OZVFR

I had Dunlop Roadsmart, and hated them, too hard and after 50% wear felt terrible, then went for a couple of sets of Metzeler Z8's, a great tyre which felt very neutral and did everything right.

I then discovered Rosso III's and loved them, 6 sets later on 3 different bikes and still love the way they tip in and feed back they give, always wore out the sides before the centre. But after destroying 3 of them on rough dirt roads (very soft carcass) I decided to try something else.

I now have Metzeler 01's, So far so good, a very neutral tyre that feels great even when pushed with full luggage.

I use 32/38 pressure as I find the recommended pressure for the FJ too high for a relatively light bike that doesn't place enough weight on the front tyre.

I know the 17/18 has a 10mm longer swingarm than the 15/16 and are interchangeable, but I thought the later models have a different mounting set up and don't fit.

Not a 9, but on my 15 I did this which works ok for me. 
Couldn’t stand the stock screen.  

^ What Betoney says is correct.

And lots of tyres wear the same, it's more to do with the way the tread hits the pavement than damping set up.

I would just go with stock settings, I can't see how a bracket like that would need so much extra torque.

That's the sort of torque specified for single sided swingarms with one large nut holding the wheel.

31 minutes ago, piotrek said:

Adventure Tech is a pretty good IMO. I have inexpensive 10W LED lamps hanging off it, but there are options galore out there.

https://www.adventuretech.biz/fj-09-light-bar-install.html

That’s what I was after, fantastic. 
Thanks for that, I’ve already got the lights, gone for some 25w flood beams that should do what I want. 

Thanks guys, I'm definitely not a fan of increasing unsprung weight, and I don't have engine guards.

I might have to get them for this but was hoping to find another way.

Still trying to find out where the original Yamaha fog lights bracket attached.

Trying to install a set of driving lights on my 15 model.

What are the options?

8 hours ago, Skidood said:

Your avatar still makes me laugh, and I would have stolen it a long time to use as my avatar on another MC forum but they use circular graphics for avatars so it was a no-go

The moment I saw that picture 10 years ago I had to use it. 

This is the third forum now. 

On 4/1/2022 at 9:51 PM, 2and3cylinders said:

FYI, I have rebound and compression in both legs, with adjustable compression in the left utilizing modified OEM parts except for the compression damping.

I have to admit this sentence makes no sense to me.

On 4/1/2022 at 3:33 PM, vancuy said:

Did you get the valve kit plus springs?

The tracer only has 1 cartridge, so you only need one rebound and one compression valve. Type 3 has a mid valve, and I don’t think it’s an advantage on the Tracer. Just the normal gold valve kit is enough.

And yes, I also got the new springs, 0.85kg/mm in my case, I weigh 74kg.

PS: I'll also add that suspension is very personal, and just because it suits my riding doesn't mean it will suit someone else.

I've always done my own suspension work, and I'm very capable of setting up my own shim stacks and springs, have done it for many years on all of my bikes.

But the single cartridge on the Tracer was new to me, so I contacted Racetech for advice.

They had done so much work with the MT range on the shock dyno that I decided to just give it to them to sort (forks not the whole bike) and ended up very happy.

The hardest thing is always getting good control without losing comfort, it is always a compromise but you need to find what you like for how you ride. I ride my bike through the front wheel, and one thing I've never liked about the Tracer was not having enough weight on the front tyre which leads to low front feed back, that together with the stock horrendous front dive made it not a nice bike to push for my style.

I dropped the front 15mm and raised the rear 5mm, also raised the front fork oil height by 15mm. I also never use the recommended tyre pressures as I find that they’re too high for a low weight bike that doesn’t load the front very well. Usually 32/38 even with a load of gear, I would probably push that up a bit if I carried a pillion.

Front end feel is still not great, but at least I can now trust it to do what I want it to, and dive is now acceptable.

If you don't have lots of suspension know how, get someone that does. It's worth the money spent.

2 hours ago, vancuy said:

Hi Ozvfr,
Firstly thanks for replying to my post. I am from melbourne.

