gerrychuck

I have been happy with my Corbin. Can't compare it to Russell or some of the customs, but I found it a huge difference over stock. Corbin works by improved weight distribution as opposed to being cushy. Some people don't care for the firmness, but I've had good results on long rides with the combo of the Corbin and Winx motorcycle shorts (which I have found much better than bicycle shorts which I used previously).

I have a 2019 GT, and have been super happy with it. As others have noted, the windscreen needs attention, as the stocker produces nasty noise and buffeting. I used a cheap lip to start with, which worked well until the mount broke. I got an MRA touring screen with lip after that and have been very happy with it. Looks better than stock too. The seat is also definitely in need of upgrading; I went with Corbin and have been very happy with it. Huge difference for my butt. That's all I've done to the bike, and all I have felt it needs, and I am a compulsive bike and car modifier. There was virtually no part of my last bike that wasn't upgraded, but this one works so well out of the box that, for me, there were only a couple of areas that needed any attention. As for vibration, I can't say I've ever thought about it, so I guess it hasn't been much of an issue. I've done some long days on the bike, and never had a problem with vibration at all. As for the "extras" that the GT has, I felt the same way as you before I bought the bike: Cruise control? Puffery! Heated grips? Pffft! Well, now I would be lost without them. The cruise is wonderful on longer, boring rides (I live in Saskatchewan, so those are necessary to get anywhere fun), and the heated grips combined with the hand guards on the bike make spring, fall, and mountain morning rides a whole different experience. I have hauled my bikes out to the Okanagan in the spring and fall a few times, and I can testify that morning rides up into the passes in April are a completely different experience with and without those heated grips. On my old bike I'd get off and my hands would be contracted into claws and would take a while to warm up and loosen. Now, they stay toasty and never cramp. Luxury. Other aspects of the bike are all great; incredibly flexible and powerful engine, which always seems to give me the power I want right when I want it, without being scary. Light, accurate handling, decent baggage capacity (I have had no difficulty going for 5-6 days with the stock saddlebags and a bag strapped on the rear seat). I've had a bunch of bikes over 50 years of riding, and for me the Tracer GT has been the most satisfying mount that I've had. It straddles the line between sportiness and touring very well. Good luck with your search!

Ah...totally legit explanation. I sometimes forget that others do not have the luxury of my 36" inseam. I totally understand the additional limitations posed by chronic spinal issues (35 years as a practicing musculoskeletal physical therapist helps in that department). Best of luck finding a viable solution.

Never occurred to me to mount that way on the side stand (mind you I'm 6'3). I do it all the time on the center stand, though, which I always use when refuelling. Come to think of it, I rarely leave the bike on the side stand for very long; just prefer the stability of the center stand for parking, the decreased risk of going through soft asphalt, the fact that the bike takes up less space than on the side stand in the garage, and having the bike level for filling the tank. In any case, I don't think you would be likely to bend the center stand mounting that way, so if you are concerned about the strength of the kick stand it might be worth considering.

Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada. Heart of the prairies.

Congratulations! Looking at the pics, I can see that, aside from the awesome looking and sounding exhaust, that it also has Ohlins rears (which are also longer and therefore lift the back end of the bike, which hugely improves turn-in, really sharpening the steering/handling). I am assuming that if that coin was put into the rear suspension that there has been some kind of upgrade to the front as well. I did the rear before the front, which served to accentuate the shortcomings of the front forks. Probably made them worse, actually, as lifting the back puts a bit more weight onto the front. My solution was the least expensive; sent the forks off for a rebuild with Racetech gold valves, higher rate springs, and heavier oil. World of difference. Others have upgraded to the 2010-2011 "X" forks, or put in cartridges. Again, not sure what option has been done here, but assuming it has been looked after. Looks like a new handlebar has been put on as well; the stocker is very wide with a lot of pullback. I ended up with the bar from a Sporty 48; narrower, less rise, less pullback, which produced a much sportier riding position at the expense of slightly higher steering effort. Looks like your bike has something very similar. I'm guessing yours also has some kind of engine management/tune in place as well. They do tend to be too lean stock, made worse by breathing mods like the Free Spirits "Blackhorn" intake and aftermarket exhaust. I see your bike doesn't have an aftermarket intake; they cost a bit, but adding one made a bigger difference to the power of my bike than anything else; a genuine seat of the pants difference, particularly higher in the rev range. Plus it makes air filter maintenance incredibly simple. Have fun!

