Adventured Tracer ?

[Dobbo]

Hi all, 
Has anyone here 'Adventurised' their tracer for travelling down the dirt roads here in Oz?

I have found a few threads about guys doing this overseas, but nothing Oz related.

I was thinking of selling the Tracer and going for a Yamaha T7, but I just love the 3 cylinder motor and wish Yamaha would bring out an off-road model.
So, I am thinking of adding 50/50 tyres, maybe trying for a 19" front wheel, raising the guards, fitting under belly protection then hitting the dirt roads.

I don't need to tackle anything more than dirt roads, as I have an Enduro race bike in the garage for that type of riding.

[kmev]

Not in Oz, but I set mine up to takle the ~1,100 mile round-trip dempster highway which heads into the Arctic Circle to the Arctic Ocean. It was the perfect bike and the perfect set-up with a skid plate, knobbies, and luggage. 

[jdavis]

Looked into it, but am thinking of a new Moto Guzzi v85tt might be the go.

[CutSnake]

I too have contemplated "Adventuring" my Tracer. First priority are the wheels. On gravel , the alloy wheels are OK. I'm considering spoked wheels from Cognito Moto and better skid plate from T-Rex. This allows for a greater level of bush bashing. I can get 400km from my standard fuel tank but I'm going to use a 2nd hand tank and modify it for another 10 litres or so. Suspension needs work also & I have a number of thoughts. I have already a pair of Denali D4's, plus air horns from Super Cheap Auto mounted under the lower fork clamp. It is a great all round bike. A T7 is a fine bike but it doesn't have a CP3!

[roadrash83]

I don't understand why people would try to turn the FJ or Tracers into a ADV bike. there are just o many bikes out there that are made to do the job and excel at it.  

[Wintersdark]

I thought really hard about it, and for sure I can imagine the reasons why you would, but I feel it's not really a good idea.

I figure you're better off either:

A) just slap on some 70/30 tires like the tkc70's or some such and be fine on normal reasonable dirt roads

B) Get a bike made for that.  The Tracer is never going to be a good adventure bike.  I mean, not at anything close to a reasonable investment anyways - the cost to convert it could simply buy you a reasonable proper adv bike.

The problem, I think, is that the tracer definitely has "big ADV" styling queues, but it's a sport touring bike through and through.  Getting bigger tires, swapping the suspension (the Tracer's ground clearance is a very serious issue if your on anything other than fairly decent dirt roads) investing in appropriate protective equipment, etc ... It's really not ideal. 

You *can* do it - you can do practically anything really - but is it worth doing?  In the process you're going to make the Tracer worse at what it's good at, just to make it a sub-par adventure bike.

All that rambled, still, "because I can" is a totally valid reason to do anything, no matter how ill-advised!

 

[larolco]

Buy a V-strom. I've owned both and put 220 000 kms on the Vee. It's a better bike for what you want to do. Don't put the Tracer through that. That would be a waste of an otherwise good bike. 

[koth442]

I've offroaded my FJ09, the ergo's, feel, and power make it pretty good. My biggest gripe is the rear ABS. Makes it so much more difficult to swing the ass end out.

That being said, yes there are better options for offroad bikes.

A friend of mine put spoked wheels on his Tracer. I think 19" on the front. He went XSR900 track bike, MT09 street bike, and Tracer 900 offroad. Nice little family IMO.

[Wintersdark]

Well, it's make parts easy to manage.  Be worth having spares at that point