Warchild

Ice Cream Airstream located in Packwood, Washington - YEEEESSSSS! 😄 Cappuccino Java Chip...mmmmm... 😍 We will be BACK!

Today I am day-trippin' with Warchild-wife again, this time we are going after one of the Locations on the Pacific-Northwest Grand Tour that resides at the base of Mt Rainier. As a reward to ourselves, we are going to then blaze down HWY 123 to Packwood, WA for world-class ice cream! Success pics to follow... Sidebar note: these Bridgestone Battleax T32 tires have now supplanted the Dunlop RoadSmarts as my preferred tire on the bike. Dunlop has just gone phucking *insane* with their RoadSmart IV pricing, and its slightly better tread-life over the Battleax still doesn't make up for it. The T32's simply rock:

Not sure it would fit without some sort of adapter plate. I went with the tried-n-true SW-Motech rack, it has been perfect on my 2020 Tracer GT:

These are on both the MT-10 and the Tracer, it has been a superb unit, never a leak, it just works well.

While the MT-10 has gotten all the road work so far this year, that changed on July 20, when I took Warchild-wife on a 3-day blast around Oregon and Idaho. Geared up, ready to roll Thursday morning, July 20: Picked up a 2023 PNW-GT Location along the way - the Tollgate Store: First night was at the Ponderosa Motel in Enterprise, Oregon: Up and at it the next morning, here she is cheerfully indicating I am Number One as we prepare the ascent to Hell's Canyon Overlook: Wifey at the Hell's Canyon Overlook: Obligatory Hell's Canyon Overlook selfie: Early afternoon arrived in Riggins, Idaho. We are hot. Motor is hot. Everything is hot. We put these Bridgestone BattleAx T32 tires to the test for 3 days - they were definitely up to task: I actually like these tires over the Dunlop RoadSmarts - when carrying wifey. For me, the T32's don't have the treadlife the RoadSmarts do, but their dry grip is just phenomenal and inspires road confidence. We have another Western blast-o-rama planned on the Tracer for early August - Wildhorse Viewing in northwestern Montana!

I am the Chief Technical Inspector for the Iron Butt Association. On Monday, June 19th, one of my task was to release each rider at the 10am Start, one-by-one. I have been performing this Staff role for the past 24 years. This is me conducting the final Rider's Meeting, just moments before I tell them to mount up and start their engines: In this photo below, I am briefly holding the #3 Rider out the gate, Bob Lilley, before I give him the TT Isle of Man sendoff with a tap on his left shoulder:

They have been extremely nice. They should be for their price. I plan on keeping this bike for a long time, so I splurged on this purchase. It is just as likely that a good suspension guy can do something very similar with Race Tech components, etc. Still, I am still glad I got them. These Ohlins cartridges, and the Ohlins shock are both up for overhaul after this riding season:

300 miles today, the longest ride for Warchild-wife since her spine surgery last Sept: GT14, the Lower Granite Dam: Big splashing dam... Chicken Bill's Cafe & BBQ, Dayton, WA Tour of Honor, 9/11 Memorial, "North Tower Steel Beams", Kennewick, WA Relive video of the ride: https://www.relive.cc/view/vxOQ4zNzN2v

My chi may not be balanced, but the crossplane triple is... 🔥

For those with minimal PTO or otherwise can't take longer multi-day trips, there is the Pacific Northwest Grand Tour that is self-paced and can be done in increments: https://pnwgrandtour.com/ Crazy-beautiful scenes on the PNW-GT tour! Approaching Steptoe Butte... almost looks like a AI drawing! But this is from my Google Pixel 6 cell phone. At the top of Steptoe: Mt Adams in the background: Eastern Washington farmlands at Dawn, on the road to Northport: The Joseph Cowboy, Joseph, OR:

Since my CRS is in full bloom - 🙄 - this was the specific spark plug access info I was trying to remember this morning. Thank you, Brett. And not to reignite this old spark plug thread - but I am also in the camp that says don't put this off much beyond the Service Interval. Years ago, that interval was 12,000 miles. Nowadays, the Manual calls for 8K interval. So why the change? I still have contacts within the Yamaha Technical Division in Georgia, and put the question to them last year. They said that in today's modern engines with high-powered ignition systems, you can't just 'look' at a plug to determine if it's good. The telltale indicator is the amount of internal resistance that has built up in the plug with use. The reason you change them at 8K is that this is the mileage where they are seeing higher resistance built up. This forces adjacent components (coils, etc) to work that much harder to make the spark plug fire. Sure, you could probably use them beyond that mileage without a lot problems, but replacing them keeps the overall ignition system humming along nicely. Mind you, I am just repeating what they told me. 🙃 But they seemed to make a compelling argument.

You know that will just end up with Badness. 😆 I highly recommend it. 🔥🔥🔥

And now for something completely unnecessary. Some would even say, a waste of time and money. Fair enough. You could argue that point, and make good arguments. The Tracer 900 GT has a center-stand. It doesn't need spools for a rear bike stand. And it surely doesn't need hooks for a rear paddock stand. It doesn't matter that I don't need these god-like, beautifully machined works-of-art. It only matters that I wanted them. 🔥 Admittedly, I do have a severe weakness for Sato Racing hardware: Another reason to avoid paddock hooks - besides being unnecessary and expensive - you have to work for these. Our rear frame has two factory-welded bosses, the forward one is pre-drilled to fit a M6 spool. The rear boss, that you must drill/tap for proper M6 x 1.00 threads: It's just not that hard... first, drill the proper size hole for it: Then, tap that baby! Be generous with the cutting oil here: Run your stainless steel bolt up/down your new threads a few times, clean/dry them, then blue loctite the paddock hook bolts. Boom, done. I fully realized I don't need these hooks. I just wanted them, primarily for Badassery Factor, and because I am basically a little kid trapped in a grown-ass man's body. 😁

Look underneath the rear wheel... see that Pit Bull Tire wedge? Make rear tire changes a breeze, no more raising the rear wheel with a foot to align/slide in the rear axle.

