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

[2and3cylinders]

1 minute ago, betoney said:

Replaced the throttle cables. 

Since buying the bike new, the throttle pull has always felt fairly stiff, especially riding back to back on my buddys identical '15 FJ, the bike operated fine so I just lived with it as is. 

I finally overcame my laziness and now the new cable is in place and WHAT A DIFFERENCE!, it feels like a brand new bike.

The free turning throttle really emphasizes the CP3's sharp throttle response, I took it out for a 200 mile shake down ride on twisty back roads, SO much fun, A mode now feels like A+ mode. 😎

Brian how many miles do you have on yours And on your buddy's approximately?

I think I lubed my cables once again last Winter and didn't ride a lot in 22 But I've always thought that throttle pull was tight and I was gonna do the spring thing.

Now you've prompted me to debate between lubing again or replacing them...

[betoney]

24 minutes ago, 2and3cylinders said:

Brian how many miles do you have on yours And on your buddy's approximately?

I think I lubed my cables once again last Winter and didn't ride a lot in 22 But I've always thought that throttle pull was tight and I was gonna do the spring thing.

Now you've prompted me to debate between lubing again or replacing them...

I tried lubing them and was never fully happy with the result, like I mentioned mine felt stiff from the date of purchase.

My buddy has 60k on his and I am at 74k miles.

I had considered the spring modification but replacing the cables was an immediate and 100% effective fix.

[Warchild]

I'm usually out the door sometime after midnight, April 1 to go hunting for Tour of Honor/PNW-GT locations. Not this year - the Tracer is overdue for serious maintenance. The Bridgestone S22s are smoked, the OEM chain/sprockets need replacing, and there's the 16K Service. I am taking Warchild-wife on every ride I can this year, so this weekend is a all-wrenching affair for the Tracer. We start tackling these three Tours next weekend.

[betoney]

11 hours ago, Warchild said:

I am taking Warchild-wife on every ride I can this year, so this weekend is a all-wrenching affair for the Tracer. We start tackling these three Tours next weekend.

I enjoyed your photos of the various multi-state "poker-run" type rides in the past. 👍🏻  Do you have a link to the 2023 event?

Didn't you get a 2nd larger bike?  Just curious as for extended long distance riding I find the Tracer to be a fairly small bike even riding solo, at 6'-1" my tail bone is right on the front of the passenger seat.

[Warchild]

1 hour ago, betoney said:

I enjoyed your photos of the various multi-state "poker-run" type rides in the past. 👍🏻  Do you have a link to the 2023 event?

Tour of Honor: https://tourofhonor.com/

Pacific Northwest Grand Tour: https://pnwgrandtour.com/

Ride-to-Eat Across USA:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/723374431356382
 

Quote

Didn't you get a 2nd larger bike?  Just curious as for extended long distance riding I find the Tracer to be a fairly small bike even riding solo, at 6'-1" my tail bone is right on the front of the passenger seat.

I did... the BMW S1000XR has proven to be too problematic. And dealer maintenance for it  is just a scam. I have replaced it with a 2021 Yamaha MT10 as the new Desert Runner.  The MT is not exactly designed to be a long-distance sport-tourer, unless you are insane and force it to do the job. 😁

I've been working on transforming this new platform since the last week in November. It is essentially an upright-sitting YZF-R1.  The MPG on this bike is brutal, like 30-31 mpg after the ECU is flashed. Tiny-ass R1 racebike tank is 4.5 gallons, so the Low Fuel light comes on after only 95 miles.  😖   Had the ECU un-flashed, dropped two teeth in the rear, dumped the *enormously* heavy stock exhaust for a featherweight Yoshimura Alpha T 3/4 system, and now I am seeing a solid 35+ MPG. The bike is almost ready for Desert Running, except for aux driving lamps.

I think this may be the only Yamaha MT10 on the planet that can carry 8.3 gallons of fuel: 











🔥 🔥 🔥 🔥
 

[betoney]

13 minutes ago, Warchild said:

I've been working on transforming this new platform since the last week in November. It is essentially an upright-sitting YZF-R1.  The MPG on this bike is brutal, like 30-31 mpg after the ECU is flashed. Tiny-ass R1 racebike tank is 4.5 gallons, so the Low Fuel light comes on after only 95 miles.  😖   Had the ECU un-flashed, dropped two teeth in the rear, dumped the *enormously* heavy stock exhaust for a featherweight Yoshimura Alpha T 3/4 system, and now I am seeing a solid 35+ MPG. The bike is almost ready for Desert Running, except for aux driving lamps.

Thanks for the links, the PNW Grand Tour was the one I was looking for.  What an amazing way to discover our region and some of our great motorcycle roads. 👍🏻

30mpg on the MT10 is brutal, 35mpg is arguably better but still... looks like you have worked out a great solution for decent range. 

