Seat Slope Mod

[smurph]

3 hours ago, 2WHLOZK said:

Installed my Plug today, then went for 150mi ride.  Temps in the low to mid 80's.  Covered all the types of riding circumstances that I'm likely to encounter on any given day, for this time of year.  Some expressway cruising, some open two-lane country roads, some super-twisties, and some stop-n-go in heavy traffic.  I tested Standard mode and B mode today.  Will sample A mode on the next ride.

I also made sure to include plenty of low speed, low-rev maneuvers like parking lot U turns, etc.  These maneuvers especially (and even just pulling away from a traffic light at times, to be honest) needed some help.

I'm happy to report that the Booster Plug has solved my off-idle issues. I was just hoping for "some acceptable" improvement from the Plug.  To my delight I got Major improvement.  Now I have a smooth, linear throttle response from idle.  The way it should have been from the factory, but wasn't.  

I noticed slightly different results than Wintersdark got with his bike.  I got smoother operation in partial-throttle situs too, like when short shifting or chugging along at walking speed.  Additionally, I noticed less engine drag at full decel in the twisties.  So that's another "plus" (at least for me and my modest riding "skills").

To be fair, I've only put ~ 2K miles on the GT so far.  As I get to know it better I may find other fueling areas to improve.  Who knows?  But for right now I can say Mission Accomplished!

Oh, and the install was easy and I did not have to remove the tank, or even lift it at all.  

Edit:  I might as well mention that the bike no longer insists on keeping its revs a bit on the high side, where it always seemed happiest.  It still seems just as happy up there, but now also content loping along at slower speeds in higher gears.  An indication of improved, across-the board, partial-throttle response?

Great to see you got that kind of response from the booster plug. I may have to look into that. I do find that the GT likes to be revved - just like my WR250R - and I don't mind wringing it. Today we did a 620K ride from Edmonton to Nordegg and back. Beautiful day of +29C riding. Thankfully had the vented Klim jacket on. 

Still need to do some more tweaking with the seat. I thought i was adjusting to it.... but not after today's ride. Still sliding forward. Gotta try Winterdark's suggestion. 

Edited August 3, 2020 by smurph

[betoney]

8 minutes ago, 2WHLOZK said:

Ha, too late!...just had my 71st this month.  

Still always riding 20 over the limit, though !  Cheers.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!  Keep on riding. 👍

[smurph]

Old washers and tape removed. I see the way that I was doing it wasn't necessarily providing a good perch for the rubber feet of the seat. I pulled the plastic side pieces down and off and noticed the feet were barely on the plastic tray. 

New washers installed as per Winterdark's instructions. Taping the ones to the frame was a bit of a challenge. If the mod works, i'll revisit it and remove the tank bracket and do a better job. 

Currently have it in the high position and it feels good....A test ride tomorrow will see if it works for my butt! I had to stop wrenching on anything else in the garage as it was reading 35 Celcius in there. Back in the house with a beer and a balmy 19.5C. Thank Dog for AC.

 

Cheers

[Wintersdark]

3 hours ago, 2WHLOZK said:

Installed my Plug today, then went for 150mi ride.  Temps in the low to mid 80's.  Covered all the types of riding circumstances that I'm likely to encounter on any given day, for this time of year.  Some expressway cruising, some open two-lane country roads, some super-twisties, and some stop-n-go in heavy traffic.  I tested Standard mode and B mode today.  Will sample A mode on the next ride.

I also made sure to include plenty of low speed, low-rev maneuvers like parking lot U turns, etc.  These maneuvers especially (and even just pulling away from a traffic light at times, to be honest) needed some help.

I'm happy to report that the Booster Plug has solved my off-idle issues. I was just hoping for "some acceptable" improvement from the Plug.  To my delight I got Major improvement.  Now I have a smooth, linear throttle response from idle.  The way it should have been from the factory, but wasn't.  

