maximNikenGT

Thought I'd start a thread on how to change the coolant on your Niken. According to the manual coolant should be changed every three years so this will be a first for my 2019 Niken GT. Manual illustrates the procedure as follows. I'll add photos of my actual experience as I perform the replacement. Anyone happen to have the part code for the new washer/gasket needed for the coolant drain bolt?

Have to say that after reviewing all the updates made to the 2023 Niken GT, I'm curious where Yamaha got its feedback for future changes from. Don't know if they commissioned a focus group or if they actually used our Niken forum and scanned all of our topics since they seemed to address most of our biggest gripes with the platform with the exception of addressing auxiliary lights, front fenders not long enough and the stock mirrors.

2023 Niken GT finally includes an adjustable windscreen. Riders will still probably buy different size screens but this should help with fine tuning and minimizing buffeting.

How did you clamp the windscreen down and where did you clamp it while using the jigsaw? Also what kind of jigsaw blade did you use e.g. Wood or metal?

I'm curious now as to how many Nikens have actually been used to complete an Iron Butt? Yours is the first Niken I've heard of in this...

Didn't know anyone that actually had a Shoei RF-200. Way cool. On a separate note, hat tip to you because I bought the Pulse (non-pro) speakers based upon your comment here.

Some accessories available through the Yamaha Europe website available for the Niken GT. Key items that caught my eye included 30L hard cases, heated rider and passenger comfort seat, as well as TPMS sensors (unknown at this time if any of these can be retro fitted to pre-2023 Nikens).

2023 Niken GT and Tricities video at some motor show presumably out of Italy.

When I ride my Niken GT on short trips around town during the warmer months here in North Carolina, I noticed that my helmet of choice would usually be my Arai Ram X jet style helmet because I was trying to avoid sweating under my modular Schuberth C3 Pro behind my monster Givi windscreen. So I ended up getting another jet style helmet since my other helmets were either getting close to or past the 5-year recommended life of motorcycle helmets. I ended up getting a Shoei J-Cruise 2 because of the integrated sun visor which allowed me the flexibility of putting it away on overcast days or when driving at night. Wanted to capture some bluetooth installation challenges I encountered on my new Shoei J-Cruise II jet style helmet. I specifically didn't want to drop another $359 USD for the Scala SRL mesh communication system and wanted to continue using my Cardo Freecom 4 setup. So I placed an order for a second helmet Cardo Freecom mounting kit ($70 USD) which comes with JBL 40 mm speakers. However, upon trying to install the Cardo speakers into the speaker cutouts on the J Cruise 2, turns out that the Cardo Freecom speakers have a slight bulge to them where the wires are soldered into the speaker housings which make the 40 mm speaker drives slightly oblong vs a perfect circle (see photos below of the Cardo second helmet oblong speakers being too large for the speaker recesses). As a result, the speakers that come from Cardo Freecom's second helmet kit are impossible to fit into the recessed speaker wells built into the J Cruise 2. Took some research but found an answer with the UClear Digital Pulse Wired helmet speakers (Amazon.com: UClear Digital Pulse Wired Drop-in High Definition Helmet Speakers : Electronics). These are 40mm speaker drivers that are perfectly round and drop right into the J Cruise 2 (along with some velcro affixed by adhesive tape to help retain the Pulse speakers). While the Shoei J-Cruise 2 helmet has 40 mm ear pockets to fit speakers, the helmet on the J Cruise 2's right side also has a special channel cutout specifically designed to help retain the Scala SRL boom microphone (see photo below). This boom microphone channel is NOT usable by the Freecom 4+ boom microphone for two reasons: a. Because the Cardo boom microphone is much thicker than the boom used by the Scala SRL, and b. I ended up having to mount the Freecom 4+ boom microphone on my left-hand side of the helmet because the Cardo 2nd helmet kit only allows the bluetooth receiver to be mounted on the left-hand side of the helmet. The resulting cable that runs to connect the boom microphone is too short to run it all the way to the right-hand side of the helmet. After getting the Pulse speakers secured within the ear recesses of the helmet, I was able to tuck in all the wiring under either the helmet padding or parts of the shell. After tidying up the cables, I put the helmet on and connected to my phone's bluetooth and tested the setup. Sound was excellent with zero discomfort/pain on my ears from the new speakers. Hope this helps others before considering using a Freecom 4+ for the Shoei J Cruise 2.

