What did you do to your FJ-tracer-gt today?

[builderbob]

No today, but a couple of weekends ago I spent a few days in Asheville, NC doing some mountain riding with my bro-in-law. He has a 2008 BMW K1200GT. Had it since new. After a few days there, we both had to head to Ohio (I live in Florida) for business. I suggested that He ride my FJ for the 450 miles or so that we needed to cover that day. 
Well, that was a Monday. By the next Saturday, he had a brand-spankin-new white FJ parked in his garage. Traded the BMW.
 
So, not so much about what I did to my FJ, but much more about what I did to his BMW. Vanquished!
 
Another BMW convert. I don't post much, but some may remember that I came from a BMW as well.

Good call! What was that "gotta have it" quality that appealed to him so much to make him part with his long-time friend?

Many factors, I'm guessing.  Some of the same ones that made me, as well as many of us on this board, make the switch as well.  Lightness, capability, power, features, price.  I'm sure the K-bike was getting long in the tooth for him as well. 
For my own take on it, the FJ ticks all the boxes.  Prior to the FJ, I was on a new bike every two years.  This is the first one that I can see myself on for many more than that.  Time will tell with my bro-in-law, but he did stick with the k-bike for 10.

[wordsmith]

FITTED A PAIR OF GRIP PUPPIES

Unless I really, really concentrate and try hard, and/ or grip the bar-ends very tightly I cannot detect any vibration or buzziness from the handlebars – this bike seems eerily smooth! But fitting Grip Puppies – marketed as being ‘to reduce handlebar vibration’ – definitely helps comfort as they also increase the otherwise-skinny diameter of the ‘bars.
 
Beware imitations – some inferior and not much cheaper lookalikes pose as ‘Grip Puppies’ or similarly-named items. Often you can almost see through them if they are held up to the light!
 
Fitting is not quite the ‘simply slide them on’ act suggested, but I have fitted many pairs of these and today’s job took precisely eight ( minutes.
 
First step is to remove the handguard bracket ends.
 
Next, plenty of soapy water is needed inside the Puppies and on the handgrips to ease them on – I used a liberal amount of liquid soap.
 
Gently – if necessary – use a spoon handle or something similar to get the Puppy started over the ridged ‘bar end.
 
Then, the best way to slide the Puppy onto the grip is to grasp it firmly with a towel and twist the Puppy backwards and forwards while pushing inwards. Don’t be frightened to add more liquid soap + water!
 
Once on, you can squeeze the Puppy along its length with the towel, which will remove most excess soapy water – the rest will safely dry out on your first and more comfortable ride with the Grip Puppies installed.
 
Highly recommended!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

[Cruizin]

FITTED A PAIR OF GRIP PUPPIES
Unless I really, really concentrate and try hard, and/ or grip the bar-ends very tightly I cannot detect any vibration or buzziness from the handlebars – this bike seems eerily smooth! But fitting Grip Puppies – marketed as being ‘to reduce handlebar vibration’ – definitely helps comfort as they also increase the otherwise-skinny diameter of the ‘bars.
 
Beware imitations – some inferior and not much cheaper lookalikes pose as ‘Grip Puppies’ or similarly-named items. Often you can almost see through them if they are held up to the light!
 
Fitting is not quite the ‘simply slide them on’ act suggested, but I have fitted many pairs of these and today’s job took precisely eight ( minutes.
 
First step is to remove the handguard bracket ends.
 
Next, plenty of soapy water is needed inside the Puppies and on the handgrips to ease them on – I used a liberal amount of liquid soap.
 
Gently – if necessary – use a spoon handle or something similar to get the Puppy started over the ridged ‘bar end.
 
Then, the best way to slide the Puppy onto the grip is to grasp it firmly with a towel and twist the Puppy backwards and forwards while pushing inwards. Don’t be frightened to add more liquid soap + water!
 
Once on, you can squeeze the Puppy along its length with the towel, which will remove most excess soapy water – the rest will safely dry out on your first and more comfortable ride with the Grip Puppies installed.
 
Highly recommended!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
Wow, this would have made a great tech tip in our tech tip section.
 

[wordsmith]

Wow, this would have made a great tech tip in our tech tip section.

What're you sayin', Cruizin?

[prepa]

Puig touring arrived today. Installation afterwork :-)

[BBB]

Puig touring arrived today. Installation afterwork :-)

Did you also get the handguard relocation bits with the screen? They catch otherwise.

[wordsmith]

[b style=font-style:italic]INSTALLED A PAIR OF HI-VIZ FRONT LEDs[/b]
 
Finally I installed the front hi-viz LED spotlights, after searching for help from others, for when it comes to electrons I am a very fine deep-sea diver! But thanks to those who advised via this Forum, as eventually I found very detailed and fully illustrated directions under the ‘FJ-09 Tech Tips & How To’ here.
 
These LEDs don’t throw light down the road as does the conventional headlight – they are simply intended to highlight my presence to others. ‘Brighter than a thousand suns?’ – well, maybe not, but bright enough – see pic.

I chose to buy the pair of inexpensive, small 2” diameter LEDs from an E Bay site – AUD$26, mailing included, and they arrived nine (9) days after ordering. They are somewhat fancifully called ‘Angel Eyes’, but they do chime very well visually with the adjacent headlights - see pix. 
 
Following the Forum guidance I wired the two LEDs directly into one of the ‘spare’ fly lead connectors under the instrument cluster, and lo! – it worked. No mucking around with relays or whatever, and even I found no difficulty with the job – it just took longer than it should have, being fiddly rather than tricky.
 
The screen had to be removed, then two other parts underneath, to reveal a mass of wires and cable and so on – see pic – but the Forum advice was spot-on. As I want the LEDs on all the time the engine is running I decided not to put a switch into the circuit, although I had one.
 
