larolco

One consideration in bike choice has to do with the nature of insurance where I live. Insuring a bike costs more as engine displacement increases. It's a stupid model that makes insuring a 900cc bike significantly cheaper than a 1200 cc bike. So, I don't think I'd go with anything more than an 1150, which is where the bump up occurs.

First, I have to see if the bike will be repaired or not. My guess is no, but it's not up to me. It's got damage on both sides, front and rear.  

Let's say some jackass decided to change lanes into you and send you ass over teakettle and essentially destroy your Tracer beyond reasonable hope of repair. What would you replace your bike with? 

I've done two years on the Tracer and it's a great bike for what it is, but I'm ready for something else. 

I'm thinking Suzuki: https://www.suzuki.ca/product/2023-gsx-s1000gt/

I have a DRZ for dirt fun and am looking for a street-oriented touring bike that carries a passenger and luggage well  (unlike the Tracer). The GSX seems to tick the boxes. Or maybe a used BMW S1000XR?  I lust for that bike. What else?

My Tracer is F-ed, Likely a write-off. Not happy but ready to move on. 

Pretty sure mine was a direct bolt-on replacement for the original. That's on a 2020 GT. 

On 3/18/2023 at 9:10 PM, Darren69 said:

They way I see it, if I get a few wet patches on the undersuit but stay mostly dry and warm through a full day of decent rain, they'll be a success compared to the sponges masquerading as wet weather gear already selling lol. Very well made with love IMO.

I'm leaning towards your philosophy. I have the badlands gloves and they are the bee's knees. I just bought replacement Gerbings heated pants to replace an old set that is long in the tooth and I am so disappointed in the waterproofing layer (junk) that I might just toss it and wear the heated liner under a pair of Klim pants. Gerbings has gone seriously downhill since the old days. In my neck of the woods, I need both heating and watertightness. One is no good without the other if you want to ride year round in the Pacific North Wet. Klim is pricy, very pricy, but a good long-term investment if you put your gear through the paces. 

Or the new kid did the valve adjustments... That's a real possibility. 

I once had a valve burn on an old XS650 and had to ride it a couple hundred miles back home on one cylinder. Kinda struggled on the highway. There was a pretty significant chunk out of that valve once I got it apart and had a look. All was good until it let go on a hill climb. 

You all just stay away. These road are mine. 

Seriously, though. Just pick a road that looks twisty and go. They're all fantastic. There are better than the Sea to Sky, but don't ask me what they are. They're good because they are quiet. #8 was a beauty until it was no more - my favourite detour.

22 hours ago, Wintersdark said:

I often wonder, is there just more junk on American roads? Or maybe just particular regions? I mean, I ride with a pretty wide circle of people regularly, on and off road, and with the exception of the odd pinch flat or REALLY extreme off-road mishap, I can't recall anyone I know getting a flat in the last decade.  I know it's got to happen - not saying it doesn't - but it's really uncommon.  I literally don't know anyone who carries a tire kit for road riding unless they're going on a long trip and even then it's uncommon.

But there's a few people here who report very common punctures.  Meanwhile, here I am, some 30 years of daily riding in (typically 15k per year, so not extreme but good mileage), and the only flats I've had on a motorcycle are due to riding on WILDLY outdated tires (80's bikes being rebuilt, before they have new rubber) which is simple failure for being old.  

And above? Needing THREE plug strips?  What the heck are people riding over that needs three plug strips?  I've had a couple nails in car tires over my life, but all required a lot of reaming just to get one strip in.

I think I ought to hug the next street sweeper I see.

Shoulder riding is bad for punctures. It's where all the crap ends up. I really try to avoid it but a bunch of years ago when a major bridge on my route was being replaced, I would ride the shoulder every day to cut commute time down by a good hour. I had more punctures in that year than I have had in all my other other 30 years of riding combined. I think I had one tire that I had to plug 6 or 7 times! I remember one of them was on a tire that wasn't even yet scrubbed in! I was also ticketed for riding the shoulder once, but it was the cost of doing business in those days. Since those days I have always carried a rope plug kit and a compressor. 

