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

[keithu]

On 5/17/2020 at 7:45 AM, texscottyd said:

Well, the weatherman missed this one by a mile:  It was actually sunny yesterday afternoon, and this morning is overcast but dry.   How do I score a weather forecasting gig?  I’m really good at inaccurate random guesses...  

So, I’m going riding (alone) for a few hours.  

Same here. Sunday morning was really nice, so I took the FJ on an errand to Sweet Home. 

I got a Spot tracker for the Butt Lite Rally, and here's my track for Sunday. It only pings the satellite every 10 minutes so it doesn't really show the roads I was on, just where I happened to be at 10 minute intervals. Twas a lovely morning for a ride. 

[texscottyd]

6 hours ago, tktplz said:

Those look like new RoadSmart III's!

Indeed they are.   I’ll write up a detailed evaluation after I get a few more miles on them, but my initial impressions are favorable.   The steering behavior is very different from the Michelins I’ve been running, as the profile of the front seems to be much more round on the Dunlop...  it’s different.  Not necessarily better or worse, just different.   

[banderso]

29 minutes ago, texscottyd said:

Indeed they are.   I’ll write up a detailed evaluation after I get a few more miles on them, but my initial impressions are favorable.   The steering behavior is very different from the Michelins I’ve been running, as the profile of the front seems to be much more round on the Dunlop...  it’s different.  Not necessarily better or worse, just different.   

Hi, yep, interested in your thoughts.

7000 miles on a current set of RS3....

See ya

bill

[riding_tall]

Found a wild motorcycle xing. Apparently this is where herds of wild motorcycles cross the road.

No trail, just field on both sides and main road across the top of the photo.

[betoney]

I adjusted the suspension (slightly less compression damping F & R) so I had to go out for a 160 mile test ride... just to make sure.

This goes through Wynoochee Valley, out to the dam and back is 70 miles of curves like this WITH NO TRAFFIC.  More than ample to verify the suspension settings.😎👍   The Bridgestone S22's laugh at corners like this at 85mph.

[2and3cylinders]

2 hours ago, riding_tall said:

Found a wild motorcycle xing. Apparently this is where herds of wild motorcycles cross the road.

No trail, just field on both sides and main road across the top of the photo.

That's pretty bizarre, unique to me.

Here's a few that should put a smile on a true motorcyclist's face... 

[2and3cylinders]

55 minutes ago, betoney said:

I adjusted the suspension (slightly less compression damping F & R) so I had to go out for a 160 mile test ride... just to make sure.

This goes through Wynoochee Valley, out to the dam and back is 70 miles of curves like this WITH NO TRAFFIC.  More than ample to verify the suspension settings.😎👍   The Bridgestone S22's laugh at corners like this at 85mph.

I hate you...

BTW, the color of your pillion hand holds is different (light silver vs medium dark grey) than mine.  What gives, is it just the lighting?

[betoney]

17 minutes ago, 2and3cylinders said:

BTW, the color of your pillion hand holds is different (light silver vs medium dark grey) than mine.  What gives, is it just the lighting?

No, I reshaped mine, I cut off the front section, sanded all of the angles smooth and painted them silver like the newer Tracer/ GT.

[1moreroad]

6 hours ago, banderso said:

Hi, yep, interested in your thoughts.

7000 miles on a current set of RS3....

See ya

bill

New RS2s are cheap in every sense of the word. After this pair is worn out, I won't by discount sport touring tires ever again. And I generally like Dunlops. 

[texscottyd]

2 hours ago, betoney said:

This goes through Wynoochee Valley, out to the dam and back is 70 miles of curves like this WITH NO TRAFFIC.

The Bridgestone S22's laugh at corners like this at 85mph.

Yet somehow I’m the one that’s tough on tires???   

[Buggy Nate]

10 hours ago, betoney said:

How much adjustability for leg room do they offer?

About 10-20mm further back and 10mm lower, but the way the plates are set up means you can potentially make some intermediate brackets to put them where you want.

[betoney]

12 minutes ago, texscottyd said:

Yet somehow I’m the one that’s tough on tires???   