After an initial trial fit of the cross-bar on which the LEDs are mounted I wasn’t too happy with its rather DIY appearance, so I re-jigged it, putting a gentle upward bend towards the outer end of the bar, and spray-painted it semi-gloss black – see pic before painting. That lifted the LEDs up a little - a quick check of some past photographs shows me that they are in exactly the same location as on the last bike - and I think it may also minimise vibration.
 
The 3mm x 33mm aluminium cross-bar is mounted via two bolts onto the underside of the little curved ‘shelf’ immediately under the front honeycomb device. I drilled the mounting holes a little over-size and used rubber washers too so as to further minimise vibration.
 
A satisfying job, and now onto the next!
 
Let there be light!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[prepa]

Puig touring arrived today. Installation afterwork :-)

Did you also get the handguard relocation bits with the screen? They catch otherwise.

Yes, it came in package...

[bobdog]

Took it to get parts for my HD...

[Trambo]

Took it to get parts for my HD...

This post made me LOL.  (rofl)

[Trambo]

I cleaned up a little of the Dragon grime from mine earlier. Got back from Deal's Gap this weekend after a full week in the Smokies. Had a blast putting nearly 1,000 miles on the odo while I was there.
 
Interestingly enough, last week was a bad BAD week for my buddies that were the Triumph riders in our group. 4 mechanical failures on Triumphs in total all week. 1 Sprint ST blew it's motor out on the Cherahola Skyway. 1 Tiger broke it's internal shift rod not far from the Sprint in TN. 1 Street Triple died from electrical gremlins (ignition cylinder went bad) and another Tiger shat it's rear wheel bearings on the guy's way home.
 
Made me feel pretty good about my Yammer.

[britelitebob]

I cleaned up a little of the Dragon grime from mine earlier. Got back from Deal's Gap this weekend after a full week in the Smokies. Had a blast putting nearly 1,000 miles on the odo while I was there. 
Interestingly enough, last week was a bad BAD week for my buddies that were the Triumph riders in our group. 4 mechanical failures on Triumphs in total all week. 1 Sprint ST blew it's motor out on the Cherahola Skyway. 1 Tiger broke it's internal shift rod not far from the Sprint in TN. 1 Street Triple died from electrical gremlins (ignition cylinder went bad) and another Tiger shat it's rear wheel bearings on the guy's way home.
 
Made me feel pretty good about my Yammer.

Sounds like someone put some bad JuJu on you guys....I hope you remembered to slow down when you passed the cemeteries cause there's a bunch of dead Indians buried up in them hills.  

[duhs10]

Installed my re-valved shock and rear spring tonight as I'm waiting on parts to finish my fork cartridge install. Went off without a hitch thanks to this thread. Only thing I would do differently is remove the lower dog link bolt first because it will give you more access to the lower shock mount bolt.

[wordsmith]

ADDED A PAIR OF M-STORE MIRROR RISERS/ EXTENDERS
 
These are really great!   As the name suggests, they both lift the mirrors UP and move them OUTWARDS.   The gains are UPWARDS an increase of 35mm (1.5") and OUTWARDS an increase of 45mm (1.75")***.   Together with the small 2” diameter ‘blind spot’ mirrors already fitted I think the combination gives me unbeatable rearward vision.
 
I had them on my previous Tracer and they were an early purchase for this one, costing AUD$26 post-free.   They are beautifully made - in Taiwan - and were delivered within 13 days of ordering.   I bought the black risers, but they can be had in a variety of other anodized colours.
 
The lhs (clutch) side requires the riser to be *** slightly angled forwards (horizontally) so as to clear the rocker select switch there, but that only reduces its OUTWARD location by a few mm, which doesn’t detract much from its effectiveness.
 
Highly recommended.

(A word of caution for anyone working on the OE mirror stems - the securing nuts are the consistency of over-ripe Camembert cheese, so to avoid damaging and marking them use a spanner or shifter with the widest possible face on the jaws that grip the nut).


 

 

 

[wordsmith]

FITTED NEW RUBBER-TOPPED RIDER FOOTPEGS
 
The heavily-studded OE foot-pegs may suit the bike, but having a lazy left ankle I find that the sole of my boot sometimes catches on that peg: this is not desirable when gear-changing or moving to put the left foot down at a stop! Enter the rubber-insert replacement pegs, free of aggressive boot-grabbing spikes and a little wider and longer than the OE items – see pic.

I guess the main objective with these rubber-topped pegs is to minimise vibration, but not so for me – I can’t detect any vibes anyway, so for me the rationale is easier/ safer foot movements on and off the lhs peg.
 
I had fitted a pair of these to my earlier MT-09, so the job was familiar and relatively straightforward, fiddly rather than difficult, although it does require drilling-out the swivel-pin that secures the lhs peg to install the new one with its circlip. On the rhs the OE swivel-pin is secured with a split-pin (as are both pillion pegs) – so much easier, and why each side is different is beyond me…!
 
I know from the last bike that I’ll need to lengthen the lowering-stem on the side-stand, as the longer foot-peg sometimes makes it tricky for me (lazy ankle again!) to easily find with the boot, but that’s a small job. I’ll get it done soon enough by welding one of the now-discarded long hero-knobs from the old ‘pegs onto the end of the lowering-stem – the pic below is from the last bike.
 
The kit – see pic – cost a mere AUD$14, shipping included and contains the new ‘pegs, pins, securing circlips, springs, and even new short 15mm/ 5/8" hero-knobs! How do they do it for the price?
 
Recommended.

(pix 3 and 4 -hi Robert! -shouldn't be there!)