PeterL

Agree to disagree. I'd rather change rubber prior, if the tire was at all marginal for the distance. Sell the takeoff on CL for cheap and recoup a few bucks if you like. If I'm going on a trip, I'd rather spend the time seeing new vistas, not the inside of yet another shop. Prior to an adventure like yours, I spend weeks doing all the checks and maintenance items I possibly can, even things that might not be required for months yet, or longer. Be critical, if it gives you the least pause, address it. Rather that then get blindsided halfway through your tour.

If you are handy with wiring, all you need is to get the appropriate connectors for your tail light & turn circuit and you can make one up, or have someone do it for you. I did this for my C14 when I made some similar mods to yours years back. LOTS better/easier than lots of ugly splices.

For me, it is a control thing. Not that I have anything against speed. (Oh, LORD no!) I mentioned the rear hopping on one particular badly surfaced corner, one that my RT would rail through? That is what decided the matter for me. If I'm not the fastest rider in a group, I try hard to be the smartest. Imperfect control equals increased risk of LOSS of control. Right now, the rear end is not up to meeting my requirements, and my two options are to a) repave a number of my local roads, or b) swap the shock. To honor my late friend, the Tracer will be staying in my stable until I kick the oil pan (I don't actually OWN a bucket...) so while I'll do my utmost to preserve and maintain it well, I will not be keeping what does not suit me. Age and circumstance have taken many of the activities I used to revel in. Hang glider pilot/instructor (broken back, can't lift the weight anymore). Corner worker (heatstroked working Laguna in '06, have to stay out of the sun now), RenFaire street performer (again, sun). Bikes are what I have left- so riding, and riding well have all my attention. Anything that gets in the way of that had better, in the words of Albus Dumbledore "be prepared to suffer a most painful death". Samurai mechanic, my latest career... Cheers to all. The sun's up, the temps are down. I think I need to go give my new helmet a brief test ride, say, to Fort Bragg and back. Later!

Consider a cheap digital caliper like this, along with a small notebook that you can stash in your pocket or under the seat. Periodically measure and log your tread depth all across your tire, along with your PSI in said tire and the current mileage. Over time you can easily see what your wear trends are, and can adjust pressure appropriately. This can get you significantly more miles out of your tires as well.

I'd change the tires first as well, and make sure your chain and sprockets are in good shape. Other than that, I don't think 6K should be anything that would require much in the way of maintenance. Have a great ride. Post some pics when you're home!

As you stated Duckie, you have raced. You know your own responses and the nuances of handling in an optimum environment. I'm 99% a street rider. More 'technical' than 'kinesthetic', but I try. I'm looking at track days as a way to widen the window through which I view the art of the ride. One of my close friends is Dave Moss, probably the best suspension tuner I have EVER met. I'm lucky to have him as a resource, and doubly lucky that he owns a GT as well (kept at his winter home in New Zealand, so I can't borrow it for a comparison). He's assisted me with tuning things, but concurs that I need to upgrade the hardware to go farther. Thus, Ohlins. (and trying not to let the wife know how much I'll be dropping on THAT piece of kit!) Most thoroughly, personally enjoyable bike I ever rode (borrowed, not owned unfortunately) was a 1200s Monster, full Ohlins as stock equipment. The bike was totally planted at any speed and on any surface I could find. Made me look W-A-Y better than I actually am. I'm currently building up an SV1000 which I hope to model on that Duc. Last owner had grafted on a GSXR 1000 front end, which should be more than sufficient. The rear shock is of unknown provenance, and will likely be replaced just so I have a known baseline. Everything else is subject to pillion duty for 'She Who Must Be Conveyed' (any 'Rumpole of the Bailey' fans out there?) but this one will be my personal toy. The Tracer has good bones, but I tend to always think of any bike as a blank canvas. I find enjoyment in creating the best ride with the fewest compromises I can, to my own personal tastes anyway.

