Warchild

Yesterday was a major milestone day - had Warchild-wife on the back of the Tracer for the first time since her spine surgery last September! 🔥🔥🔥 The destination was one of the many hundreds of RTE (Ride-to-Eat) locations that is part of another Long Distance-oriented self-paced tours called "RTExUSA" ==> "Ride To Eat across the USA": Hale's Tavern located in Hermiston, Oregon: They have some rather sizable portions in their meals: They have a menu that's a small book: Did I mention they have sizable food portions? 😮 On the way home, the Tracer's odometer passed 16,000 miles, I guess I have that Servicing to do now, along with finally installing that Yoshimura full system I scored a few months back. Also taking this time to replace the OEM chain/sprockets pre-emptively now, instead of waiting till July/Aug, when the chain gives it up and will no longer maintain its proper slack. 🙄

Concur with others - if cash flow issues prevents doing both at once, I would do the rear shock first. It should help knowing beforehand that whatever may be ailing the front end now, may present itself as worse after a fresh shock - you'll have to see with a test ride if it's acceptable, or not. It may provide motivation for the bwringer McBurger approach to getting a set of fork springs asap. 😁

Mark, that particular scanner is waaaay overpriced for what it is. You can do much better. For example: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07VDKGK4T And then the 4-pin Yamaha adapter: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B088TLYHQT

It's probably ill-advised to use anything but a proper master-link. I am about to do the 16K Service on my 2020 900 GT, my chain is still in amazingly decent shape. O-rings are perfect, sprocket teeth are fine - I must have gotten a good DID that build day! I am fairly religious about a WD-40 cleaning followed by a coating of Mobil One 75w-90 gear oil. The chain is not really babied, either; that 16K was a lot of two-up touring, loaded with gear.

Outstanding... this Ohlins combo setup just transforms the bike in many ways. That shock was really a treat to install... 🙄 Do yourself a favor and ensure you have a stubby 14mm wrench for the rear shock install... trust me. 😕

The last weekend in November, I drove to Bend, Oregon to buy a 2021 Yamaha MT10 to replace my troublesome BMW. Towed it home right before the heavy-duty, non-stop recurring Pacific Northwest winters storms started to hammer us and hammer us. So now I have this blazing hot rod with barely 1500 miles on it in the garage, can't even test ride the damn thing to see what I have purchased. 🙄 Winter sucks moist ass, that's all there is to it. 😖

No, you are not. IMO, beaks on a street bike like the Tracer are just goofy-looking, but to each his own. I have even stopped tormenting people about it - if it works for you, have at it, I say.

This is how I am addressing that problem... this is a 4.3 gallon gravity-feed auxiliary fuel cell currently on the BMW; it will migrate over to the MT10. But that still only yields a combined 8.3 gallons - so, maybe 210 miles before the low fuel light illuminates: My aux cell fabricator also wants to cut the MT10's factory tank and enlarge it by 1.5 gallons. I am considering it.

Ack, I transposed the first two numbers.... wet weight (full tank of gas) is 463 lbs. At first, I did have a 2023 MT10 on order. Then I did more research... why is it that I can not find any serious aftermarket luggage for the 2022-2023 MT10s? 🤔 There is one lightweight offering from Hepco and Becker, otherwise - nothing! Further research revealed the problem - Yamaha has inexplicably removed the four hard mounting points on the rear MT10 subframe starting with the 2022 model year. WTF?! 😖 This image below shows four red arrows pointing to mount points on the pre-2022 MT10 subframe: And as we see in this drawing of the same subframe for '22-'23 MT10s... hard mounting lugs have been removed. YGTBSM. 😥 So while it is a complete bummer that I can't enjoy all those snazzy new electronics, the TFT instrument panel, ect, on the newer MT10s... I have to have strong, robust side and rear racks. Rear rack will be carrying the 4.3 gallon aux fuel cell, so it obviously must be beefy and strong. Going with Givi for both side and top racks - they are beefy enough. Shad was a close contender, too.

I'll play along, lemme tell ya how I went slightly insane over the Thanksgiving holidays. Some here know that although I absolutely loved my 2020 BMW S1000XR for the first 25K miles, the past 5K miles has been a completely different story. Bike sat in the dealership undergoing huge-ass warranty repairs a good amount of time during prime riding season. First, the Keyless Gas Cap failed in the closed position. Can't open it to refuel, which is demoralizing on a long road trip when you pull in the gas station on fumes. Then it was discovered that my stock fuel tank had "swollen" and also needed replacement under warranty. Third, the water pump started spewing blue coolant out the weep hole in the back of the oil sump, so it needed replacement. Enough with my German experiment... time to go back to known reliable bikes from the Land of the Rising Sun. So... I am selling the XR and replacing it with a bike that is hardly suited for long-distance sport-touring. This will be quite the challenge, turning this Beastly Thang into a proper Long Hauler. This 2021 Yamaha MT10 only has 1535 miles on it, only used as a track toy (check them chicken stripes on that rear 190 tire). Got the killer price of well under $11K. Going to transform this bike over the next 4-5 months into a hard-core Desert Runner. 160 hp, 84ft-lbs of torque, 463lbs, wet. phuck yeah. 😆

News to me... really, no 2023 Tracer for us? "Yamaha will offer its most sophisticated Tracer to date for 2023 with the new Tracer 9 GT+. The revised sport-touring machine gets numerous electronic upgrades augmenting engine, suspension, and braking performance along with a few creature comfort enhancements. As of this writing, Yamaha has no plans to release the 2023 model in the States; riders outside the USA can expect to see the machine in dealerships starting in May 2023." https://www.motorcyclistonline.com/story/news/yamaha-tracer-9-gt-plus-first-look-preview-2023/

That, I don't know. Maybe. You should to contact The MAN at Yoshimura R&D, Don Franzen. This guy is very responsive, he'll find out if this version fits or not! Don Franzen Sales Representative Yoshimura R & D of America, Inc. 5420 Daniels Street Chino, CA 91710 P: 909-628-4722 Ext. 422 Direct: 951-231-1422 dfranzen@yoshimura-rd.com www.yoshimura-rd.com

These are always a huge butt-pain to install, but the wheels are coming off the bike soon for new tires, and that's the proper time to do this tedious job.

