Warchild

Pics speak for themselves. ❣️

It will be a busy day for me tomorrow, installing this Ohlins Eye-Candy. The forks took just minutes to install... no significant running with these quite yet, just a brief spin to ensure they feel right.

Here is what the FJR1300 bags look like on the bike, including a direct shot from the rear... they are a direct fit.

4.3-gallon Aux Fuel Cell installed and tested. This give me a total of 9.6 gallons - a 350-mile range, riding sanely. A fair bit less with blazing along the Nevada outback. Here is an example why extra fuel is needed in Nevada... 😃

As keithu and several others will attest, over the years, whenever I assign a moniker to someone - typically at one of the long-distance rallies I am the host/rallymaster for - it is actually a term of endearment. Due to me secretly liking the victim - people that I don't like, don't get teased mercilessly, nor do they earn monikers. If you were in the USA, I'd invite you to a gathering that I am hosting in Nevada this July. Then you could see what that insane, high-speed Endurance Riding business is all about, up close and personal. 😁 In fact, there will be a Tracer or two at that July event. Like keithu's for example. 👍

+1 on Buggy Nate's observations. I tighten these by feel as well, but that's from 30+ years of tuning bikes. Approach this with care - petshark-ing your cylinder head threads will ruin your mental health, I promise. The Tracer's spark plug spec of 9.4 ft-lbs is easy to surpass without experience... torque wrench for you, good sir. 👍

"This", as you say. 😁 I'll go ahead and go with my 30+ years of experience in these matters, vice what an engineer writing a service manual claims it should be. I'll choose not to blindly follow a spec when I know it's not reasonable. Like you say, to each their own, but I know I won't be having studs go all petshark on me, and neither will the wheel come unmade at speed. Happy riding. I am off to Portland to pick a 4.2 aux fuel cell - on the XR, since the Tracer's forks have not returned yet

Wrong answer, gents. Let me clarify for both of you: Whether the sprocket nuts in question are the current OEM steel nuts from the factory, or the Tek 5 Titanium fasteners I posted up, I would/am taking both of these to 43 ft-lbs of torque, and no higher. Regarding the Tek 5 Ti fasteners, they will also get a small dollop of copper-based anti-seize near the base of the stud threads, then I'll take them to just 43 ft-lbs. 👍 If you want to take these torque values higher on your bikes, no problem, have a blast. Hopefully they won't go all petshark-ed [tm] on you. 😃

Yep, I recall this now - I belonged to that forum when I had my Yamaha R1, and couldn't believe it when folks said that the service manual said to take the sprocket nuts to 72 ft-lbs of torque. I thought "YGTBSM, that can't be right". Nope, they were right, the manual said 72 ft-lbs. Never understood why Yamaha would do this. Still don't. I really loved that bike, I had the Arterial Blood Red version. Got more citations on that bike than on the Blackbird and Hayabusa combined. And I only owned it 2 years - traded it in for the brand new Gen II Hayabusa in the Fall of 2007, before I got another citation and endangered my driver's license. 🙄 You can see why all discipline went out the window once you swung a leg over this baby:

Nope, I would treat the oem steel sprockets the very same way - 43 ft-lbs, not any more than that

There is no way I am taking these Titanium sprocket nylocs to that ridiculously high torque value of 59 ft-lbs. Then again, I have been doing these sprocket changes on very high-powered chain-drive bikes for the best part of 30 years, and have the experience to know better. Currently with the BMW S1000XR, the Hayabusa before that, the YZF-R1 before that, the CBR1100XX Blackbird before that, and the Honda CBR1000F before that. The R1 aside, none of these bikes call for such insanely high torque values; that is how you get into trouble as poor petshark has experienced. I will take these Ti nylocs to ~ 43 ft-lbs when I replace the factory drive train in early June. That is more than sufficient.

I would be concerned about grinding down the pin on the pinch bolt side, for reasons you've mentioned. It would be tragic if the bike fell due to a slight bump, etc. If you only use the stand for tire-changing/maintenance purposes, then I would just remove the pinch bolt altogether before lifting. But if you intend to use the stand frequently for non-maintenance reasons, then it would be a pain to remove the pinch bolt all the time. There may not be a good answer here, in that regard.

Final Results of the Driving Lamps install. All photos taken with the bike parked in the same location. A slightly blurry Low Beam: A slightly blurry High Beam: Low Beam with Aux Lamps lit up.

Not trying to be snarkey, but... Pit Bull stands have no equal:

I think the Morello, Italy graphics are just gaudy as hell... way overkill. I have these for the rear of the bag, mostly a safety item, truth be told. Still look pretty cool: They also make an option without the "FJR1300" - just the Tuning fork logo: Yamaha FJR1300 Rear Bag Decals These Reflective Rear Bag Decals fit all FJR's through the...