I've tried to ride The Pace since I first read Nick's article (30 years ago??!! Oh my god...) Despite many years spent working in the pits and doing corner work, I've never done a track day. Now at 66 I'm working out to hopefully be in shape to achieve that goal later this year. But with every ride I try to achieve that elusive 'flow'. When it happens, it's magical. When it doesn't, I tell myself I need to go riding more! As Ducky noted, the bike you ride tends to impact your riding style. My C14 had a magnificent engine, oodles of HP and plenty of engine braking- I hardly touched the brakes. The GT has been somewhat difficult for me to adapt to. I inherited it when my best friend passed, and my body type and riding style are vastly different from his. He'd installed Yamaha's 'comfort seat', which I frankly despise. I have a ride-in appointment at Corbin at the end of this month to get a new saddle done to my spec. (I did a ride-in for my V-Strom and it was well worth it. The opportunity to have every little detail, like custom contouring of the foam, resulted in the most comfortable saddle I'd owned in decades) The GT I trail brake on quite a bit- I'm probably also using too tall a gear selection for best performance. Have to see about that... I'm planning to upgrade the rear shock to an Ohlins as soon as I may. The OEM unit has, to me, been a huge disappointment. With COVID, I've been riding a known set of roads in my area several times per month at least rather than going farther afield as often. Twisty enough to be challenging, but not always the best pavement. I found that I can get through these sections faster on my 2005 BMW R1200RT than on the Tracer. Since the RT is just about 100# heavier, with roughly the same HP, this is somewhat annoying to say the least. One corner in particular I always go wide on, as the rear just hops on the bumpy pavement and I can't stick the same line the Beemer takes without a twitch. To honor the subject of the thread: last month I made the several hour trek down to my old haunts in San Mateo county. KTM decided to run a Demo Day at Alice's Restaurant. (talk about Nobel Prize winning ideas!) Hardly a bad road to be found, and tens of thousands have tried. And getting to do it all on someone else's bikes was just too sweet. I always try to wind the day up by heading west on 84 out to the coast, then either north or south on Highway 1. Great scenery, decent pavement with LOTS of curves. I started riding here in my teens, and 50 years later it's still one of my favorites. Hoping to hit this again on my way back from Hollister.

I'm new to the forum, and put my project post in the 'General' rather than the 'GT' section. Oops! At any rate, I got peeved at Yamaha for putting a 2-amp fuse on the dash power outlet. Plug in anything OTHER than a cell phone and it's pretty much guaranteed to blow. And it is just so-o-o annoying to have to pull plastics off just to change a fuse. In keeping with my lifelong mantra "anything worth doing is worth OVERdoing" I wound up upgrading the whole system(power outlet and dedicated dual-USB feed/voltmeter), details here for those curious. To answer the question about gaining access, it goes something like like this: undo the 4 machine screws and remove windshield Put the windscreen adjuster at HIGH position and remove the two (now exposed) lower mounting screws. Put the windscreen adjuster at LOW position and remove the single top screw. Remove and set adjuster assembly aside Remove all the push rivets from the plastic dash fascia piece. Fascia itself will wiggle free, it's flexible. Just be gentle You now have access to the dash mounting bracketry. FYI- I preferred to use a dremel to remove a tiny bit of the metal so I could fit a 'standard' dash outlet in place without modifying their threads. The Yamaha pieces, for whatever reason, are just a millimeter or two SMALLER than standard. (anguished wail: "Why, Yamaha? Why??!) Have fun!

On my 2019 GT, I tried a set of aftermarket adjustable levers, BUT- there was something about the clutch pivot piece that didn't match whatever Yamaha did with the cruise control interface. My CC would not engage at all. Swapping back to the OEM lever fixed the issue, but I'm still stuck with short fingers and a long reach to the lever.

I am 66. And I will stop riding when they pry the Power Commander from my cold dead hands... Seriously, I started on 2 wheels when I was 11, and there hasn't been any point between then and now I've not had at least one bike on hand. I'm into the 'downsizing due to losing muscle mass' part of the exercise now, having traded my C14 for the Tracer GT. The Yamaha is a lot of fun (it'll be even better after I get the Ohlins installed), but I sure do miss that 1400cc mill in the Kawi at times. I know at some point I'll have to give up riding/driving, but it ain't yet! Ride safe y'all

Corrected and attributed. Thanks!