...and there it is. I am another one of the guys on here that owned an XR. Had my 09 for 6 years. The bike is known as a great starter kit, although it looks like the one you are shopping has already had most of the important mods done. It is visceral, kinda uncivilized, heavy, and has way too small a gas tank. But you nailed it with "I loved it for what it is"; I don't know how many times I've said exactly that about the bike...it gives everything its got at legal speeds; great bottom end which makes it great fun around town or passing on the highway. Just runs out of breath at about the RPM that a multicylinder really hits its stride. The weight can be well-compensated with raising the back end a bit and improvements to the suspension, and I spent a lot of happy miles on twisty roads in BC and in Colorado. And as others have pointed out, it is a rolling conversation starter; I've never ridden or driven a machine that attracted more attention. Does it handle as effortlessly as a Tracer? No, it takes more muscle and, shall we say, commitment, to push it in the twisties, but it will acquit itself pretty well at the end of the day. Is it as fast as a liquid-cooled modern engined bike? Oh, hell no, but you don't know that until you are into the high 6000's in rpm. Before that it will hang with just about anything; after, not so much. I'm not gonna lie; the XR is a fun bike, with a real personality, and has a uniqueness that is rare these days (redundancy pun intended). I have never seen another one on the road except for the summer of 2016 when 23 of us met up on these noisy machines in Colorado for a few days of wonderful riding and good times. One other thing; an awful lot of XR riders are guys who would never even have considered any other Harley. HUGE amount of overlap between Tracer and XR rider demographics. I wanted to get back more into some touring, or I would probably still have mine. I didn't put a huge number of mies on mine, but for what it's worth I never had to do anything to it except routine maintenance (and of course all the mods lol).

I've had 3 Corbins, on a 1998 Suzuki TL1000S, a 2009 Harley XR1200 and now on my 19 900GT. Corbin's whole design philosophy is built around firm support with weight distributed over a large area to decrease or eliminate pressure points. This is more successful with some bikes than others, owing to limitations in size/shape they can make the saddle on a given mount. My TL seat was a huge improvement compared to the stock afterthought (designed much more to allow you to move around and hang off than for comfort), but still no long distance airbed. The XR seat, likewise, was a huge improvement compared to the horrific stocker, but still not great. The two-up version, similar to what you get for our bikes, was supposed to be better. On the 900GT, I find the improvement in weight distribution to be huge. The stock seat was better than the other two bikes I mentioned, but I have found the improvement even greater than on those bikes. Having said that, it is VERY firm, and on a trip I took this summer with 5 x 6 hour+ days in the saddle, I would be squirming, standing, and shifting around after about 90-120 minutes. A short break would completely reset the clock, and riding on twistier roads with a more forward leaning posture and a bit more sliding around seemed to prevent onset of monkey butt significantly. By the end of that trip, the seat had definitely broken in a lot more, and seemed much more molded to my butt. My final day was exactly the same as my first day of the trip, but in reverse; 6 hours of 4 lane straight highway. Much less discomfort the second time around, although it is hard to know how much my butt had toughened up in the meantime! I will confess to some jealousy of guys on big baggers with yard-wide sheepskin covered sofas to sit on, but accept that seats like that are simply not possible on a bike with a shred of sporting character. I've never ridden a VFR, so I don't know how the stock seat works, or what limitations aftermarket seat designers might have to work with. If you are finding the Corbin extremely uncomfortable, it could be a mismatch between the basic saddle shape and that of your ass, preventing proper weight distribution. If that is the case, the addition of a layer of lower density foam might help a lot. Sounds like a call to Corbin is in order. Good luck!

