Eventhorizon

So let me play the other side of this the reasons why "cheap" armor is put in. 1) There is a price point to meet, especially for low end "beginner" gear. Its not the best... but its better than nothing. Lets face it.. for lots of riders gear is less important then the bike its self, or don't have much money for gear anyway. 2) There are some like me that will go out and buy the better armor anyway and stuff it in the jacket. 3) No one wants bulky armor gear to put on or wear around the office, shopping, or while eating food. Bulky armor while safe is not conformable. If you want total safety, wear a track day suit every day, but you wont for the same reasons. I can see the future of motorcycle gear where instead of armor there is a small airbags in place that allows gear and clothing to feel more natural while being protective when all the little airbags go off.

So i just got done watching it (Really didn't get time to adsorb it or let it process a little bit) and I don't think that the message that he was trying to tell was how armor is not protective as it could be, or just remove it because its useless.. Let me see if my tired self can convey what I'm thinking here. The message is that armor is this way because the manufacturers have no reason to make it better. To quote him: "European Standard stipulates that any Class A able a AAA rated garment must be sold with these impact pads that's something like a leather jacket or a thick denim pant it's actually illegal in a motorcycle shop in Europe to sell a class a garment without these what that means is that Revit Alpine Stars Dai ixen fan they don't have to compete shelf to Shelf with universal Brands like coach or Levis or Patagonia never mind that the pads do nothing to protect our bones they're very effective at protecting a captive market for the motorcycle industry remember it was the gear manufacturers that lobbied for such a low performance threshold to begin with there's actually a term for this when a regulation meant for our Public Safety gets co-opted by an industry to become a convenient barrier to entry for its own competition the term is regulatory capture that is the quiet part" To summarize, he is showing that armor put into off the rack clothing has not kept up with other technologies as helmets, tires, abs, etc because they don't have to. Focusing on F9 numbers about the safety of the armor that comes standard I don't think is the focus point, but its needed to show that it should be years better in protection off the shelf.

Anyone got a HJC RPHA-91 that they use? I see some HJC love in this thread and want to know if anyone got any experience with this helmet? I see its "pinlock ready" but does not come with a pin lock, unless I'm wrong or reading this wrong. Depending on the price of the pinlock it wont push it too close to the price of the Neotech 3 but it would push this a little above mid range price.

I took a look at the HJC RPHA series and your right they are not "quite" as expensive as the Shoei and Arai but they are solidly "mid priced". I took a look at cyclegear site for modular helmets and there are a few that are around $450 and below that do still meet the ECE 22.06 testing if a modular helmet is a must. Not sure about fit and finish but if a modular is a must there are a some that are in the low to mid pricing that still meet the new standard.

Well the 2 is $599 with a $200 dollar discount. I'm thinking the 3 is going to get up in the low mid $800 with the additional tweaks and adding the #3 to the name. It will also meet the new ECE 22.06 homologated standard..

That is because the Neo 3 is about to hit the shelves in a few weeks, trying to get rid of innovatory. Not a bad price really. I'm still saving my lunch money up for the Neo 3 (not going with the GT air 3 anymore). All most got enough..

Had the latest ECU recall service done on my 2021 today, the original I think it was 2022 recall for the ECU flash because of low speed stalling (I experienced 2x) and other issues. I felt this flash was good with the exception of the decel fuel kick in at 3k rpms (The sudden lack of engine braking), but I lived with it and while I did consider this harsh, I just programmed my self to expect it and adapt to it. It was better then (or is it "better than") the issues that it fixed. This latest flash I think might do it. Decel to 3k the fuel kick in is super smooth with now notes of burbling and some popping. I'm not sure if they just just use less fuel initially (most likely) or maybe do a "skip cylinder" and during decel don't fire all cylinders and alternate among them to tone down the kick. I only have 40 miles on the new flash.. but I'm really liking it. Everything else about the engine performance and quick shifter behavior is business as usual. I did have the O2 sensor recall done and they did not find any corrosion and just boot and taped everything. I'm kind of surprised that is all that they did. My bike is my daily out of 3.5 seasons of the year, rain is rain and nothing more then needing to put on my rain suit.