Even though the posted limit was 40mph, when I would hit the corners at 80-85-90, I'm almost certain I could hear the tires let out a bored YAWN and whisper "sissy!!!".  😎

[2and3cylinders]

2 hours ago, betoney said:

No, I reshaped mine, I cut off the front section, sanded all of the angles smooth and painted them silver like the newer Tracer/ GT.

pourquoi?  other than looks?  Less room for bungie's though I see you added the tie down rings for that.  Maybe easier to mount and dismount without the forward portion.  

whose turn signals are those and are your fronts the same (but 3-wire)?  I bought a used set of fronts and put em on the rear and ran a 3rd wire for the running lights.  installed LED "bulbs" front and rear with a low-load turn signal relay. bright as heck and more conspicuity all around especially in the rear, as the tail / stop light IMO is weak.  I do have a Knight Rider type LED strip running around the back and sides of the Shad top case rack, and amber LED "position" strips on the "side covers".  been thinking about a Blaster or something but don't want (to use) combined turn/stop/tail function. is that a LED license plate light surround (if so, whose), or part of a fender eliminator kit?  Given you live where it rains a lil bit, don't you get rooster tailed without the oem rear fender/tail/license plate?!  I added a Pyramid hugger extension that works pretty well and keeps the Razor-R fairly clean too 

 

[betoney]

1 minute ago, 2and3cylinders said:

pourquoi?  other than looks?  Less room for bungie's though I see you added the tie down rings for that.  Maybe easier to mount and dismount without the forward portion.  

whose turn signals are those and are your fronts the same (but 3-wire)?  I bought a used set of fronts and put em on the rear and ran a 3rd wire for the running lights.  installed LED "bulbs" front and rear with a low-load turn signal relay. bright as heck and more conspicuity all around especially in the rear, as the tail / stop light IMO is weak.  been thinking about a Blaster or something but don't want (to use) combined turn/stop/tail function. is that a LED license plate light surround (if so, whose), or part of a fender eliminator kit?  Given you live where it rains a lil bit, don't you get rooster tailed without the oem rear fender/tail/license plate?!  I added a Pyramid hugger extension that works pretty well and keeps the Razor-R fairly clean too 

 

I had taken the grab handles off a long time ago, during the stay at home order I found them on a shelf in the garage so I decided to get creative.  I cut the front extended portion off to make them a little more sleek and since I like my bike to be a little unique, I chose to paint them silver to add a bit of contrast to all of the black on the back end.

The front and rear LED signals are X-Arc

X-Arc Lights - the brightest LED Brake lights, turn signals, tail lights

The license plate frame is made by VoloLights, it has a built in accelerometer which detects deceleration or forward pitch and the LED flashes brightly.  Just one more safety device. 🤷‍♀️

Vololights Review

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The Vololights "Brakeless Deceleration Indicator" The Vololights Brakeless...

I also have the Blaster-X tail light, running light LED's all the way across instead of just the sides and programmable for different flash patterns.

2015-2017 Yamaha FJ-09 Blaster-X Integrated LED Tail Light – Custom LED

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Yamaha FJ-09 Integrated LED Tail Light and Turn Signal with Blaster-X...

 

[Wintersdark]

Spent a lot of time on YouTube, then set up my suspension.  It's definitely improved now; but I absolutely need new springs to get to desired rider sag.   However, some time with the rebound and compression settings and some test rides over a nearby badly winter damaged pothole filled road has resulted in a *much* improved ride.  I'll take that.

Also, synced the throttle bodies.  That actually needed to be done, too; much less vibration and much smoother idle now.  It hadn't changed since I bought the bike, so clearly despite *saying* they did "everything" for the first service, obviously they didn't do that.  They didn't specifically say they did, though, so I suppose it's a gray area, despite being in the service schedule for end-of-break in service. 

Anyways, holy crap.  Syncing the carbs on my old XJ750 was literally a 10 minute job.  My MT07 was a 15 minute job.  This took like an hour and a half.

Actually doing the syncing was of course extremely fast, but getting there?  That was a damn big job, digging endlessly into the machine.  It was a good opportunity to clean in around and under surface panels, though, and really get familiar with how all that fits together.