission to the Barber Museum to whoever buys it.

Welcome, adjusting the suspension does make a difference. Old tires certainly don't help. Better if they are kept out of sunlight and ozone. If you are handy there are a lot of things you can do that are not super hard and can make a difference. You don't mention mileage or maintenance history but presume it has been garaged or similar. Of course the very first thing you need to do is take some photos and post here so we can all admire your new bike 🙂 If you don't know the maintenance history or don't trust it then changing all fluids is a good idea. Brake fluid is easy to overlook. Amazon sells a brake fluid moisture detector that does a good job and is inexpensive. Check and grease steering head bearings, check and lube swingarm bearings, replace the fork oil in the front forks. Dave Moss has a good tutorial on doing a "pump and dump" which is not as good as a full teardown and cleaning but a quick, easy and inexpensive way to get fresh fork oil in and perhaps make a slight change is fork oil weight for a bit better damping. Also change the air filter and possible the spark plugs. Oh and coolant should not be neglected. Tires, lots of choices depending on your budget and type of riding. I'm partial to the Michelin Road 6s because I have done a lot of long trips in varying weather and on varying road conditions. I wanted a solid tire that was good in wet or dry and varying temperatures and road surfaces. LOL i'm an on pavement rider but every long trip has had some road construction which ranged from dirt to loose gravel with occasional dirty pavement thrown in oh and rocks of various sizes. Shinko makes good solid tires that are inexpensive but do well on a budget. Shop around and find a good place to mount and balance your tires. You can also mount and balance your own tires.

Not trying to give it away but priced for quick sale and with 28,000 miles that scares a lot of folks. With most of the miles being highway causing miles and with 26,000 being put on in the first two years (25 months technically) I don't think of it as excessive. I would be much more concerned about a bike that had the same mileage put on over several years with a lot of local riding.

Sending PM

Think the funky gas gauge catches folks out. It's full, its full, its full, its half, its gas light! Having a gas gauge that goes from full to half with nothing in between an be a bit disconcerting at first. This was my second bike with that type of gas gauge so was not unexpected and I could cope a bit better. Mine is pretty good about going to half tank at about 1/2 full or maybe 0.1 gallons off. Another problem is the second half of the tank is not as "big" as the first since the "reserve" is in the second half. I go by mileage more than anything and would get from 100 to 120 miles before it went to half tank. I could never get close to that on the second half even when I ran it down pretty low. Very rare to run it much with just one bar left and only had the light come on when I miscalculated how far to fuel (rare). Due to traveling a fair amount in remote areas without many gas stations I was hyper aware of gas consumption. The last couple of bars do not seem to last as long as the first bar after half tank. So to me it is pretty much a non issue but I can certainly see how someone new to the bike would find it disconcerting at first - seems like its full for a long time then at half and quickly its time to start looking for gas. When running interstate speeds where I live the first half may last 95 to 98 miles and at 140 the light is about to go on. One nice thing about the bike is it responds well to slowing down and the gas mileage goes up. If you find yourself thin on gas slow way down (but not dangerously) and squeeze great mileage out of the last bit of gas. If you been running 75 to 80 and slow down to 60 it is amazing the difference in gas mileage.

Some tires are more prone than others. I've had Michelin Road 5 and Pilot Power 5s do that on two different bikes. Road 6s are wearing much more evenly. Several factors including tread block design, tread compound and carcas stiffness. Good to check and grease head bearings. Tightening specs for ball bearings are different than tapered bearings. Folks have different opinions on which is better - imagine that just like oil and .... 🙂

I'm going to hang around. I still visit the ZX6R forum even though I sold my ZX6R 5 years ago.

Pics of bike with sidecases, pic of bike with tank bag set in place so you can see the size and pics of top case.

Yea, know its a good deal but would rather sell sooner than later. After the deal with the wife really can't ride it so needs to go so I can move on. Still have the scooter. Bike does have some miles on it but was planning on riding it to Idaho in August/September. If the bike shop hadn't had the 3 wheel demo day and got me thinking I would probably still have it. In addition to the ride when I bought it it has done 3 long trips and one "short" trip. Short trip was 5 days going to near Kansas City to get the seats.