I noticed slightly different results than Wintersdark got with his bike.  I got smoother operation in partial-throttle situs too, like when short shifting or chugging along at walking speed.  Additionally, I noticed less engine drag at full decel in the twisties.  So that's another "plus" (at least for me and my modest riding "skills").

To be fair, I've only put ~ 2K miles on the GT so far.  As I get to know it better I may find other fueling areas to improve.  Who knows?  But for right now I can say Mission Accomplished!

Oh, and the install was easy and I did not have to remove the tank, or even lift it at all.  

Edit:  I might as well mention that the bike no longer insists on keeping its revs a bit on the high side, where it always seemed happiest.  It still seems just as happy up there, but now also content loping along at slower speeds in higher gears.  An indication of improved, across-the board, partial-throttle response?

It's definitely smoother at really low speed, and much smoother when just putting along at idle with no throttle - before, doing that was a horribly lunging jerky mess, so I'd just not do it at all and slip the clutch instead.

Can't say I noticed less engine braking, but I've never felt the Tracer has much engine braking anyways (a tip of the hat to the slipper clutch); certainly nowhere near what my MT07 had.   I wasn't doing any spirited twisty riding, though, just local neighborhood speed-limit riding as I was most focused on low speed/low rpm performance. 

Off-idle throttle response is indeed snappier.  The only difference there (for me anyways) is in the initial transition, but not from a clutched stop(which is all about throttle & clutch control) but rather if you're just idling along at zero throttle or just-barely-any-throttle at low speed and snap the throttle open, it *#$king goes.  I thought it'd be the other way around, but I find this has the most impact in B mode, then STD, and minimally in A mode.   I suspect this is due to how the fueling is set up (particularly in A), where it's abrupt by design.  What's interesting is the Booster Plug makes B mode feel way less broken.  It's still super-nanny-mode, but the idle to throttle transition is significantly improved.  It doesn't make them faster, but it makes the transition much smoother.  With that said, it's of pretty minimal value to me as I ride in A mode basically all the time.

 

[Wintersdark]

31 minutes ago, smurph said:

Old washers and tape removed. I see the way that I was doing it wasn't necessarily providing a good perch for the rubber feet of the seat. I pulled the plastic side pieces down and off and noticed the feet were barely on the plastic tray. 

New washers installed as per Winterdark's instructions. Taping the ones to the frame was a bit of a challenge. If the mod works, i'll revisit it and remove the tank bracket and do a better job. 

Currently have it in the high position and it feels good....A test ride tomorrow will see if it works for my butt! I had to stop wrenching on anything else in the garage as it was reading 35 Celcius in there. Back in the house with a beer and a balmy 19.5C. Thank Dog for AC.

 

Cheers

Hah yeah, same for me.  I've been wanting to get more testing in with the plug, and I've got a stack of garage projects to do, but it's way to hot to want to spend any time doing that right now.  

I hate that I can't get a nice, air conditioned vest that I plug into my heated gear ports.  I mean, I'd rather have the heat than cooling, what with how short our summers are and how bloodly long the winters are, but really, why isn't this a thing?  You'd think with the hundreds of millions of Americans riding around in way worse heat for way longer, they'd have figured this stuff out.

[dazzler24]

3 hours ago, Wintersdark said:

I hate that I can't get a nice, air conditioned vest that I plug into my heated gear ports.  I mean, I'd rather have the heat than cooling, what with how short our summers are and how bloodly long the winters are, but really, why isn't this a thing?  You'd think with the hundreds of millions of Americans riding around in way worse heat for way longer, they'd have figured this stuff out.

You want air conditioning?.....

 

[trevinator]

last night i decided to mess around with the seat on my 2017. i took two nuts (about 1/4" tall) and put them under the rear tank mount and tightened it back down. then onto the plastic seat height adjuster base. mine has two rubber inserts underneath it where the high position feet would normally rest. they are only held in with double sided sticky tape, so i removed them, put the same size nut between the rubber insert and the plastic base and put it all back together. now my seat feels like it has a rearwards slope! it might be just a little too much, so some experimenting is in order, but i think i like it!