Rust-Oleum Professional Truck Bed Coating! 🔥 🔥 🔥

Decided on an unusual finish for these brackets - can you guess what paint this is? 😁

If I were in your shoes, I would go for it. One of the more irritating aspects of buying a new generation of an established bike is that undoubtedly, many of the aftermarket goodies are not likely to fit on the new bike. That's not always true, but generally is true. So if things light auxiliary bight brackets and similar precision-fit goodies are important to you, you'll need to accept the fact that the aftermarket is frequently a year (or more) behind the release of the bike, before you start to see them available. As far as bug concerns - those are a possibility, so it's a bit of the roll of the dice. You do have quite a few new systems on the bike that not trivial; some are pretty complex, such as the electronic suspension. Yamaha has significant experience with electronic suspension from the FJR-ES models that have been in existence for a good few years now, Me, I would expect the Electronic Suspension for be pretty good. But again, who knows... it's all part of the procurement adventure!

Obviously tires make a huge difference - my factory D222's were replaced within the first two weeks for a set of proper Dunlop RoadSmarts IVs. But the factory suspension is another matter altogether. If one is a scrawny little 140-lb solo rider, you can make the factory suspension work for you once sag is properly set, etc. But if you are a 225-lb linebacker, have a 125-lb pillion and 40lbs of gear between side cases and top box, the factory suspension ain't cutting the mustard whatsoever. Even with pre-load set to the max, that factory rear shock, in particular, is not up to task, and neither are the factory fork springs. Not if you are going to tackle the mountain passes and hairpin turns with gusto. Fortunately, this can be readily corrected with enough determination and $$$.

Nevada has many sides to it. And riding extreme mileages isn't for everyone, no question. These are Tour of Honor rides for Nevada and Utah. 1150 miles each day. 2021 Tour of Honor Motorcycle Ride

The 2nd generation BMW S1000XR is not a huge player in the Iron Butt community yet - only a handful of us use it for Long Distance work. So... if you need specialty items like Aux Driving Lamps brackets... you are on your own. No aftermarket shop makes them - you have to do this yourself. Driving Lights are actually an important safety item while blazing through the Nevada desert at night, if you're going to have a prayer of avoiding animal strikes. 😲 I am taking this XR for some heavy duty night runs this Memorial Day weekend - so I finally got around to fabricating brackets for my LX-3 LED Driving Lamps today, just under the nose of the bike: Using the machine shop at my local BMW dealership (that I have good fortune to use whenever I want), I hand-fabricated the initial set of brackets. All this work was Old School... no CAD workstation or plasma cutter. these were all by hand and eyeball. A drill press, grinding wheel, a vise and a 5lb hammer. That's it. They actually came out fairly decent (for not having a CAD machine and plasma cutter). I started with 14-gauge mild steel, 2 strips that are ~ 16mm wide, and 140mm long. Before any bending, I drilled the 8mm holes that the shoulders of the Torx bolts need to pass through: Now for the tedious dremeling/bending to form the the large 'U', with many, many stops to test-fit, see where mods were needed, then re-grinding and filing. The first bracket sorta looks like ass, the second bracket turned out a lot better as I got better at my bending techniques: I was quite surprised and delighted to note the rigid strength of these brackets during their initial fit. I had plans to use a cross-member to provide more stability to the structure, but it was such a solid mount, I am going to forgo it for now. The end result sees the brackets splayed outboard as expected, and this is fine as the lamps are circular in their beamcast, so it's not important that these mounts be perfectly horizontal to the ground: Tomorrow I connect them up to the relay that will power them... then some night testing:

Your sacrifice is duly noted... what a guy! 😃 😃 😃 😃 That entire area consists of motorcycle roads laid down by the Motorcycle Gods!

Well if you're going to ask the question, then be prepared for all the detractors and social media 'engineers' to answer with a bunch of snarky answers and general crap. Sorry, petshark, that's the way keyboard commandos work, sadly enough. To answer your question... I would simply stick to traditional recommendations that are based on real-world experience. It is indeed short-sighted to replace a chain, but not the sprockets (even though you have relatively low mileage on this set). Generally speaking, if you install a new chain without changing the sprockets also, you may expect a shorter chain life. It appears that Yamaha bean-counters won the argument to use a modest-quality chain-sprocket set - that alone is reason enough to swap them out with a quality set. I am approaching 4000 miles on my 2020 Tracer that I bought about six weeks ago. I have ridden chain bikes for many decades, I know when a drivetrain is showing wear. Mine is already... a bit surprising for a modest-horsepower machine. I am replacing mine before a heavy-duty trip (with the wife onboard) in mid June. This link may not be of use to you there in Belgium, but it makes this shopping task easier: Yamaha Tracer 900 / 900GT | Sprockets & Chain Kits | Sprocket Center Sprocket Center is dedicated to being the world's premium...

Hmmmm... that doesn't sound very positive. Was it a long-term girlfriend departure, or the big 'D'... divorce? Either can weigh on a man and give him pause about a lot of things. Good luck with your decision process. Nothing wrong with the SV650 or similar. The 2021 SV650 seems damn inexpensive at $7700, brand new:

What year is your Tracer? How many miles on it? When was the last wheel balance? Have you ever had head bearings adjusted? There are potentially a lot of reasons, depending on your answers.