"right springs with properly set up gold valves" looks like the way to go.

I was thinking of Hyperpro Combi Kit ($600+ labour). (Progressive springs for front and one spring for rear shock)

How much did you have to pay for Racetech springs with properly set up gold valves?
Many Thanks

 

The springs and valving cost me around $650

Progressive springs are for old blokes with colostomy bags. Linear springs are the only way to go, you can’t set up proper damping to a spring that changes rate. 

Suspension R Us in Melbourne supplied me with the shock, YSS with remote preload adjuster (needed on the Tracer). 

Just got back from a 2500km camping trip around the Snowies and I’m very impressed. Bike could be pushed hard even fully loaded. Never wallowed or skipped once in the whole trip, even covered some pretty rough dirt roads. 

On 3/29/2022 at 4:19 AM, Magnum099 said:

Nice photo! What windshield is that? 

It's a modified one from an MT10 with a cheap wind deflector.

Works a treat for cutting turbulence by 80% and noise by 50%.

Removing the handguards also helped.

On 3/10/2022 at 8:20 PM, OZVFR said:

New Fleabay bracket installed and works a treat. 
 

Here’s a better view of how it really looks from eye view while sitting on bike. 
 

4 hours ago, flyfifer said:

Apart from blocking half of the screen

How short are you?t

Its actually not as bad as it looks, the phone sits horizontally, and when sitting on bike the bottom of the phone is just above the blinker light. 

New Fleabay bracket installed and works a treat. 
 

I've had the IPhone on a Quadlock mount on the handlebar until now, and found this a problem in traffic and waiting for the local ferry in the sun during summer. (I see that you've been coping a roasting in the Republic of McGowan this summer.)

It doesn't shut down, but decreases brightness as it heats up to save itself. As soon as you start moving and building speed it comes back, but it's hard to read in full sun. The Bluetooth keeps working though.

The phone sits too horizontally there and catches too much sun. I've ordered a GPS bracket from Fleabay that should be here this week which makes the phone sit nearly vertically above the dash, this should fix it.

Racetech shop in Sydney have done lots of work with the MT09 forks (identical to the Tracer) on the shock dyno. 

They found that the single cartridge set up can be made to work nearly as well as the twin set up as it loads the shim stacks a lot better. 

My original plan was to get a second cartridge but they talked me out of it as it didn’t offer much bang for buck. 

The right springs with properly set up gold valves work very well. 

Not as good as a quality set of after market cartridges, but only a quarter of the cost. 

And if you installed a second cartridge, you will need to revalue both of them for compression and rebound as together they would be too restrictive. 

It’s all on the first pictures. 

The muffler has three chambers, front middle and rear.

the exhaust first goes through the cat and dumps into the middle chamber, there’s a smaller diameter pipe that joins it to the rear chamber, then it goes through a bigger diameter pipe to the front chamber. 

The exit pipe runs through the whole muffler to the front chamber. 

I just opened up the rear chamber and cut a piece of the exit pipe so it picks up from the rear chamber instead of the front. Then cut the wall directly where the cat exits, so it now dumps directly to the rear chamber as well. 

Every bike I’ve ever owned had a Staintune pipe with no baffle, for the Tracer the only pipe that is comparable is the Akra, but I wasn’t going to spend AU$1600 to get one. 

Sound

Not very loud. Deeper note and builds with the revs. 
I didn’t want to go with the systems with small mufflers because I found them too loud and annoying on long trips, I also didn’t want a system with a long muffler that spoiled the looks. 
If you ride it sedately it draws no attention, but at high revs it just sings.  

And the finished product

9 hours ago, Mark Jackson said:

Cheers OZ, how big did you make the hole?

Here are some pictures, it was actually easy and fast.

Very easy job that makes a huge difference.

I did mine in under 1 hour, took it to a muffler shop and they mig welded it for me, AU$50 and looks stock.

All I used was a reciprocating saw, an angle grinder with a very thin cut off wheel, and a stepped drill bit.

You will also need new crush gaskets for the headers.