I did an Iron Butt years ago on a 1000 V-Strom. It was the perfect bike for the job. I would choose it over the Tracer. I would also choose my younger self over my current self. 

On 6/7/2023 at 10:44 AM, 1moreroad said:

I have never had a hole small enough to be patched by 1 rope plug. I did stuff 3 plugs into 1 hole to ride a bike very, very gently home about 2 miles. My last hole (fortunately the 2nd hole) was so big that I could fit my pinky in it. Very bored and waiting for my son to come pick me up with the truck, I stuffed 3 or 4 plugs into the hole and tried to air it up. Didn't work and most of the plugs just fell out of the tire. 

What the hell are you puncturing your tires with??? In my experience it's usually a screw or a nail, easily patched with one rope. In fact, I usually have to ream the hole out to make it bigger!

I've rope-plugged a whole bunch of tires in my lifetime. I'm cheap and will see a tire through its lifespan. Always rear tires. Front tires I would replace, but the punctures are almost always the rear anyway. I can't recall ever having a front tire puncture from road riding.

On 6/1/2023 at 1:37 PM, 1moreroad said:

I liked my Roadsmart 4s, but I do a lot of commuting. I get almost 9k miles put of Roadsmart 3s compared to just over 6k miles out of the rear 4 I rode. Thinking about Mutants for the maybe 5%-10% gravel my fun rides always seem to include but they probably won't get the mileage of the 3s. 

I don't know that the Mutants would be any better on gravel than Roadsmarts. They're not a "knobby" profile in any way. I bought them for rain and occasional slush/snow I encounter commuting in the winter and, for that, they are very good. The only gravel I've really been on with them is my driveway. It wouldn't be a deciding factor between tires for me.

Here's a pic of the rear as of today, now with 6835 kms (4250 miles) on it. It's started to square off a bit but has lots of life left. That's all been relatively cool weather riding since I mounted them in January. I was going to take them off for the summer, but I think I'll just leave them on and see how they wear. 

The battery was due to be replaced anyhow, so not money thrown away by any means. 

I modified the under-seat tray in a few ways (to fit more stuff, like an air compressor), including drilling drain holes. It gets wet in there if you are riding in the rain, so plastic bagging anything you want to keep dry is a good idea. The idea of some kind of an added lip to the seat to redirect water might help, too, though it's not something I've tried. 

On 2/11/2023 at 5:36 AM, Heavy said:

Any report on the Mutants?  A guy at a local shop says they can't be beat on his CB500X.

I'm really liking them. I've got over a couple thousand kilometers on them in a variety of conditions: rain, light snow, black ice, dry pavement. I've had them up to 200 km/hr and down to -10 Celsius. They are very predictable and confidence-inspiring. I do notice a slight drone as you would with any chunkier tread. At this point, I wouldn't hesitate to buy them again, but the longevity test is still an unknown.

Finally got the Mutants mounted. I don't even have them scrubbed in yet, just 50 kms or so. Initial impression is good, but new tires are always good relative to the old. Unfortunately, I've been snowed in here for the past few weeks and haven't had a chance to get a real world feel for them. Next week looks to be back to rain.

Both the old front and rear were squared off but still well balanced; the cupping on the front was quite severe. I think I got my money out of that set at 27 thousand kms. Lots of that was in the wet/cold. 

Here's a few pics of the Mutants going on. (no good pics of the take-offs I realize now)

I've got both the new and old version Gerbing jackets with liners. The older Cascade jacket was beefier and I've put several hundred thousand kilometers on it. Typically, the failure points are at the coax connectors where repeated stress breaks the wire. Usually it's gloves, not the jacket. I just cut off the old connector and solder on a new one. I've never had a problem with a heating element in any garment. Folding isn't an issue. Nor is water. 

