2021 GT Updates

[nick@forceberg.net]

54 minutes ago, betoney said:

Do a search on posts about hitting rocks and breaking the case open, its not pretty when it happens.  Personally, I would absolutely be looking for some sort of protection from rocks or other road debris.

Perhaps it's a bit dependent on where you drive. Never had those sort of issues on the roads over here. But thanks for sharing. I'll keep my eyes on it

[2and3cylinders]

4 hours ago, nick@forceberg.net said:

Perhaps it's a bit dependent on where you drive. Never had those sort of issues on the roads over here. But thanks for sharing. I'll keep my eyes on it

 Show they have perfect roads in Sweden? Wow 

 And you look to be out in the middle of nowhere

[ZigMerid]

1 hour ago, 2and3cylinders said:

Show they have perfect roads in Sweden? Wow

I know. I was pretty impressed with their roads when I drove around the country. Almost like it's an advanced nation which spends good money keeping their infrastructure up-to-date. Would that more advanced nations do the same.

More seriously - on my local Australia roads - which are rarely as good as Sweden's - I've never found a need for a sump guard on any of my road bikes. Same with the road bikes I road in the US.

To double-check, I did a web search for broken Tracer sumps in Australia and the first five pages were all ads for sump guards. So lots of people pushing products, but very little evidence of real world damage, leastwise in this part of the world.

[2and3cylinders]

The US roads are abysmal, especially in urban and suburban areas, our bridges are much worse.  Fall of an Empire. But Sweden can apparently afford to keep them pristine but then again they're only 4.5% of our size!

[nick@forceberg.net]

3 hours ago, 2and3cylinders said:

The US roads are abysmal, especially in urban and suburban areas, our bridges are much worse.  Fall of an Empire. But Sweden can apparently afford to keep them pristine but then again they're only 4.5% of our size!

Our roads are generally in great condition here. We have hard bedrock and no extreme heat etc which is always a bad thing for tarmac. On top of that we have some of the highest taxes in the world so one would assume some of that goes to keeping those roads up to date.

I lived in Dallas for a few years. Bought a Camaro ZL1 for my daily driver. Bad decision! Should had gone with a F250 or similar 😅

[Wintersdark]

On 2/20/2021 at 11:33 AM, nick@forceberg.net said:

Perhaps it's a bit dependent on where you drive. Never had those sort of issues on the roads over here. But thanks for sharing. I'll keep my eyes on it

Even here, our roads vary but never so bad as to worry about my sump.  That'd take a *huge* pothole - deeper than anything I've seen on our roads - and the idea of one so large around I can't help but hit it is horrifying.  Don't think I've ever had a road bike where I've so much as scratched the undercarriage at all.  

[PhotoAl]

Today pulling out of my driveway slightly scraped the SCR skid pan.  In my neighborhood have valley gutters so makes the entrance to my drive a bit like one side of a speed bump.  Almost always go in or out at a slight angle but forgot today.  My Honda Metropolitian scooter will really scrape if I don't go at an angle.  Made me realize that the Tracer GT while not super low is lower than I would be comfortable with on a few of the places I've been.  Happy with the skid plate.

[rlambke19]

So, someone on one of the many Tracer FB groups posted that "a journalist on the paddock podcast said he will be attending the launch of the Tracer 9 next week" No additional details at this point...but hopefully that means some better reviews than the text-to-voice bot crap that's out there now with re-hashed Yamaha promotional footage! 🙂

Rob

 

[MightBeSasquatch]

22 minutes ago, rlambke19 said:

So, someone on one of the many Tracer FB groups posted that "a journalist on the paddock podcast said he will be attending the launch of the Tracer 9 next week" No additional details at this point...but hopefully that means some better reviews than the text-to-voice bot crap that's out there now with re-hashed Yamaha promotional footage! 🙂

Rob

 

I'm in that group as well and saw that🤣. I spent a few minutes looking up what this launch event was and I couldn't find any information. I'm hoping it has plenty of reports to come from it though. I really liked the write up Lemmy did for Revzilla in 2019 for the Tracer.  

[betoney]

3 minutes ago, MightBeSasquatch said:

I really liked the write up Lemmy did for Revzilla in 2019 for the Tracer.  