I have now had the MRA Vario screen on the bike for a few thousand km, as well as the Corbin seat, and feel I can make some meaningful comments about them, as well as comparisons to the stock pieces. Let's get that last one out of the way quickly; there is no comparison between the stock gear and either of the aftermarket additions. None. The stock windscreen produced terrible buffeting. I put a cheap aftermarket spoiler on top, which made a significant difference, but wobbled like crazy and eventually broke. When I removed it halfway through a ride, I was immediately reminded of how much of a difference it made when I accelerated up to speed and was reacquainted with the deafening stock buffeting. The weak points of the stock seat are well documented here, and it really bears no comparison to the support of the Corbin, so might as well move on to more detailed comments. First, the MRA Vario screen. I am 6'3" with a 36" inseam, so much of my height is in my legs. Nevertheless, my head sits up higher than most. The MRA with spoiler at full height makes a huge difference in the smoothness of the airflow. If my head was 2" lower it would be dead quiet; at my normal riding height there is wind noise, but very little buffeting. Unless....there is any significant crosswind component. The MRA is a relatively narrow screen (as are the majority of screens that will fit this bike) which does mean that crosswinds can sneak around it and up the db count significantly. Riding for a full day in a gusty crosswind on my 2700 km trip this summer was not fun (it was also 37C that day) and I did get bopped around quite a bit, but never had any ringing in my ears or any residual dulled hearing when I got off and pulled my earplugs out. Overall, the screen performed very well over my 5 days of riding on freeways and twisting mountain 2 lanes, and I really don't like thinking about what that ride would have been like with the stocker. My only real complaint with the MRA is that full lock turns of the front wheel cause the hand guards to hit the screen, which is mildly annoying when maneuvering the bike around the garage or backing out of a parking space. Never happens at all under power, just when wheeling the bike around in tight spaces. Other than that, I'm very happy with the screen. Now the Corbin. At the end of 5 days and 2700 km of riding, averaging about 6 hours/day on the bike with temperatures over 30C every day, yes, I did have monkey butt, but I think the only way that could have been avoided was to be on one of the many pirate ship cruisers I saw with yard-wide saddles covered with fluffy sheepskins. The Corbin, within the confines of what can fit on the Tracer, was wonderful. Weight is much more evenly distributed than on the stock seat, and nothing ever went numb. No tendency to slide forward either. In recent years I have usually worn cycling shorts with their "chamois" pads for longer rides, but with the Corbin I think they actually increase weight concentration over the ischial tuberosities (your "sit" bones), so I left them in the bag after the first long day and let the excellent design of the Corbin saddle work as intended. This also allowed the seat to properly mold to my butt, as the dense foam of Corbins is designed to do, so comfort actually increased over the course of the ride. The only slight negative is that, as a tall, very long-legged rider, the Corbin does move the rider slightly forward compared to the stock seat, but this did not require any change in bar position or any significant increase in knee bend etc. I just got used to it very quickly and forgot about it. So overall I am very happy with both the MRA screen and the Corbin seat. They basically eliminate the two significant weak points the Tracer GT has as a tourer and allow all the other excellent qualities of the bike to shine. Speaking of those qualities, I genuinely love the bike more after this trip than I did before. The engine always gave me exactly the power I wanted or needed in any particular situation, it was quiet but the sound still had character and never got annoying or developed a resonance that would drive me nuts, the handling was spot on (I just increased the rear shock preload 3 clicks from standard to compensate for the extra luggage weight and never felt the need to touch it again), the fuel economy was outrageous (4.4 litres/100 km, aka 64 mpg Imperial or 54 mpg US) and I really loved the cruise control on the open highway legs. For baggage I just added a Nelson-Rigg tailbag. Carried my jacket liner (boy did I not need that on this trip), rain suit, and heavier gloves in one side case, and tool kit and windshield care items, as well as a pair of shoes in the other, with all my clothes, etc in the tailbag. I need to be able to figure out how to pack my mesh jacket as well; as it turned out I probably could have just used that one on this trip and I really wished I had it nearly every day. Next time.

I was in Paris a few weeks ago, and we came into the city on the Periphery freeway at rush hour, in heavy rain. I have never seen filtering as practiced there! Holy crap; endless scooters and motorcycles just ripping between the lanes of traffic in terrible conditions. Huge speed delta between the riders and the cars/trucks/buses. Quite honestly scared the daylights out of me, and I was sitting high and dry and safe in a bus. I absolutely believe splitting can be done in a way that enhances rider safety rather than threatens it, but it sure didn't look like it in that instance. I would hate to be driving a car in that situation and be constantly worrying that if I move a little bit left or right in my lane that a rider might end up eating my mirror. Glad I wasn't in a rental.