If anyone is looking at the new Gerbing jacket, it fits a bit on the small side. I haven't really worn it much yet, but it puts out lots of heat. I was a little dismayed to see they have gone to a smaller gauge wire for the connectors. I expect they will not last as long as the thicker wiring they used to use. Time will tell. 

On 11/4/2022 at 9:10 PM, Lone Wolf said:

As tires wear, they can go out of balance as well as the cupping. The rubber "goes away" and they are not going to retain the balance they had when new. An out of balance tire can cause wobble & shake.

If you change your own tires, just for giggles check the balance before you pull the old tire off rim and it may be a learning experience. Just one of the reasons why new tires feel so awesome, plus the profile isn't jacked by wear on the sides (V-pattern) or flat spot for those who do a lot of straight line riding, resulting in odd turn in due to squared profile.

I will do that and report back. I didn't mount the stock tires, so I don't know if they were well-balanced to begin with or not. I'll check how true they are as well but it's a cast wheel, so nothing to do about it anyway. 

On 11/4/2022 at 9:53 PM, Wintersdark said:

So, M+S ratings are more about tread type than temperature compatibility, which is why I was asking above. That they're designed for use in soupy sorts of terrain (hence, mud and snow). For example, the stock Tenere 700 tires, the Pirelli Scorpion Rally STR's, are M+S rated - and they're horrible in the cold. Like PVC tubes.  Way, way worse than a set of Michelin Roads. This of course does not mean all M+S tires are bad in the cold, just that an M+S rating doesn't mean they'll be good in the cold.  This is why I'm really interested in how they work out for you - if they're good in the cold and wet, that's great.

Meanwhile, the Anlas Wintergrips - which have the mountain & snowflake symbol - are designed for cold temperatures first and foremost and come with a warning not to run them above 13C due to rapid wear.  

I'm a BC boy myself (even lived in Langley for a few years) so I'm very aware of the winters there.  

My experience so far in BC winters is the Anlas tires are outstanding, but frankly I'd just run Road 4/5/6 tires year round as they're just SO good in wet and temps down to around -5C, as weather is more cool and wet vs crazy cold and snowy/icy.  I'd only go to the winters if I was planning on riding in snow and ice too.  Here, I have to contend with riding down to around -25C, where non-winter tires just don't work well at all.  

These are the Wintergrips (on my trip last Oct, horseshoe bay ferry terminal).  They're really great up to about 180kph, but start to feel sketchy after that.  If you follow the guidelines about temperature (read: don't run them in the summer) they get great mileage.  These have about 5000km's on them here.  

Those are some aggressive looking tires. They would have been good on my V-Strom but probably overkill for what I'm doing with the Tracer. Who knows? Maybe the Mutants will be great, maybe they won't, and that's the point of trying them out. Everything I've read says they have good cold/wet grip due to compound and that's mostly what I based the decision on, plus a somewhat blocky tread pattern for water/slush dispersion. 

They should be in my possession sometime this week and, if all goes according to plan, on the bike Remembrance Day long weekend so I can actually scrub them in in the snow which just started to fall this morning. Ugh. 

One review I can already report on is that the LS2 Assault helmet is not a good wet-weather helmet. It sends shed rain right down the collar. Drips off the buckle, I think. Back to the old HJC for the winter. 

16 minutes ago, Wintersdark said:

I'm interested in how they perform, though I'm curious - if you're planning on using them as a set of pure winter tires, why not just order a set of actual winter tires?  Anlas' Wintergrips are excellent, and there's a few UK sellers who'll ship worldwide (and ebay, too). 

I rode mine back to your neck of the woods last October (including through snow in Roger's Pass) - they're *outstanding* in BC winters.  Excellent grip even on icy pavement and light snow.  

 

The Mutants are rated M+S. I'm more interested in temperature rating than tread. Winters here are mostly rain, with occasional ice/snow, so I don't really need "pure" winter tires. These seem to fit the bill for the conditions I encounter on the coast. 

Honestly, I don't know much about the Anlas. Maybe I'll try those out next time round. 

