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

[Wintersdark]

On 7/28/2021 at 10:16 AM, knyte said:

Thanks, didn't know one was available - ordered

Me either, and sadly had just last week ordered a stock filter.  Ah well, next time.

 

Today: Installed said air filter, which was left out when I did the oil and oil filter a couple days ago cuz I got lazy.   For a really easy job, it's a surprising amount of work.  But at this point I've gotten really good at pulling off all the fairings quickly.

[dazzler24]

Nothing very exciting, but because we are in full COVID lockdown here I decided to change oil and filter which were close to due anyway.

Went with some Aussie Penrite MC-4 ST 10W-40 PAO Ester Motorcycle Engine Oil - full synthetic and a Ryco RMZ119 filter that I'd purchased a few months earlier.  Ended up putting in ~2.9L of oil to get my level to the top of the sight glass (and the oil warning light to extinguish).   Around 200mls more than the book but I was using a non-Yamaha filter so I assume that may account for the volume difference.  Whatever the case, I'm not concerned.

Now just need to be freed again to go for a run.

[kilo3]

On 7/28/2021 at 10:43 AM, Wintersdark said:

There are no dots on the JIS screws on Big Four bikes, but all the screws are JIS screws, not Phillips.  This has, as far as I can tell, always been the case, going back to the old UJM's back in the 70's and 80's and is very, very crucial when working on older bikes as the screws are often stuck and super cheap metal.  You can use a Phillips driver if they're not seized/stuck, but you always risk damaging the screws as Phillips drivers don't seat correctly.

All of my previous Yamaha's and hondas have all been marked with a dot. banshee, virago, yz's, warrior, xt's, I have yet to see a jis that wasn't properly marked. It's the Japanese after all, you don't miss a detail like that.

[Wintersdark]

12 hours ago, kilo3 said:

All of my previous Yamaha's and hondas have all been marked with a dot. banshee, virago, yz's, warrior, xt's, I have yet to see a jis that wasn't properly marked. It's the Japanese after all, you don't miss a detail like that.

None of mine have been, absolutely none.  Only 80's Kawasaki/Honda/Yamaha and 2018+ Yamahas, mind you.  

But, I mean, maybe I'm just wrong, and various PO's have gone through and replaced 100% of the JIS fasteners on my 80's bikes with Phillips screws.  And despite common knowledge saying otherwise, 2018 MT07 and 2019 Tracer are both made with only Phillips fasteners (there are zero screws on either with a dot).  Both are entirely possible - "common knowledge" is often wrong, after all, and 80's bikes tend to have lots of PO's.

But you can safely use JIS drivers on Phillips screws (and arguably they work better), but you cannot safely use Phillips drivers on JIS screws, so I figure one is much better served just using JIS drivers.  I'd rather be wrong and have un-mangled screws than risk being wrong and having mangled screws

 

Edit: To be clear, I'm not cheekily saying you're wrong.  I meant the above sincerely.  Despite decades of working on these bikes, I've honestly never encountered a screw with a dot.  Not once.  But that's a limited sample size of 80's bikes and the MT07 and Tracer.  

Edited August 1, 2021 by Wintersdark

[Wintersdark]

6 hours ago, dazzler24 said:

Nothing very exciting, but because we are in full COVID lockdown here I decided to change oil and filter which were close to due anyway.

Now just need to be freed again to go for a run.

I'm so glad in our various lockdowns that I was always able to just ride.  It was an absolute sanity saver for me - I don't need personal social interaction, but I desperately need to get out of the house and ride to remain sane. 

I'm much less glad that my province is leading the world in "Hey, you don't have to isolate after positive COVID tests anymore, feel free to do your thing and spread it everywhere" though.  *sighs*  Alberta.  

[Maverick302]

What I did was SOLD it! Time to move on...

[peteinpa]

16 hours ago, Maverick302 said:

What I did was SOLD it! Time to move on...

What did you move on to?

[koth442]

On 7/31/2021 at 7:32 PM, kilo3 said:

[img]https://i.ibb.co/mb0fjJX/PXL-20210731-232450137.jpg[/img]

Edit:Really? We still can't imbed images on an online forum? This is basic forum functionality that's been broken since the update. Just trying to save some bandwidth by not uploading.

You should be able to and if you can't it was recently "blocked". 

[petshark]

I took her for a day of mountain twisties in the south of Belgium (I live in the North). The weather prediction said no rain, or maybe a few drops here and there, so I wore my leathers and ventilated alpinestars track boots.

You can probably hear it coming; It started to rain almost as soon as I got there and after an hour my underwear was wet, especially the socks as those boots are very happy to draw in water instead of air. 🥳

Obviously I didn't bring anything except a bottle of water and a light snack so when I started to shiver I unwillingly cut the 9 hour tour a few hours short. On the plus side, when I got home I was almost dry again.

The second time at the gas station I got another surprise. That molten plastic smell was still there so it didn't come from the environment the previous time I smelled it. Oh no! That little plastic bag that I had seen flying under my wheel and that I didn't avoid because of the slippery rural wet road seemed to have found a home on my headers.

So I spent two hours cleaning and using oven cleaner, copper brushes, WD40 and things like that to get that nasty stuff off.

All in all an interesting FJ day!

Edited August 5, 2021 by petshark

[Wintersdark]

Oh, god, what a mess that must have been!  But also: We can align images to the side now with text alongside?  Awesome!

[Wintersdark]

Went for a great ride.  Was supposed to be 5 of us, but three cancelled, so just two.  Mid way, we stopped and he was asking some questions about the Tracer, and I offered to swap bikes for a while so he could check it out first hand.  I'm pretty free with this as a rule of thumb, I got past the "it's my bike!" thing early in my riding years.  

