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OZVFR

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Everything posted by OZVFR

  1. ^ + 1 for the Fuzeblock, great bit of gear that has been well designed.
  2. TBH 2&3, I'm in the camp of not believing that these cables need lubrication. My old VFR ended up with 146,000km when I sold it, never lubricated the cables, never noticed any changes. I actually have never lubricated throttle cables on any bike I've ever owned (dirt bikes don't count), and when I was younger I use to do serious miles on all my bikes. They're practically sealed at the top, and not much gets at the end as they are pretty well hidden. There might be a reason why the lube aids don't work maybe.
  3. I have this one with a Quadlock and an iPhone 12. I have no problems with it and often do long dirt roads.
  4. Sorry Dazz, just saw this. yes I have the this exact one. LFP14H-BS. 4 years now and still great. Last started the bike in December as Iā€™ve been flat out with work. Left for SBK at Phillip Island last Wednesday, started instantly.
  5. As Iā€™ve just performed maintenance on the bike for my yearly Phillip Island pilgrimage , I updated all my service records and checked this info. When I bought the bike with 7000km on it I thought of going to a 520 like I always used on my VFR, but I decided against it as the 525 was close enough. Bought the top EK from Sprocketcentre in gold, and kept the stock sprockets as they looked fine, they still do at 30,000km. I only adjusted the chain at around 500km from installation, and again at around 15,000km. It now has around 23,000km and still holding at my original's 30mm slop. Iā€™m also not a fastidious chain maintenance maniac. It gets a spray every now and then and a clean every year whether it needs it or not. And a funny thing i noticed was that last year I also performed maintenance on exactly the same date. I will probably do the valves after I get back. The bike will be on around 33,000km then.
  6. I can vouch for the RPHA 70, around 18,000km on it now. It's very well made, fit and finish is excellent and internals are quality feel. The visor is great, the ventilation is not as good as my old Shark Spartan carbon but it's acceptable, it is quieter than the Shark. The sun visor on the other hand has a very soft finish and had very fine swirl marks after my first clean which was a disappointment. Not terminal but annoying just the same. The old Shark sun visor had around 70,000km on it and was still unmarked. AMX were having a clearance sale and they priced matched AU$490 from Chromeburner (which is my go to for gear), the new RPHA71 is a lot more expensive now. Everything is a lot more expensive now.
  7. Check that your thermostat is opening properly. And never use water on most modern bikes. They need 50/50 coolant only as it will boil out easily with just water or a weak mix.
  8. Not sure on the later models, but my 15 turned out to be very sensitive to tyre choice more than pressure. I bought it with the original tyres (bike only had 7000km on it) and absolutely hated them. Replaced them with my favourite tyre which I had been using for a few years, the Rosso IIIā€™s. it was still crap even though Iā€™ve loved these tyres on my past 2 bikes (VFR800 and 1050 Sprint). Decided to replace all the suspension as stock was dreadful thinking that was the cause, but they still felt crap on the Tracer. After 2 sets of Rossoā€™s and 1 set of 01 SEā€™s (better but not great) I swapped to Road 6. What a difference. The feed back from the front is now good (not perfect as I think the Tracer doesnā€™t place enough weight on the front), turn in and corner hold is excellent, theyā€™re heavier to direction change but in a good way. As a bonus theyā€™re also not bad on dirt roads I will be sticking with these for a while I think.
  9. Never quite understood why the VFR1200 didnā€™t get a huge following. It is an outright awesome machine built to the legendary Honda V4 standards, absolute weapon on the highway or the canyons, while still able to cover long distances. Sad to say but no comparison to the FJ, even though the Tracer is an awesome bike in its own right. I guess it could be compared to the VFR being 007, and the Tracer Axle Rose.
  10. All Tracers have springs in both sides, early ones only have one cartridge. If you have one cartridge, oil levels are different, otherwise the same level on twin cartridges.
  11. Agree with Betoney, no Japanese bike has anything but metric bolts.
  12. Bloody hell, I complain here if a winters day gets below 15*C.
  13. I think the 520 to 525 chain wear might have more to do with the 520 sprockets as they have a lot less surface area to work with. So maybe wear on the sprockets even though they look good, might be stuffing the chain. Again, I had no problem going to a 520 on my VFR which had comparable HP with more weight. Or it might just be a 2and3 thing, wearing out due to extreme maintenance šŸ˜† Anyway, we have hijacked this thread I think.
  14. Did you string line the bike to check alignment or did you use swingarm markers Only ask because I found my one was half a marking out. A straight edge on the rear sprocket would also show if your sprockets are out of alignment as opposed to the wheels. I also had a 520 on my VFR with no ill effect.