Not arguing with any of this. I have a Battery Tender cable as well, pretty much the first mod I do on any bike I have. BUT- I don't like having to dig under the seat for it every time, as I do not care to leave the live cable hanging out where anyone could mess with it. I wanted the dash to be functional, within my rather demanding definition of the term. Now I can safely drive pretty much any accessory that runs on 12v, and I can charge two USB devices simultaneously at pretty much the max rate possible for each device. The fact that the USB charger incorporated a digital voltmeter as well was an unlooked-for but appreciated bonus feature. Engineering isn't a job (at least the way I always have done it), it's more a way of looking at the world and making it do what you want, exactly how you want it done. (There is NOTHING worse than a bored engineer. You have absolutely no idea what will happen next. But you are very right to be worried!) Cheers to all.

As others have previously noted, the "power outlet" Yamaha saw fit to install on the Tracer GT is fused for only 2 amps, insufficient to reliably run even a small compressor to top up your tires. This is totally inconceivable to moi, especially on a motorcycle with touring pretensions. Dunno about you, but I check my tires every morning, and I don't always wake up within easy reach of a gas station, or even a non-pit toilet. Self-sufficiency makes life SO much easier! I decided to make just a *few* alterations: Turn the 2a feed into a trigger for a power relay, this drawing up to 30a max direct from the battery via a fused cable install a weatherproof heavy-duty power outlet in place of Yamaha's lightweight unit install a dual USB QC 3.0 outlet (also weatherproof) on the opposite side of the dash. This is backwards compatible for older devices, but it will fast-charge a current-gen smartphone in a fraction of the time a standard 2a feed would take. Sounds simple enough, right? HAH! First off, Yamaha saw fit to design those openings to be -just- that much smaller in diameter than a normal through-dash device requires. Why? Dunno. It's not like they get any financial advantage out of making things NON-standard. It's nothing that a few minutes with a Dremel can't fix, but it's still stupid and annoying. Next up, most who contemplate doing this would likely just zip-tie the relay in place and call it good. Not me. I was compelled to spend a couple of days modeling a relay-mount in CAD, running it through my 3d printer, making alterations, print again, and so on. After a few go-rounds, I cheerfully emerged from my lair with a two-plate system that clamps securely about the metal windshield/dash support and which lets me bolt the relay -bracket- firmly in place, allowing for easy swapping of the relay itself if it ever fails, without bothering the wiring in the least. (retired engineer here, I _always_ try to anticipate failures and ease repair time and effort [mine]) FWIW, the concept is to minimise impact shock from an unsecured mass bouncing around. This way, whilst you get the unavoidable vibration any vehicular component is subject to, the relay is securely held to the metal support structure and cannot gyrate around and damage either itself or the insulation on live wiring. The takeoff from the battery was via two rIng terminals, through a weatherproof ATC fuse holder, left conveniently resting directly atop the battery for ease of access. 14AWG cabling was run under the plastics and terminated behind the dash with the relay itself. Once the hardware bits were in place, time to do up the wiring (standard 12v 4-pole (er, I meant to type 4-PIN [thank you "duckie"]) relay spec: post# 85 connects to -12v (NEGATIVE) from the vehicle battery post# 86 connects to the POSITIVE lead from the old power outlet feed. This is your trigger, so the outlets will only be live when the key is ON. post# 87 connects to +12v (POSITIVE) from the vehicle battery post# 30 feeds +12v to both the power (formerly 'cigarette') receptacle and USB outlets. Yes this gives a common point of failure to both, but the alternative of doing two separate relays just did not seem worth the bother at this point. Relay failures are rare, and I am only running this at 2/3 capacity max (rated and wired for 30a, fused for 20). OK- _IF_ you have Yamaha's heated seat, their control switch is meant to fit into that 'empty' dash space. The fact that it is difficult to operate while in motion evidently escaped the designers scrutiny. Color ME shocked. These being the same designers who placed the (heavily used) menu scroll wheel on the THROTTLE grip while placing other less critical switchgear (Drive modes anyone?) on the left side, even though that can ONLY be changed whilst at a stop. Honestly, do any of these people actually RIDE the stuff they design? Not more than once is my guess... At any rate, my next project post will likely cover the infinitely-adjustable PWM controller with digital readout I'm currently ginning up to replace said seat-heat switch. Stay tuned. For anyone who might care to make use of it- I've posted the STL files for the bracket pieces on Thingiverse.com, along with assembly instructions here. Ride safe y'all!