Sorry I didn't see this earlier. The locksmith had the Ilco blank. I got the range of numbers from an eBay listing which was selling Ilco blanks according to the Yamaha codes. The codes they listed correspond to my own key code that came with the bike when new, so Ilco uses the same code numbers.

My Canadian 2019 Tracer GT does not use transponder keys. I bent one of my keys in the side case lock or the seat lock (not sure which) just yesterday, ran down today to the local locksmith and left 5 minutes later with two new keys (same as the one in the picture above) for a grand total of $8.00. Works perfectly. The code series for the blank is Yamaha A8001-8250.

Adjusted and lubed the chain, and fired her up and went for the first ride of the season (we have had a brutal spring with several late snowfalls). Almost a month later than last year. Only my second ride with the new Corbin seat that arrived right at the end of the season last year. What a difference. Sooooo much more comfortable. I don't notice a significant difference in seating height, but I do notice that the Corbin pushes me a bit forward compared to the stock plank. Even though I'm 6'3" that does not present a problem (just had to adjust the mirrors). Although I haven't ridden for more than about 40 minutes with this seat, I think it is going to be a huge difference from stock on longer days. Had one other little issue today; my key bent in the lock of one of the side cases, and afterward I couldn't get it to work in the ignition. Had a bit of a problem getting it to work when I started the bike a couple of weeks ago, so I guess this was coming on previously, but today it suddenly was really bent, and even after I straightened it up as best I could, it just wouldn't turn the ignition lock. No problem in the seat or side case locks, however. I have no idea how I managed to bend the darn thing. Oh well, had the spare, and the code for a new one. Will get a couple, I think.

That's the case in Saskatchewan as well; "plate insurance", which is minimum legal liability, collision with a fairly high deductible, and no-fault medical, wage replacement, rehabilitation, etc. would be close to $200/month with no discount for my 2019 GT. Very similar for my old XR1200. You get discounts (or surcharges) depending on your driving record; I'm paying a little over $150/month. I take the plates off during the winter, and pay for an insurance package that increases my liability and covers the bike when stored with no active registration. Anything classified as a "sport bike" is WAY worse. To make it worse, SGI (our provincial insurance company) says they are still losing big money on motorcycles, because of the cost of wage replacement and medical/rehab under the no-fault part of the coverage. They were planning to hike rates a bunch more last year, but pushback from riders has at least delayed that. I filed one brief pointing out that jurisdictions with tort coverage (where at-fault parties and their insurance are held responsible through the courts for all damages) have much lower rates due to the proportion of motorcycle accidents that are the fault of the other driver. Their position is basically that no matter whose fault it is, motorcyclists accept greater risk of accident and injury by climbing on a bike, so we should shoulder the extra cost. Interestingly, any motorist can elect tort coverage instead of no-fault when you register your vehicle, but there is no difference in price. My point was simply that if they are offering tort coverage as an alternative to no-fault, that the option should accurately reflect the difference in cost/claim experience. I understand they are still studying the issue, so we'll see what they come up with. The current insurance structure has literally killed the entire motorcycle sales industry in the province. My local dealer basically doesn't even bring bikes in any more; they just rely on selling quads, snowmobiles and boats, and have given up on bikes completely.

I had a constant problem with this on my XR1200, even with the Corbin seat, which was infinitely better than stock. All my rides of any significant duration on the Tracer so far have been on the stock seat, and although it leaves much to be desired, I didn't run into this particular problem. Can't really report on the new Corbin yet, as I was only able to do one quick ride on it before cold weather shut me down. Although I appreciate all the comments regarding padding, seams, etc, for me those things made a huge difference in chafing and butt numbness and soreness (and I always wear cycling underwear under my motorcycle pants for rides of any duration), but have made no difference in numbness in areas further forward. That seems to be a function of seat shape and design, riding position on the seat, and vibration. My .02🙂