Seat and Suspension

[Warchild]

Well, decision has been made - now to sell a kidney to pay for this madness. 🙄

My Suspension guru and I went back and forth for days, discussing the merits of re-springing the factory shock, a possible Race Tech implementation for the forks, or whether to bite the bullet for an Ohlins solution. We discussed costs, benefits, pros/cons of going either way, etc. Also, availability came into play - this needs to happen fairly asap, because the first several thousand mile run begins exactly 60 days from today.

In the end.. the Ohlins argument won the day, even with it's painful cost... it's mega-$$$. 😣

Rear end will be the Ohlins YA537 shock:

Front end will be the Ohlins NIX 30 Cartridge Kit FKS 504. Both the front and rear Ohlins will be custom-sprung to do the job in it's main role: carrying me and Warchild-wife on long tours through desert highways with lots of mountain work, with the Tracer fairly well loaded with gear.

 

Please don't ask for the total costs, it will just bummed me out.  😕  Prices are available on the web - suffice to say this exercise will be well in excess of 2 Large.  😖

Had long, long discussions with him leading up to the decision - it appears I have fallen in love with the Tracer much more than I ever imagined I would, and I intend to keep this bike for many, many years to come. So while it a painful initial outlay, I expect it to be amortized over the next decade or so.

So... who needs a kidney.... 🙄

 

[texscottyd]

@Warchild - I'm good on kidneys, but might be interested in a deal on a liver... 

I'm surprised that you haven't had a flood of responses to your final suspension selection.   My $0.02 is that you've made the right choice.   I have an Ohlins 535 on my 2015 FJ, and did the RaceTech springs & gold valves on the factory forks.   While it's a huge improvement from stock, the front is still a little shy of what I ultimately would like to have, and the recovering racer in me wants just a little bit more.  The tactile feedback - especially over repetitive sharp-edge bumps when carrying some lean angle - still feels just a bit wooden.   Without the ability to fine tune compression independent from rebound (a product of the stock fork design limitation) I'm still playing with the best compromise.

In retrospect, if I had known how well the bike could work with upgraded suspension, I would have just gone straight to the NIX 30 the first time.   I have AK20s in my 636 track bike (with a Penske triple shock), and Ohlins forks on my Aprilia, and the RaceTech setup on the FJ is comparatively about an 85% solution.  The cool factor of those trick fork adjuster caps alone has to be worth a few hundred bucks...     

You're going to love it, and I'm a bit jealous.  

 

[Warchild]

MOVEMENT! It is sad that I will be without the Tracer for the best part of 2 weeks, but this needs to happen regardless. And right now, too. I am ~ 6 weeks away from the first big run this summer with the bike loaded with gear and Warchild-wife, so the folks are off to be sent to my Suspension Doctor for the Ohlins NIX 30 Cartridge rebirth.

 

 

The forks get shipped in a gun case (!), so I am off to the UPS Store after work today. 🔥

 

 

[Wintersdark]

6 hours ago, Warchild said:

MOVEMENT! It is sad that I will be without the Tracer for the best part of 2 weeks, but this needs to happen regardless. And right now, too. I am ~ 6 weeks away from the first big run this summer with the bike loaded with gear and Warchild-wife, so the folks are off to be sent to my Suspension Doctor for the Ohlins NIX 30 Cartridge rebirth.

 

 

The forks get shipped in a gun case (!), so I am off to the UPS Store after work today. 🔥

 

 

Look at Mr Professional over here with his swanky triple tree stand and folding stool for his calipers doing stuff all "properly" and such!   

(Moves to block view of Tracer currently propped up with centerstand, jackstands, and hopeful ratchetstraps from the garage ceiling joists "just in case" and calipers formerly just hanging from their brake lines.  Upside, mine is only down for two days... Unless it falls over.)

Edited May 5, 2021 by Wintersdark

[Warchild]

45 minutes ago, Wintersdark said:

Look at Mr Professional over here with his swanky triple tree stand and folding stool for his calipers doing stuff all "properly" and such!   

😆

The front stand is admittedly pretty swanky, but I think we can all agree that Pit Bull doesn't play games. 

Admittedly, I already had this swanky stand from a few years ago when I sent off the Hayabusa forks for a similar full-blown Race Tech treatment.  Glad I did - I wasn't keen on trying the old standby "wood black with scissors-jack under the downtubes" trick. Not with these three curvy headers, anyway.  😵

[PhotoAl]

Now how much did you say it cost?  🙂

That is a great setup and you have me drooling all over my keyboard.  I might just be out same as you plus one keyboard!   However after all the water that ran thru my yard today I'll probably spend that plus more on repairs and drainage projects!  No flooding just water running!  Oh and the tree that fell down!

You will enjoy that setup and IMO when touring 2 up on a Tracer GT it really makes perfect sense.  I'm OK (not the same as satisfied) with current suspension but I don't have a pillion with me.  2 up and loaded you really do need a great suspension not only for the comfort but also for the insurance of being able to take evasive action and handle other problems without loosing control of the bike.

How do you plan on handling going from a fully loaded setup to riding by yourself without any baggage on a spirited sport ride.  Currently I change preloads and bump up compression a bit when loading up and heading out on a long trip.

I'm contemplating a long trip in June but our son just finished his residency and may take him on a road trip - in my van instead!  Haha my older son could deal with riding but the younger one had enough trouble with a bicycle in college that I have told him to never get a motorcycle!  My older daughter slid down the driveway at a friends house on her face after crashing bicycle.  For a week or two she looked very pitiful!  She will not hear of me giving rides to her twins on my scooter or motorcycle.  Hopefully in August I'll make it to California to see the older son.