My self I'm staying away from the lithium batteries for now. With a bike that weighs in at almost 500 lbs a couple of lbs isn't going to make a difference. The prices of the lithium batteries are falling tho, and will soon reach the price point of AGM. I'm surprised your Yuasa had such a short life, I have known these batteries in a stored controlled environment and on a tender to last 8 to 9 years and only get replaced because of age with no signs of stopping. My self I'm sticking with AGM for now, even tossed one into the car because of how reliable AGM batteries are even in harsh environments. What ever you go with, make sure to get your batteries direct from the source, or a supported dealer. Don't get them from amazon for example, they are most likely not a supported dealer and worse off Chinese clones. With your battery choices, I'd go with the 400 amp and save a few $$$

I don't think that there is much sloppy movement there, the stubby shaft shouldn't move much if at all. For 20 tho it cant hurt I guess to add a little more shiny to the bike. I know there are bikes where the shift shaft was long and yes then the free play is multiplied by the length and gets sloppy. Id also like to see the play between the ball joints and also the shift lever its self (where your foot goes) and see if that can be eliminated also. My old v-strom sloppy shifting was from the foot lever, not from the shift shaft. Once I cleaned that up it was a little more smoother shifting, but didn't feel sloppy on the foot (which I felt was just as important)

I have a Shoei GT Air and love it, expensive, but love it. My first Shoei was their cheap full face helmet (i forget the name) back in something like 2010 and I can tell from the previous helmets that not only did it fit better but the handling at highway speeds (not pulling no tugging, look left or right and the helmet did not fight me) that Shoei was doing something right aerodynamically. So is it worth it to buy such an expensive helmet? To me is it.. I ride every day I can, lots of times at highway speeds, and as long as its not below freezing I'm riding. My bike is my daily and the helmet reduces fatigue from winds throwing the helmet around, fogging (pinlock), lightweight, almost like I'm not wearing one at all and the helmet is not a bother. Part of the cost associated with this is that Shoei helmets are still mostly hand made, thus the quality and cost. There are two other companies that I think also do this to the same level, AGV and Schuberth. I am looking to replace it next year (it will be about 7 years) and looking towards the GT Air 3, but yea sicker shock again. I'm going to have to save up more money if I want their "upgrade". My GT Air has held up perfectly though out the years of riding, sweating, freezing, heat exhaustion. There is no fade in the finish and looks still brand new, the pads are in great shape from the years (some wear and tear but still fit snug), visor and pinlock still good. Yes I do take good care of my stuff and so should you. The cost can be associated with quality at times, brand name, little something that makes you want Shoei product A a little more then say AGV product A. Or a helmet that feels like your not wearing one at all and you don't have to fuss with it. I see lots of threads not only in this forum and others about finding the perfect windshield for your bike, and how I'm 5'0 and this shield works, but this does not. Or how I'm 6'1" and I need a barn door shield because all the buffeting, but they never look at how their helmet catches all this turbulence and transfers it to the rider. Its nice passing trucks on the highway and not feel like the helmet is trying to kill me with the side turbulence. So to not make this sound like a sales pitch, sorry it if did, Shoei priced this because they know someone like me will save up their lunch money and part with the money for their helmets. I'm also going to give AGV and Schuberth a look at too and see if there is something that is a little better, but its nice after a few hundred mile ride to not have added fatigue because of the helmet.