Yamaha USA corporate headquarters has been in Cypress, CA for decades, but relocated to just outside of Atlanta in 2018.

I convinced myself early on that I would just leave the stock exhaust alone - but you know how that goes... 😆 I was bummed to learn that many (but not all) aftermarket exhaust systems only work without a center-stand. Others had a high upswept canister angle that is not friendly to the factory hard cases. But then I learned that Yamaha had licensed Yoshimura to manufacture a full exhaust system specific to my model-year GT, that allows full use of center-stand and factory bags. The 'Y-Series" part number for it is: Unfortunately, Yoshimura has long ago ceased production of this specific model exhaust, since the bike itself changed drastically in the 2021 model year. Happily, my awesome Parts Manager at my dealer has strong ties with the Yamaha Supply system in Georgia, where there were still eight (8) of these full exhaust systems sitting on a shelf, still NIB. Now there are only 7, 'cuz I scored one of these NIB Yosh full exhaust systems, now sitting in my garage - it's one of several winter projects: It may be a while I get to the installation - I am still riding as long as snow stays away.

As of this writing... that is EXACTLY my plan. I intend to trade in my broke-dick 2020 BMW S1000XR for a 2023 standard Yamaha MT-10, and turn it into my Long Distance desert runner. That means the aux fuel cell must migrate over to the MT-10, because obviously, the piss-poor range of a stock MT-10 isn't going to cut it in these insane Endurance runs we do in the Nevada desert. A 8.8-gal total capacity should do me better. It's a pity... the BMW has been a dream ride the first 25,000 miles. But now that I am closing in on 30K miles on the bike, it has undergone three (3) significant Warranty Repair exercises in as many months, the last one being a leaking coolant pump, a well-known problem on this engine. I can't really tolerate a machine demonstrating this kind of reliability. It is parked in the garage until trade-in time for a Matte Raven Black MT10. The '23 9GT+ looks pretty damn interesting. Happy they tossed those Wally-E duel-panel LED instruments. Unhappy to hear of the Linked Brakes. My 2020 900 GT is set up so perfect for me now, I would never consider trading it away. It has a proper full-color TFT, though not the massive screen that 9GT+ has.

Garage Assistant Kitty examines Spiegler kit for completeness. SS Brake Lines are one of several winter projects planned while the snow piles up outside.

My poor choice of words here. "Tread separation" implies a defect, and this is not the case. This little section of "ginsu knives" effect in the center of the tread in normal when running the tire a bit beyond its useful service live. There is steel under the ginsu knives section, then the inner butyl liner, that last line of defense.

I gave the Bridgestone T32 tires a tryout this past summer on the S1000XR, knowing that I would have a lot of unfortunate desert straight-lining. They were nonetheless superb, all the way until tread separation. They were brilliant in the Nevada mountain twisties. I expected the BMW's 165hp inline-4 would melt the T32's in short order, but 5860 miles was a pretty fair run. Going to put a set on the Tracer over the winter.

it's like Old Home Week around here anymore, with former FJR guys downsizing to the 900 GT. Hello, Ray! Be advised, the 2019-2020 model year Tracer 900 GT fits the larger FJR1300 side cases natively. So if you have a spare set of FJR bags hanging around, the mount and lock points are identical:

When I first read in the Owner's Manual about the 8K interval on spark plugs, like many veteran riders. I basically scoffed at it. Plugs can surly go more than that. But I got suspicious, and started making inquires to some of my contacts in the Yamaha Technical Division that I have known for many years. They told me to adhere to the 8K interval, and the reason is due to the high voltages in the Tracer's electronic ignition system. He said the old-school method of visually inspecting a spark plug to determine its actual condition is no longer valid in modern bikes; you have to take into account the plug's internal resistance that builds up with use. And the although the plug will obviously still fire past 8K, he said it makes the overall system work harder. So one changes the plugs at 8K to avoid making life hard on the adjacent components in the ignition system. I am just repeating what the guys in the Tech Division told me - this does seem to make sense to me.

Don't let the lack of clear-cut install docs keep you from the SW-Motech skid plate, there are only like 4-5 bolts, tops... it shouldn't be rocket science. The plate is awesome - you want the peace of mind it brings. 👍

One screen on the 2020 GT instrument panel, a full-color TFT. And yes, it displays ambient air temp. Though the digital readout could be a little larger, IMO.

Today I washed the Oregon snow-melt splooge from all the little nooks and crannies - a tedious but oh-so necessary task.

Holy crap, I find this 100% accurate. There are a couple BMW S1000XR pages and forums, and these guys are just baffled by some of the things I've done to my XR. "Nobody needs to carry 9.6 gallons of fuel!" "Why do you have those get big auxiliary LED lights, don't you blind people?" "Do you deliver pizzas in your top-box?" 🙄 etc.