Interestingly, I find Yamaha's onboard computer to be very optimistic, I ran a full tank of fuel yesterday and the dash said 46.8mpg average but real world calculations were an even 42mpg, my fuel light was flashing at 165 miles, whereas my Honda VFR is dead-nuts accurate, the computer reads 40mpg and my calculations also read 40mpg.  Same with the speedometer, when comparing to my GPS, the Yamaha has always been 2 mph difference while the Honda is right on. 🤷🏻‍♂️

[2and3cylinders]

While nowhere near an m t ten s p or even a base m t ten

Having a small fuel tank and a low m p g makes things interesting for many bikes historically 

My VTR is one of them a real classic looker. I think

But it has the largest carburetor's Honda ever Put on anything else car or airplane

and yes well. You can coax forty out of it downhill with a tail wind otherwise you're happy with thirty three

I likewise took what was considered a sport bike and made it. A gentleman's express

nothing like the throb of a 90ﾟ V twin for that feeling of. Speed deceptive but ethereal

[Gordie]

I installed a new windscreen from MRA in the hope of reducing the wind noise a bit....can't wait until the weather improves here and I  can get out and try it.

[Warchild]

It's time to play the Chain Game!  The factory chain is thoroughly smoked at 16K. A pretty-boy all-black EK chain replaces it, and stock-teeth SuperLite sprockets are going in, as well.




If you got the tools and experience, this really isn't hard maintenance at all. My main tools are a Dremel grinding wheel and a proper Chain Tool, MotionPro in my case.  Just select a rivet of your choice on  the old chain, and dremel that baby smooth:

 

Now just crank down on your MotionPro tool, and push out that rivet out:



Boom, done.



I'll save the Rivet Press job for later, I need to balance the freshly-mounted Bridgestone T32s and get them installed tonight. 

[nhchris]

9 hours ago, Warchild said:

Tour of Honor: https://tourofhonor.com/

Pacific Northwest Grand Tour: https://pnwgrandtour.com/

Ride-to-Eat Across USA:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/723374431356382
 

I did... the BMW S1000XR has proven to be too problematic. And dealer maintenance for it  is just a scam. I have replaced it with a 2021 Yamaha MT10 as the new Desert Runner. 

 🔥 🔥 🔥
 

Interesting you say that. I test rode several used XRs and found them underwhelming.  They cost a fortune even used and performed no better than my FJ.  I was actually quite surprised at their mediocre nature.  And then there’s the dealer thing.

I guess it’s a designer label appeal?

[2and3cylinders]

Raining again here but at least it's not snowing

Gonna clean lube and adjust the chain and calibrate my b p r racing chain tensioner checker.

I'll adjust tension before using my chain monkey which is also supposed to be a checker. But there's too much lack of feel for also checking with it.

I had to take my massive security chain off the rear wheel after I started trying to rotate it DOH!

My whorey red chain actually doesn't look that dirty and I think this time. I'll use the Motul chain paste Rather than the new DuPont ceramic dry film coating

I may change my mind though (edit, I did, used the Ceramic DFC)

[Warchild]

Today I avoided stripping out any of the 6 rear sprocket studs when mounting up a fresh black SuperLite sprocket, because I ignored that insanely high 59 ft-lb torque value the Tracer Service Manual recommends. Just no, that is way excessive, that's a good way to strip/yank out those studs right out of your wheel hub.

I went with 43 ft-lbs, and even kinda regret that; should have done more like 36ft-lbs with these Ti Nylocs:

[betoney]

4 hours ago, Warchild said:

Today I avoided stripping out any of the 6 rear sprocket studs when mounting up a fresh black SuperLite sprocket, because I ignored that insanely high 59 ft-lb torque value the Tracer Service Manual recommends. Just no, that is way excessive, that's a good way to strip/yank out those studs right out of your wheel hub.

I went with 43 ft-lbs, and even kinda regret that; should have done more like 36ft-lbs with these Ti Nylocs:

I have used nothing but Superlite sprockets on my bikes and they wear like iron, once the chain is toast you will have to look very closely to notice any wear, you can easily use 2 chains per sprocket set, some will obviously disagree with that way of thinking though.

[RonZuidhoek]

I (finally) did my exhaust cleaning. It was looking horrible. I took off the complete (stock) exhaust so i could clean it well. I used some acid-based cream, specialy made for cleaning RVS-steal. It took me 2 days, but i am very happy with the results.

Before:

After:

 

[texscottyd]

19 minutes ago, RonZuidhoek said:

I (finally) did my exhaust cleaning.

After:

 

Oh wow, that looks great!  Mine is also in serious need of a cleaning… you’ve given me hope that it really can look good again.