  15. That's called experience my friend, nobody who knows anything about bikes would have followed the stock chain tension. I ditched the stock chain when I bought the bike with 7,000km on it, replaced it with an RK heavy duty X ring one and kept the sprockets, now has 29,000km and I've only had to adjust it once after around 1,500km after installation. I do ride the bike pretty hard and sometimes carrying lots of weight on long trips. I'm not one who you could consider a fastidious chain maintenance person either. I have often (better get a paper bag ready 2and3) done 2,000km trips without lubricating. I've used the same chain on the last three bikes with good results, My VFR I sold with 36,000km on the chain which was still perfect and only adjusted twice in that time. Good quality chains are worth it.
  16. Every little bit helps, Iā€™m used to traditional sport tourers and full fairings, so the Tracer was a bit of a shock on how bad the original screen was and how little protection there is available. Since then Iā€™ve made my own screen which is much much better as it splits the air sideways and has a lot less buffeting. I might shorten it a bit as I donā€™t like having no wind on my face as it gets too hot here. On all my other bikes I always installed double bubble screens which worked well for me as I like to ride with my visor open (sun visor down) until around 100kmh. The Tracer originally was atrocious, Itā€™s manageable now but not perfect Last year I swapped to a HJC Raphta 70 helmet which has a lot less ventilation than my old Shark Spartan Carbon The real problem is that too much protection means no airflow, you canā€™t have that here in Oz. The idea is to deflect the air a bit but not cut all airflow.
  17. I made a cardboard template, than cut some Perspex a bit bigger and used a grinder for the final shape. A heat gun to give it a slight bend. Auto double sided tape to stick it on.
  18. Many years ago I bought a Racetech kit for my VFR and installed it. After that I did my own adjusting of the shim stacks until I found what I liked. I redid them 4 times on the VFR including the last time when I swapped out the original forks and installed ones with external rebound adjustment. Did it again on my Sprint ST with better results as it had a better set up and I knew what I was doing by this stage. The Tracer however threw the challenge of only one working cartridge, I wasn't sure how to adjust the shim stacks to suit this so I sent it to the Racetech local representative here for a full rebuild and gold valves installation. The idea was to pull it apart at some later stage to check out what they did and adjust it accordingly to fine-tune it, but it hasn't happened yet (17000km on it since install). If I keep the bike I think I'll go the way of separate function on each leg, or just get an Andreani kit.
  19. Iā€™ve got the Oxfords and wired through the stock cables. work well and controllable through the screen, including adjusting intensity. Half the price of Yamaha ones and pretty easy to adapt. Yamaha ones are a bit easier to install.
  20. Iā€™m 74kg and found the stock Tracer suspension way too soft, canā€™t imagine how a 220lb rider could possibly think that itā€™s ok. The point is that even if you have to respring and revalve the Yam ESA, it will still be cheaper than a whole new quality set on a non ESA bike, and will be much better.
  21. I can only vouch for ESA bikes Iā€™ve ridden, and have to say BMW and Triumph ESA are bloody awesome. Both had superb control and plenty of adjustments via screen. BMW in active mode or whatever they call it is outstanding. Go easy and itā€™s incredibly smooth, crank the throttle and start learning heavily and itā€™s a track bike. No matter what you replace your suspension with, it will be a one trick pony until you manually adjust it. Not the ESA. You canā€™t beat suspension that adjusts itself every 1000ā€™s of a second. It even self levels when you load it up. This is higher end I admit but by far the best thing since sliced bread. I think a lot of people comment on this without actually riding one. Yamaha ESA might be too soft just like all the other stock Tracers. And you can upgrade ESA just as easily as stock.
  22. I havenā€™t read the entire thread, but it could have been caused by incorrectly adjusted intake valves from the factory, or got too tight before adjustment time. I definitely donā€™t buy the bad fuel story.
  23. I doubt it would be lowered 1.5-2ā€ unless theyā€™re non Yamaha parts. That much lowering will have you scraping the stand and pegs at most corners unless youā€™re a very conservative rider. The factory Yamaha lowering links bring the rear down 15mm, you usually do the front by the same amount to keep the steering geometry the same. I have a 29ā€ inseam and have lowered mine 15mm all round, but I also have shorter feelers and raised the stand by around 10mm. Canā€™t stand flat footed but the bike is so light that it doesnā€™t worry me. Rough dirt roads can sometimes be a pain, but still manage. Make sure the seat is in the low position.
  24. Ha, I just realised that it's not a top box but a fuel cell. I can't afford to give up that much space. I reminds me of touring with my mate on his Tuono, we had to stop at every fuel station to make sure he made it. Bloody annoying. The record was fuelling up 10 times over 2 days on our way to Phillip Island which is a 1200km trip.
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