Now I am insanely curious to see your helmet collection. It's not occurred to me to keep my helmets beyond 9 years, since generally accepted useful safety life is five years.

"... as my walk-in cedar closet testifies." I now aspire for my very own cedar lined motorcycle gear closet. 😀

WOW! That is a seriously impressive amount of gear. I don't suppose you could attest and compare the super fabric sliders vs the alternatives as far as likes/dislikes?

Just took delivery of a pair of Large Richa Atlantic GTX (Gore-Tex) Glove in Grey/Fluorescent yellow. This particular glove bubbled to the top of some european reviews (go to 5:43 mark at the video below as an example): but have not yet made it to the US for some reason. My previous motorcycle gloves include a Dainese leather long gauntlet with kevlar (no armor of any kind but I got these back in the 90s and aside from some cosmetic stitching coming loose, the leather has held up remarkably well e.g. no falls in them). Also have a cheap pair of short cuff motorcycle gloves I got from Taiwan during one of my visits. Strictly a summer glove but with some hard plastic knuckle protection. Breathes well but little padding and not sure how well the fabric would hold up in a slide. I decided to get one to replace my most recent (but aging) del Rosario ultrasuede Resistor v2 gloves which I bought for the unusually high hand protection design (NEW RESISTOR v3 – Del Rosario) back in December 2017. The finger leather was wearing through at both the middle and ring fingers on my left hand and the adhesive keeping the hard plastic outside the palm near the bottom was no longer keeping it in place (NOTE: I have not taken any falls in the Del Rosarios). First impressions: Very well designed and good fitting glove. Will take a couple hundred miles to break it in. European CE Level 1 with knuckle protection certified EN 13594:2015. Knuckle protection provided by 3DO. Had a squeegee on the left glove index finger. Wasn't expecting that but nice add. Designed with key technologies including SuperFabric (www.superfabric.com), D3O (www.d3o.com), and Gore-Tex GORE Grip, and what looks like reflective fabric tech resembling Scotchlite but could not find any reference to what kind of reflective material tech is used or if it is a proprietary specific to Richa. D30 tech is a high impact protection technology that is incorporated into the knuckle protection. Gore-Tex Gore Grip is a specialized construction method that effectively bonds the waterproof/breathable membrane to the shell of the glove. Normally the membrane is free floating, and as such, any feeling of disconnect from the outer shell has been eliminated. GORE-TEX grip gloves | GORE-TEX Brand Two odd items: First item that struck me as a bit odd was the use of two different straps for the wrist. According to the product description this is to achieve a better fit around the wrist. Purely my conjecture is that the secondary smaller inner strap is there to prevent any water from entering the main interior part of the glove. Second item I found odd is that Richa has these little straps stitched into the bottoms of the inner wrists with a snap button that allows you to snap one glove to another (presumably so you can always keep them together and not lose one). Never seen a glove with this kind of design before. The use of reflective material occurs in five places: Two longer strips of fabric along the back of the hand as well as the wrist/lower forearm, a small double ring reflective section protecting the main joint of the pinkie fingers, the GORE-TEX logo on the back of the index finger the RICHA name located on the outermost wrist strap (but almost on the inside of the forearm) SuperFabric is located along the base of the palm as well as along the second and third bottom sections of the pinkie finger closest to the knuckle (see the photos with the fluorescent yellow stitching around padded areas that identify where the SuperFabric is incorproated into the glove. According to the SuperFabric site, the fabric's advantages are the high abrasion resistance, water resistance, slash/scuff resistance, and stain resistance. SuperFabric is used in a lot of gloves where the chances of getting cut/punctured/sliced are very high ex. (fish cutting gloves, broken glass handling gloves, knife sharpening gloves, etc.) I then wondered why Richa decided to use a fabric like this instead of a hard plastic or metal slider like those found in use by del Rosario, Held, Alpinestars, Dainese. I stumbled across this video from Knox that explains what happens when you fall off a motorcycle and what happens to your scaphoid if you injure it: So these palm sliders are similar to wrist guards used by roller bladers and skate boarders on pavement. In the event that one falls forward on the pavement/concrete, then the wrist protectors will force the hands to slide forward so you don't break your wrists. You might still break your face but at least one will be less likely to break their wrists. So the SuperFabric is strategically placed there instead of a hard plastic/metal slider. Don't know if the SuperFabric has a lower coefficient of friction in comparison to a plastic/metal slider but it would appear that even if it's not, one at least retains better glove flexibility and comfort than one with a hard slider. If SuperFabric does have a better coefficient of friction e.g. it slides better on pavement, than the hard plastic/metal sliders of competitors, then even better. This is my first Richa product from the Belgian company and I must say that their products appear to be very well engineered. Also, glove tech has advanced quite a bit since my first Dianese leather with kevlar gloves from the '90s. To have a glove that is waterproof, breathable, using advanced impact knuckle armor, and designed to help the rider slide in the event of a fall for about 160 Euro, I can see why folks consider the Richa Atlantic GTX to be a glove that punches way above its weight class when one factors in all the licensed technology rolled into the product. More info to come after I've had some time with these gloves in the saddle to see how they fare in real world conditions.