This sounds like my 2013 Subaru.. If I have to remove the battery for what ever reason next time I go to start it up, it will run like crap for a couple of days, hundred miles, before it figures out and re learns everything. Its a manual and a couple of times when slowing down for a stop light and put it in neutral the engine will just straight up die, not even fight it. I know its getting better when it fights it, and eventually wins 🙂

Yea looking back on things the outcome was pretty much the best that it could be, didn't go down, didn't get hurt and the tracer still got me home. Already was looking at getting the engine guard direct from SW-Motech, silver is cheaper by almost 100, and a little rattle can paint with black and the signature Yamaha purple stripe might look nice. Reality tho, I'm just going to get the black belly pan anyway. I think it will just look better I got in contact with a moto shop to have the sump / oil pan replaced and i just need to schedule a time for them to pick it up. If there is one good thing, this part is replaceable at least. Insurance is a joke, filed a claim, they asked if my airbags went off, and other car specific questions while I kept on reminding them this is for my motobike. This is another story for another day.

Pretty much as the title states, I was heading home from a work event tonight in semi dark and the front wheel went over something about 1/2 inch (about 12 ish mm) and heard a small hit, then something hit my center stand but the rear wheel did not go over the object. Figured it was something small maybe a rock or what ever that got kicked up. Next light looked over the side of the bike and everything appears fine.. Carry on. Got close to home (about 15 minutes later) and smelled burning oil, but never minded it because around here occasionally we get cars that are not taken care of that .. well burn oil.. Pulled into the back of my house, got off and looked at the back of the bike and the rear tire had droplets, dried, on the left side.. I'm thinking what did I hit a can of soda maybe? Look around to the front and there is it.. a puddle of oil forming under the front. Quickly put the bike in the garage and put the oil pan under it and check the sight glass for oil. Plenty left over and while its dripping about one drop every 2 seconds its not a lot. Further investigation shows two small impacts on the oil sump, one a few millimeters to the right of the drain plug, small, but enough to cause a hairline fracture and an oil weep. There is another small impact under the sump that other then the impact did not cause oil loss. The exhaust is cover in oil, and the rear wheel has some on it but nothing too concerning. So while I am thankful that this event was not more .. ah.. exciting.. and I'm safe.. I now need to get this repaired and also checking out the thread (Buy a Skidplate) for suggestions on skidplates I want find a nice lightweight and thin skid plate for the bike, I really don't want a bulky looking thing on a bike that looks like well performance. Looking at the SW-Motech Yamaha Tracer 9 GT RN70. As for the bike its self, it will most likely go to the shop for replacement and have my comprehensive insurance cover the cost of this. These days between work and life I don't have it in me to replace this my self at this moment. I can also get my O2 and Flash recall done on it too while its in the shop. As for the rest of the bike. I checked the front and rear wheels for impact, scuffing, anything and they are fine. I looked over the rest of the bike (center stand that I think got hit) and everything appears fine. Plenty of oil left over and the oil light never came on. What ever I hit it was metal thats all I know

I don't think we are getting the full story here. There are multiple points of damage here and with out full pictures of the tear down no conclusion can be made. All the parts of the transmission need to be shown. It was posted that while it was just out of warranty, Yamaha was going to cover it, but then after i guess the investigation decided it was not manufacture defect. Here is what I found from this one picture showing more then just a missing tooth and chipped tooth.

Yea that is interesting.. Because I never had an issue with this with my bikes. So I took a look though the PA inspection code (https://www.dmv.pa.gov/Driver-Services/Motorcyclists/Pages/Motorcycle-Inspection-and-Equipment-Regulations.aspx) Sub chapter H for the motorcycle code. There are some bullet items in there about fog lamps, but nothing about being on a separate switch, but that the fog lamps need to shut off if the high beams are used. I know this is true of even with cars 6) Check the lamps and lenses and REJECT IF one or more of the following apply: blah blah blah borning stuff blah (ix) The fog lamps operate with the high beams of headlamps.