He was riding a mid-late model Suzuki Boulevard, a 109 something-or-other.  We were on a big straight stretch, initially (like, a 10 kilometer long straight stretch) which was convenient to really get on the bikes and feel out how much power they have.  The Suzi was... well, I've actually never ridden a *big* cruiser, only smaller cruisers like my old sportster.  This thing... It had roughly the same HP as the Sporty, but weighed almost twice as much.  Took a bit to get used to it, and forward floorboards (accidentally downshifted trying to put my feet on the floorboards but not moving them forward far enough, so I stepped on the back shifter pedal) are really weird after decades of bikes with mid pegs or rearsets.  Got used to it though, and the straight ended in a stop sign, where we were turning left.  Up to this point, I'd not turned on the bike at all.  We'd turn left, and then on to a twisty section.  

I get going through the intersection, try to turn, and nothing happens.  Still going straight.  Try again, and get a bit of lean, but still not enough.  Finally two-hand the thing, pushing AND pulling, finally get through the intersection and managing the turn, though ending up on the shoulder a bit because I went so wide.  Run up the road a bit, pull over.   Nope.  I'm not trying that in twisties.  I'd always kind of wondered why he slowed so much before tight corners, but now I know.  Holy hell.  Turning on the Tracer, even full lean hard cornering, requires just a *tiny* bit of effort; you can literally do it with a single finger.  I needed to get my back into it to turn that thing through an intersection.  And with my feet forward, I couldn't really move my body either (which admittedly wouldn't make much of a difference being so low and light compared to the bike itself)

I do *not* understand the appeal.  Not even a little bit.  Sure, it was a lot more comfortable on a long straight stretch, but... Good lord, it was terrifying trying to get it to turn. 

[petshark]

53 minutes ago, Wintersdark said:

Oh, god, what a mess that must have been!  But also: We can align images to the side now with text alongside?  Awesome!

Yes, we always could but it's kind of hidden away. 👀 You just have to double click the image after importing for extra options (size and alignment). Don't know if it works on smartphones as well.

36 minutes ago, Wintersdark said:

I do *not* understand the appeal.  Not even a little bit.  Sure, it was a lot more comfortable on a long straight stretch, but... Good lord, it was terrifying trying to get it to turn.

Thanks for the story. I can imagine the horror when a bike you borrow does not want to turn in. I had a feeling for a moment that the story was not going to end well. I will remember if I ever take one for a ride.

Edited August 5, 2021 by petshark

[2and3cylinders]

7 hours ago, Wintersdark said:

Went for a great ride.  Was supposed to be 5 of us, but three cancelled, so just two.  Mid way, we stopped and he was asking some questions about the Tracer, and I offered to swap bikes for a while so he could check it out first hand.  I'm pretty free with this as a rule of thumb, I got past the "it's my bike!" thing early in my riding years.  

He was riding a mid-late model Suzuki Boulevard, a 109 something-or-other.  We were on a big straight stretch, initially (like, a 10 kilometer long straight stretch) which was convenient to really get on the bikes and feel out how much power they have.  The Suzi was... well, I've actually never ridden a *big* cruiser, only smaller cruisers like my old sportster.  This thing... It had roughly the same HP as the Sporty, but weighed almost twice as much.  Took a bit to get used to it, and forward floorboards (accidentally downshifted trying to put my feet on the floorboards but not moving them forward far enough, so I stepped on the back shifter pedal) are really weird after decades of bikes with mid pegs or rearsets.  Got used to it though, and the straight ended in a stop sign, where we were turning left.  Up to this point, I'd not turned on the bike at all.  We'd turn left, and then on to a twisty section.  

I get going through the intersection, try to turn, and nothing happens.  Still going straight.  Try again, and get a bit of lean, but still not enough.  Finally two-hand the thing, pushing AND pulling, finally get through the intersection and managing the turn, though ending up on the shoulder a bit because I went so wide.  Run up the road a bit, pull over.   Nope.  I'm not trying that in twisties.  I'd always kind of wondered why he slowed so much before tight corners, but now I know.  Holy hell.  Turning on the Tracer, even full lean hard cornering, requires just a *tiny* bit of effort; you can literally do it with a single finger.  I needed to get my back into it to turn that thing through an intersection.  And with my feet forward, I couldn't really move my body either (which admittedly wouldn't make much of a difference being so low and light compared to the bike itself)

I do *not* understand the appeal.  Not even a little bit.  Sure, it was a lot more comfortable on a long straight stretch, but... Good lord, it was terrifying trying to get it to turn. 

 What did he think of your tracer though

[2and3cylinders]

Fired up my 98 VTR, felt guilty because I haven't ridden in weeks due to my neck and back (even though I installed +3.5" clip-ons and .74" lower and a bit forward pegs), let alone started started it but it fired right up runs like a champ.  It really makes the FJ feel comparatively slow and anemic. 

 Took a video but I don't think you can post it can you?

 Did about 750 miles on the FJ this week though

[2linby]

Just added new foot pegs to my highway bars. The Denali S4's are relatively new and the 10watt DRL's have been on the bike since 2018. The pegs are from Amazon, $32.00 cheapies. The Denali's aren't cheap, but extremely bright for their size. The two lower LED's are wide beam fixed and the two top LED's on each unit are long range spot. You have to adjust them to find the sweet spot. For another $300.00 the next Denali light allows you to adjust all of the four LED's independently. I can live the the already high price of about $300.00 for the pair, not including the mounts. Or you can swing for the seven LED versions and light up a football field! But they're running about $700.00 a pair and are huge! The cheap pegs fold up and out of the way. Although they are pretty small to begin with so I don't think they'll be in the way down all the time. They're only for leg position relief on long trips. Not necessarily to proping up for huge lengths of road, but we'll see on that too! 

Edited August 8, 2021 by 2linby