Agreed, great review.  That is up in my neck of the woods, the Columbia River Gorge is an amazing location for a motorcycle test ride.

[MightBeSasquatch]

4 minutes ago, betoney said:

Agreed, great review.  That is up in my neck of the woods, the Columbia River Gorge is an amazing location for a motorcycle test ride.

I'm a bit biased towards the scenery as well! We are often spoiled with route options around these parts. 

[rlambke19]

@MightBeSasquatch - what's your FB handle?

Not sure what the press launch will look like this year. Hopefully we'll get a plethora or reviews to watch!

Rob

[rlambke19]

Right on @Rovari! Another Ontario Tracer rider!  I've been riding about the same amount of time as you.

The press launch should be the start of "regular" folks (eg. not Yamaha marketing people) getting a chance to ride the bikes and tell us what they think. These days, I would expect several of the "moto vloggers" to also be invited to this - and they tend to be a bit more honest about the bikes than the traditional print media used to be. 

Regardless, more reviews and vids are only a good thing.

Hope to see you on the road!

Cheers

Rob

[MightBeSasquatch]

40 minutes ago, rlambke19 said:

@MightBeSasquatch - what's your FB handle?

 

Not sure, I don't actually post in them, just lurk for information. 👀🤣

27 minutes ago, Rovari said:

The press launch is not what sold me on the 2020 Tracer. I really had no intention of buying a new bike ( I have been restoring, riding and flipping bikes 20 years) until I seen one on you tube and then did some research...and I was sold. 

EDIT: Riding 35 years 

That's fair, I wasn't in the position to buy a new bike until this season and I was all about the goo GT, and then I saw the 2021 and I am just like a kid waiting for Christmas. Whatever reports come out in this round of reports, I doubt there will be anything negative enough to sway my small brain from this purchase. I just want something to hold me over until delivery.

[Wintersdark]

1 hour ago, Rovari said:

The press launch is not what sold me on the 2020 Tracer. I really had no intention of buying a new bike ( I have been restoring, riding and flipping bikes 20 years) until I seen one on you tube and then did some research...and I was sold. 

EDIT: Riding 35 years 

They're super rare here abouts, and I'd not seen any of the press release stuff but I had seen an older FJ09 that was at a local dealership, and thought it looked pretty interesting.  I've been riding for a really long time as well (and for most of it also buying older bikes, restoring, flipping, and repeating for a big chunk of that), and had fairly recently decided that I was just not into the treadmill anymore.   I'm getting close to 50, have a couple young kids, and just no time to do all the work that riding old 80's machines entails.  I'd bought a 2018 MT07 (which I freaking loved, by the way - amazingly fun bike) but I'm somewhat of a giant, and was pretty cramped on it - though I'm pretty cramped on practically every bike, so that's normal.  Was in at the dealership having some work done, and kicking around in the showroom, and happened by a 2019 GT sitting there with a CAD$12000 price tag + first service included.  I'd thought about trading in for a MT09, and here this was, an MT09... With a lot of extra height and length!  Gave it a sit, fell in love, dropped in here with some questions, and that was that.  Bought without so much as a test ride, though, as it was November and while I ride happily through the winter, dealerships get really sketchy about someone test riding a bike in the snow.  

I still feel it's a killer bargain of a bike; to get all these features at that price is amazing.  And it's *way* more fun to ride than it's contemporaries that are anywhere near it's price (V-Strom, Versys) and IMHO pretty competitive with bikes that cost nearly twice as much (BMW, multistrada).

I've put 15k on it over the year I've had it, including a pair of winters, and it's held up like an absolute champ.  47 tooth rear sprocket adds some more fun particularly at the lower end (but also increases top speed as we're power:drag limited, not RPM limited) and keeps me pretty much even with my buddy on his Hayabusa up to around 140kph.  

 

Side note: I thought the quickshifter was dumb initially, and planned on never using it.  I was so wrong.  They're totally unnecessary for sure, but holy hell are they fun - not really for cruising, as it doesn't work so well there, but when you pin the throttle open, banging through the gears without even backing off on the throttle...  Good times.