[Tripletrouble]

The problem I found with the seat sloping is not just the angle of the seat as such. I ripped my seat apart. At the back you have about 1cm foam If that, on top of plastic. (Thanks Yamaha). In the middle you have about 5cm foam. So the middle sinks way more when sat on seat, exaggerating the slope. I took out all the foam, put much stiffer foam in middle and covered whole lot with a 2cm sheet of medium. The washers raising tank and bracket does work though, I tried it ages ago with many other solutions, but my latest has been the best, well, so far. Another temp solution was an air hawk (with very little air in) but it doesn’t look great when your off the bike. 

[1moreroad]

On 7/30/2020 at 6:12 PM, piotrek said:

@betoney... I have tried this just for giggles on my 2015 with 2 x 2mm fender washers. 4mm rise in the front will create a gap between the tank and seat, but 20mm sounds like a lot. Seat snapped in same as before for me. The 4mm was actually to much. Might try just a single washer next. Seat in lower position, so maybe there is a difference there.

Did the same under the seat not under the bracket. Seat wobbles a tiny bit but only if I try. There's a visible gap between seat and tank. Slope is much reduced. Thanks @Wintersdark.

[Wintersdark]

I experimented with this a lot.  Wobble stops if you add another set of washers under the seat.  It'll wobble if it's balancing a bit on that front pin, but if you pad up the bracket, wobble stops completely.  

[WKE002]

On 6/26/2020 at 9:19 AM, smurph said:

So i was looking at the seat and figured I could raise the front a bit more as there's vertical wiggle room between the upper and lower settings where that front tab sits. So.... I grabbed some fender washers and electrical tape and got to work. 3 washers seems to be about the max. There's now no wiggle room up and down and the slope is 3/8" less slope-y 😂.

All original points of contact still make contact. It still seems secure and I think it's a great penny mod. Test rode for half an hour and mucho better. 

 

A Word of Thanks to SMURPH / WINTERSDARK.... got it done last weekend.... simple but DAMM EFFECTIVE ! 

[smurph]

1 hour ago, WKE002 said:

A Word of Thanks to SMURPH / WINTERSDARK.... got it done last weekend.... simple but DAMM EFFECTIVE ! 

Awesome!!!😊

[whisperquiet]

On 8/3/2020 at 12:46 AM, smurph said:

Old washers and tape removed. I see the way that I was doing it wasn't necessarily providing a good perch for the rubber feet of the seat. I pulled the plastic side pieces down and off and noticed the feet were barely on the plastic tray. 

New washers installed as per Winterdark's instructions. Taping the ones to the frame was a bit of a challenge. If the mod works, i'll revisit it and remove the tank bracket and do a better job. 

Currently have it in the high position and it feels good....A test ride tomorrow will see if it works for my butt! I had to stop wrenching on anything else in the garage as it was reading 35 Celcius in there. Back in the house with a beer and a balmy 19.5C. Thank Dog for AC.

 

Cheers

I just bought a used ‘19 Tracer GT that was missing the seat bracket (I ordered one) which is similar to the Super Tenere seat bracket.  On my Super Tenere,  I was able to use  taped wheel weights to stick to the frame in order to raise the seat bracket in the front to level things out.......works great and the weights don’t move/everything is solid.  It looks like the same mod will work on the Tracer GT and will post some photos when my seat bracket arrives......I need some more leg room with a 35” inseam!

 

Edited October 11, 2020 by whisperquiet

[Ride365]

Haven't noticed a slope, seems pretty normal to me.

[whisperquiet]

7 minutes ago, Ride365 said:

Haven't noticed a slope, seems pretty normal to me.

It is not bad, but what I need for my height is more elevation for the seat overall.