Happy new year! Be safe in the new year and best wishes for experiencing some fantastic motorcycle rides.

Happy holidays everyone!

Cup holder.

I saw this and now I have no idea how to communicate with Gen Z... https://www.cnn.com/videos/media/2022/12/15/gen-z-communication-mistakes-coates-camerota-cprog-ctn-vpx.cnn

Was in a conversation with one of my good friends when we got on the subject of something I've never done in my life that might surprise him. So I said, "Never have I ever given anyone the finger while driving a car." My friend from Boston looked at me thunderstruck. He said it is a coming of age requirement in Boston. Note I'm no Saint because if you cut me off without warning you'll get a long car horn blast. I thought it'd be interesting to see how folks answer this one. I'll start. "Never have I ever on a motorcycle...dragged a knee on the pavement."

Any particular reason you preferred the Atlas vs the Kaoko throttle lock?

What killed me is when Sirius XM radio created an Oldies channel to all my music that I grew up to. I thought it was bad enough that folks didn't know what 5 1/4 inch floppy was anymore...

I don't suppose anyone from Europe has one of the newest 2023 Nikens already or is on order for one? Would like to see what sequence numbers they're starting with the 2023 production runs and update my worldwide estimates.

Good question on the Bluetooth specification concern. It is primarily due to data security concerns and because I change out cell phone hardware on average every three years. Iphone 13 currently uses Bluetooth 5.0 and Apple frequently rolls out security patches based upon particular specifications. Have heard too many horror stories of folks getting their info hacked and this is one of the few ways one can try to protect their information by using the latest specs with the latest patch updates. I generally try to keep my hardware operating within the same version spec. Call this paranoid or a possible by-product of my day job.

Very good point. You bring up an interesting nuance of Iron Butt. Iron Butt in the USA at least it would all be in English, am curious if anyone has actually completed an Iron Butt with Europe as your primary target region. Just not sure how much time it takes to clear borders and cover the distance required to qualify for Iron Butt in Europe. It's hard enough to qualify in the USA for Iron Butt without border controls and language changes. Just took a peek at the Ironbutt.org website and saw all the crazy levels of IronButt certification one could get. Didn't realize how crazy some of the rides are. Super crazy one was the Around the World Club which was a Ride around the entire globe... Ride List (ironbutt.com)

7% of 1898 riders surveyed would put it at 133 riders that put in under 1k miles annually, with 44% of 1898 riders = 835 riders clocking under 3k miles or less annually. I too found this surprising because I would have thought riders in UK and Europe would clock in way more scenic miles...could be the cost of petrol is much higher in Europe.

New airbag equipped helmet debuted from Italian maker Airoh: Airheads: World's first integrated airbag helmet unveiled by Airoh | MCN (motorcyclenews.com) So long as it helps protect your head in a crash I'm all for it but I can't help but think of this when I look at it when deployed... definitely looks alright when not deployed.