Springtime bloom of tire nubbies! 🔥 🔥 🔥 These Bridgestone T32R BattleAx tires are just spectacular in every way. The 165hp S1000XR still managed over 6000 miles on these tires, I should do much better on the Tracer. Glad I got this chain business out of the way before serious riding starts next month:

Shyeah, baby. Black and gold; understated primal colors. That's what I'm talkin' about.... 🔥 🔥 🔥

Today I avoided stripping out any of the 6 rear sprocket studs when mounting up a fresh black SuperLite sprocket, because I ignored that insanely high 59 ft-lb torque value the Tracer Service Manual recommends. Just no, that is way excessive, that's a good way to strip/yank out those studs right out of your wheel hub. I went with 43 ft-lbs, and even kinda regret that; should have done more like 36ft-lbs with these Ti Nylocs:

That moniker assigned to me by the Executive Officer of the USS Enterprise (CVN-65) during combat operations against the Iranians in the Persian Gulf, WestPac 1988. We in our third continuous day of combat ops, I lived on the Flight Deck the entire time. I started refusing to go below and get some rest as prescribed. The XO of the ship finally came down to tell me to get below, and I started arguing with him that I was fine (a junior officer arguing with the ship's 2nd-in-Command indicates you are definitely not fine). After 13 nano-seconds of that, the XO screamed at me, 'What is wrong with you, Lieutenant, are you some kind of WARCHILD?! Of course, all this happens right in front of all my squadron mates - instantly, the moniker was permanent.

I realize this post was from last summer, but yes sir, your chain color is positively slutty. 😀 That said, I will not be in a position to comment soon, as I am about to install a chain that is high on the cosmetic chart itself - just the other end of the spectrum from your slut-chain. A manly, studly, testosterone-laden EK gold chain with black-enamel side plates.

It's time to play the Chain Game! The factory chain is thoroughly smoked at 16K. A pretty-boy all-black EK chain replaces it, and stock-teeth SuperLite sprockets are going in, as well. If you got the tools and experience, this really isn't hard maintenance at all. My main tools are a Dremel grinding wheel and a proper Chain Tool, MotionPro in my case. Just select a rivet of your choice on the old chain, and dremel that baby smooth: Now just crank down on your MotionPro tool, and push out that rivet out: Boom, done. I'll save the Rivet Press job for later, I need to balance the freshly-mounted Bridgestone T32s and get them installed tonight.

Tour of Honor: https://tourofhonor.com/ Pacific Northwest Grand Tour: https://pnwgrandtour.com/ Ride-to-Eat Across USA: https://www.facebook.com/groups/723374431356382 I did... the BMW S1000XR has proven to be too problematic. And dealer maintenance for it is just a scam. I have replaced it with a 2021 Yamaha MT10 as the new Desert Runner. The MT is not exactly designed to be a long-distance sport-tourer, unless you are insane and force it to do the job. 😁 I've been working on transforming this new platform since the last week in November. It is essentially an upright-sitting YZF-R1. The MPG on this bike is brutal, like 30-31 mpg after the ECU is flashed. Tiny-ass R1 racebike tank is 4.5 gallons, so the Low Fuel light comes on after only 95 miles. 😖 Had the ECU un-flashed, dropped two teeth in the rear, dumped the *enormously* heavy stock exhaust for a featherweight Yoshimura Alpha T 3/4 system, and now I am seeing a solid 35+ MPG. The bike is almost ready for Desert Running, except for aux driving lamps. I think this may be the only Yamaha MT10 on the planet that can carry 8.3 gallons of fuel: 🔥 🔥 🔥 🔥

I'm usually out the door sometime after midnight, April 1 to go hunting for Tour of Honor/PNW-GT locations. Not this year - the Tracer is overdue for serious maintenance. The Bridgestone S22s are smoked, the OEM chain/sprockets need replacing, and there's the 16K Service. I am taking Warchild-wife on every ride I can this year, so this weekend is a all-wrenching affair for the Tracer. We start tackling these three Tours next weekend.

Delay, delay, delay... but all installed now! 👍 It was a little fiddley, but it eventually got completed. When new, the Works Performance coating is a very nice matte satin, but after multiple heat cycles, is supposed to turn to a bronze-gold color. Getting rid of the weight of this pig-heavy eye-sore factory cat alone justifies installing this system: After 100 miles, the bronze-gold coloring looks awesome in real life:

Well, I've had the damn 3-1 Yosh system NIB since early Dec, but the Long-Distance Endurance MT10 project build has consumed all my time. Since I just installed a Yosh 3/4 Alpha T on that bike, I am now on a Yosh roll... so this begins now: By the time I was done peeling off that stupid foam packing, I was ready to use that Exhaust Alignment tool on myself! 😖 More to come - this shouldn't be too bad an install. Maybe. It could happen. 🙄

It is something you need to get used to. Don't ascribe a problem where there isn't one. You've admitted that the bike "runs and rides like new" but you also hear these noises. Those noises are part of this package. It can be disconcerting at first, especially if coming from quiet inline-4s. But you'll get use to it. Trust us. Edit: Welcome to the forum! 👍