I watched the video and it inspired me to repeat the experiment on the way home from work today. Sure enough, the wobble is there. (75 km/h)

I haven't used the cruise on this bike since it was fairly new and, back then, no wobble. I'm at 25 thousand kms now (yes, these are old tires), so, this has developed over time and your theory about cupping makes sense. In the real world, though, for me, this is not an issue. I don't ever use cruise, and if I do, it would be at fairly high speeds where the wobble would not happen. Still, an interesting discussion.

Mutants are on the way. I plan to use them as winter tires. We'll see how they perform. Probably, being a little more blocky in tread pattern, they will cup more than the RS and D222. It's all a trade-off.

15 hours ago, Grumpy Goat said:

Unlike you, I disliked the Dunlop Sportmax D222 that came with my Tracer 900 GT. It contributed to handlebar shake / wobble at 40 mph which was cured by installing the Dunlop RS III. Only other tire I had experience with on the current bikes (and they were excellent) are the Michelin Pilot Road 3 / 4.

No shake for me with the Sportmax D222. I can put that thing on cruise and check Tracer900  forum posts if I want, and that's on spent tires. No hands necessary. Did you have the shake/wobble from day one, or did it develop over time? If a wear issue, there are lots more variables than tire type that factor into a tire's wearing. Style of riding, road temp/surface, air pressure, balancing, trueness, load, etc. Maybe your front was defective if it shook from the get-go? I do know that many bash stock tires as a rule of thumb (not saying that's your case). Maybe it's part of a desire to personalize a bike in some ways, and perhaps some other psychological stuff going on related to establishing oneself in a community. So, even though I've asked for opinions, I'm still leery of them without some context provided.

I think you are in Houston, though I see a maple leaf in the avatar, so maybe very different environmental variables which could explain a lot. For me, the D222 has been an acceptable tire, but I can see I have digressed here. This is not about the stock tire. I was hoping that someone who rides in a temperate rainforest and rides with similar variables might have tried the Mutants. In any case, I'm not mounting D222s again, but something else Dunlop. 

The RS IV and the Mutant are almost the same cost per set. The RS III is about a hundred bucks less. My thinking with the Mutants is that I might run them only in the winter and swap them out for something more sport-oriented in the summer. I do my own mounting/balancing, so it's really just a cost in time for me to do that. Running two sets of tires does cost twice as much initially, of course, but it will balance out over time as they will last twice as long. For the type of riding I do in the winter, M+S tires make sense, both in compound and tread pattern. The RS III/IV don't provide that. That way, I get the right tire for the season. 

I'd never run Dunlops prior to purchasing the Tracer (Bridgestone, Metzler, Michelin, Shinko, Heidenau, Pirelli I've all tried on various bikes, and probably more manufacturers I cannot recall) and had heard not-so-good reports on the Dunlops, but I liked the Sportmax that came stock on the Tracer. After I got acquainted with them, I found them consistent and reliable and they lasted well. There are no chicken strips on those spent tires. I'm willing to try out another Dunlop. It's just a matter of which one.

So far, two second-hand reports on the Mutants, but nothing first-hand. 

Anyone tried the Dunlop Mutant? It's an M+S rated tire. My Sportmax stockers are done and I'm headed into the winter on a commuter bike in the Pacific North We(s)t. This bike will inevitably see snow at some point through the winter and big rain more days than not until April. I'm one of those weird riders who actually puts on more miles in the winter than the summer (summer is dirt bike season). If no one has tried them, I might be willing to be a test case. 

I had that happen yesterday. The bike just felt like it didn't want to go. I'm thinking, ah, man, what's gone wrong with this thing? Then I look down and realize I have somehow inadvertently switched into B mode. Big difference between A and B. 

I'll take it out of A mode in the winter when I'm wearing bulky gloves. Catch that throttle by accident in a parking lot maneuver and you'll do the same. In snow as well, not that I intentionally ride in snow, but it happens. Otherwise A mode it is.