I had this talk with other forum members on other bike sites, and it comes down to the bottom line is "within spec is within spec" according to the service manual as they specify how to measure. If it fails the specifications of the service manual as they specify then you change. Typically this is a Go - No Go with feelers and not really with the "drag" of the feelers. For example with the exhaust .26-.30mm, if you can get a .26mm in there, straight with drag, it still passes. If you cant, then its out of spec. If you don't care to measure where they are and you just want to know if it passes hit all the valves with the smallest spec and go from there. That being said there are those that with the first valve check will just go ahead and re shim to the biggest gap allowed and then call it done for the life of the engine. I personally re shimmed one bike to middle of spec just because that is how its supposed to come from the factory. Just make sure that all the intakes and exhaust valves are the same number, what ever number you pick. Is it possible, that unless your really hitting the motor hard and racing it, that your valves are not going to change anymore (that you can measure) and your set for life. So that being said, is it better to leave it "tight but in spec" or "very loose but within spec". Loose but in spec: valve lift is lower and duration is shorter (good for torque) Tight but in spec valve lift is higher and duration is longer (high revving motors) I can in my mind not really see a bit power difference, and i don't think anyone cared to dyno a CP3 engine with tight and loose specs to see what the real difference are. I would think that if your going to re-shim you should go ahead and sync up the throttle bodies while there. I'm sure that they are off too.

Yea I'm not a fan of linked brakes. I know at one time I wasn't a fan of ABS, but here i am a fan of ABS. I guess I just got try it.

For me its always B mode. I tried both A and B in the beginning and there really was not much of a difference (to me) between the two. I can still get the front wheel up in B. I think that between the two it only "tames" a little bit the first 30% of throttle response. Once you get up there its the same anyway. I'm used to twitchy throttles anyway so its just meh.. and never went back to A after riding for a while Most of my riding is either highway or parking lot speeds (3 MPH indicated at times) traffic craw.. It just works I guess.

Truth be told, changing it more often then recommended isn't going to hurt anything other than your wallet. If it makes you feel good do it.. but your not going to void the warranty following the recommended service interval. Just go with the Yamaha filter is my recommendation. If your loading up your filter and need to change it after every change you have more problems going on in your engine. There should be very little if anything in the filter that would clog up the filter. Even if you burned your clutch to dust there most likely isn't enough to clog the filter. A slightly dirty filter, filters better than a clean one. These engines run clean (esp the Euro 5 ones) that there is no reason to change it every oil change. the amount of dirty oil left over is only a small percentage of new. Just change the oil and filter at the recommended intervals that the engineers at Yamaha wrote up. They know these engines; and spend more time worrying about planning the next motorcycle trip.

Former SV650 rider here too (2003) and i loved how that clutch on that bike bit early during the release. For me it also helped with low speed maneuvers with two finger (I had aftermarket levers on it) control of the clutch. The 2021 Gt I noticed the bite for the clutch was way out, and kind of took a little bit of time to get used to. It really affected my low speed clutch feathering and went with aftermarket pazzo levers. I got the front brake perfect but the clutch even on number 1 (closets to the handlebar) was a lot better I needed a little more. I took out the adjuster and now its perfect. I dont have small hands, but I like having the bite of the clutch happen within the first 25% of the clutch release from the bar out. I have better muscle control there .

@Larz so as you see this is a big topic and you are going to get a lot of opinions and thoughts on what is great and what is not great (even from my self a couple of posts before). The good thing is that in his modern day and age that any tire from any major manufacture will offer a good tire at a decent mid level price. Stay away from the cheap ones and you really dont need the most expensive ones (unless you really want them I'm not going to tell you how to spend your money 😁). What is unique and custom to you is the "personality" of the tire and how your ride and what you expect.. Personality is how fast the tire wants to make the bike fall into the corner, is it neutral or do you need to keep pressure on the bars to maintain the intended path, does the bike want to stand up or slide down when on the throttle in a corner, straight line braking and is it neutral or does it make the bike want to wander during hard braking, lines in the road and how much the tire wants to lock in and follow lines (like road milling lines) What is your riding style. For instance mine is spirited back roads for the weekend, but there is lots of daily highway riding to the office that is rain or shine (dont matter) so what works for me may not work for you. Sadly your going to need to read lot of boring reviews, and wonder if you got the best tire for you and your bike. You wont know unless you try them all. The good is that any tire with Silica (lots of brands have it) will offer very good grip in dry and the rain. For longevity well, while it has improved in the years there still is a decision to be made about the slider between longevity and grip. Slide one way or the other or somewhere in the middle. It has gotten better but a decision needs to be made. I'm not sure if it helps but lots of manufactures have put out a GT version of the tire for heaver bikes for longer wear. I dont know how this affects grip on say if you put this on a lighter bike. With so many good choices out there you really cant go wrong, but you will wonder if you got the "best" for you.

That was a bit more than just a rough patch.. that was a gouge in the road I think. I puckered up for that because I have done that before with another bike. Quick diversion of conversation, how do you like that 180 deg mirror? I was thinking of getting one

So I have ridden my bikes (DL650 and SV650) with Road 5s, S21, ContiTrailAttack 3, various bridgestone battlax tires and honestly I'm trying to hate these T32's that came with my Tracer 9 gt but I just cant. I had a thing against Bridgestone for motorcycle tires for a while. These T32's are surprisingly good overall tires. Unless your one of those nuts flying down the road at 100 MPH in the rain there is no reason not to give them a serious look. Take this from a nut that rides 85 in the rain on the highway. Compared to the road 5s I feel that they are right there with grip in the rain and dry, maybe road 5 a little better. I feel that tracking in corners is a little better with the T32s than the road 5's especially after some highway use where a little squaring off on the road 5's cause a little bit of wandering in the corners. I get a little bit of a "rumble" from the road 5s large water channels when cornering that I dont get with the T32's. Wear is about the same for both, but it seems that the road 5 is squaring off a little more with highway riding. I dont know how the improvements with the road 6 are now. When these die out I might just plop another set of T32s on the bike, or go with maybe Dunlop SportMax RoadSmart 4s. I am honestly pleasantly surprised that I can throw the bike around with these T32 tires, the tires that I'm still trying to hate but I cant.

So one other thing I got to test was an issue that I reported and someone else did too about a "hot restart" condition. This is where for say your riding the bike and you stop for fuel. You fuel up and then hop on to start the bike. The bike will fire but then stall out. Hit the starter again and usually the bike fires up but maybe boggy or run weird for a few seconds. I had the pleasure of filling up with expensive fuel and got on the bike and it fired off and stalled, but this time a restart and it fired up and there was no boggy or weird running issues. The bike was only a few miles warm so while it was at running temperature, it was not "heat soaked" (Running for at least 20 miles) when the issue was most likely to appear. Oh well ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

So got the re flashing done today and I spent the previous week doing "butt dyno" checking and making mental notes on how the bike ran before and after. Before the re-flash I felt the throttle was great, quick shifter did it just nicely, and there was a small fuel injection turn on "bump" when off the throttle (just engine braking not the brakes not applied) and the RPMs drop below 3K RPM. This is nothing new, every fuel injected bike I ever owned had a point where the injectors turned on again. Well after the re flash the only issue I had was the red yield sign came on for a half a second and disappeared 30 seconds after starting up to head home. I took the long way home to test out the new update. The only difference that I notice is that the throttle is slightly crisper, but the quick shifter feels the same, and still had that same minor fuel injection turn on at 3k RPMs while engine braking. I did have a quick stop while kind of hard on the brakes and just quick shifting down. I got the "trailer bump" hit at 1st gear while still engine braking and on the regular brakes and I cant really recall if this did this before the flash. This is not really a bump but its a sudden lack of engine braking because the fuel injection now turns on expecting you to pull in the clutch. If you did the same thing but pulled in the clutch you'd get the same result. Over all its a slight improvement over the stock flash and i'm happy with it with the slightly crisper throttle.