[Clegg78]

I got a set of comfort seats off Facebook for $50 (yeah… 50… front and rear tracer 900gt comfort seats)  and I’ll say they are ok.  Worth the $50? Yeah! Worth the $250 just the rider seat is normally?  Noo

the seat has a better angle slightly but is more firm so depending on how you ride that could be an issue. 
 

just threw on $2300 in rear shock + cartridges from Ohlins and that… was a big change! I think the stock tracer 900gt suspension was already better than I expected, but these bits are different games entirely. IMO, getting rebuildable, and tunable suspension is something that will outlive you owning thr bike.  This is the best bang for the buck upgrade you can do (ignore BS exhaust, remapping, flashing, etc… those are neat but only if the bike isn’t barely in control due to shit suspension  )

[Warchild]

11 hours ago, PhotoAl said:

How do you plan on handling going from a fully loaded setup to riding by yourself without any baggage on a spirited sport ride.

That topic was among my discussions with my suspension doctor.  He indicates that for pure solo runs with no extra gear, I will be backing off pre-load on both ends to a pretty minimal setting, and re-set compression and rebound as well.  We'll go over all the settings once the components are install.

It may likely still be a fairly stiff ride even with the light settings, but the main thing is to have the bike performing well with both of us on it. If I feel the need to get jiggy on a solo run, that's actually the job for the S1000XR.  👍

 

[i_ride45]

That sounds like a really nice setup with the Ohlin parts. I also plan to do some 2 up touring with loaded luggage and I've just begun talking with my local suspension shop about what I'm looking to do in the next month or two. The guy I spoke with actually has my same exact bike and he converted it to an adventure bike with spoked wheels and such. He also has an FZ1 and ZX6R and has built suspension on all of them. He recommended going with K-Tech due to their availability and slightly lower cost with similar performance. Does anyone have experience with K-Tech or info about them on the Tracer? I'm not sure what models but he is supposed to check availability and send me a written quote so I can check on specific part numbers at that point. Mine is a 2019 base model.

[roadrash83]

19 hours ago, Warchild said:

😆

The front stand is admittedly pretty swanky, but I think we can all agree that Pit Bull doesn't play games. 

Admittedly, I already had this swanky stand from a few years ago when I sent off the Hayabusa forks for a similar full-blown Race Tech treatment.  Glad I did - I wasn't keen on trying the old standby "wood black with scissors-jack under the downtubes" trick. Not with these three curvy headers, anyway.  😵

  Pit Bull stands are money well spent. All it takes is one bike falling off a cheap stand!

[PhotoAl]

Pit Bull stands are made in America and Pit Bull in located in North Alabama.  IMO the best stand out there - but not the most expensive.  I had a front stand by another well known stand manufacture, nice but the pins never fit that well.   If you are going to work on the forks it's the best way to go.

 

When I bought my BMW I sold super cheap all my stands - didn't really need them as had dealer to service it (hahahahaha) my mistake all around.  Now I'm back to where I'd like to have them again.

Edited May 6, 2021 by PhotoAl

[Warchild]

Since the front wheel was off while forks are gone for overhaul, I took the opportunity to bolt up some Galfers. Thinking of posting this to the Tracer FB groups, so the social media engineers can have something to argue about.  😃 

I know, I shouldn't be an instigator... but it's like free entertainment to watch these clowns argue endlessly. 😁

 

[Wintersdark]

What, the rotors?

[Warchild]

5 hours ago, Wintersdark said:

What, the rotors?

Yep yep... the Galfer Wave rotors. Turns out the Euro dudes do take to these quite a bit. Some go for the 320mm Braking Wave rotors, apparently: 

 

[johnmark101]

On 4/15/2021 at 11:05 PM, Warchild said:

Well, decision has been made - now to sell a kidney to pay for this madness. 🙄

My Suspension guru and I went back and forth for days, discussing the merits of re-springing the factory shock, a possible Race Tech implementation for the forks, or whether to bite the bullet for an Ohlins solution. We discussed costs, benefits, pros/cons of going either way, etc. Also, availability came into play - this needs to happen fairly asap, because the first several thousand mile run begins exactly 60 days from today.

In the end.. the Ohlins argument won the day, even with it's painful cost... it's mega-$$$. 😣

Rear end will be the Ohlins YA537 shock:

Front end will be the Ohlins NIX 30 Cartridge Kit FKS 504. Both the front and rear Ohlins will be custom-sprung to do the job in it's main role: carrying me and Warchild-wife on long tours through desert highways with lots of mountain work, with the Tracer fairly well loaded with gear.

 

Please don't ask for the total costs, it will just bummed me out.  😕  Prices are available on the web - suffice to say this exercise will be well in excess of 2 Large.  😖

Had long, long discussions with him leading up to the decision - it appears I have fallen in love with the Tracer much more than I ever imagined I would, and I intend to keep this bike for many, many years to come. So while it a painful initial outlay, I expect it to be amortized over the next decade or so.

So... who needs a kidney.... 🙄

 

Once you have spent some time on your new suspension the pain of the cost will fade away.  I did a similar set up with a Penske 8983 and AK-20's.  Probably not as nice as the Ohlins components but the improvement in control and bump absorption is remarkable.  The cost for mine was probably about the same since I took my bike to Traxxion Dynamics and let them do all the work from start to finish so there was more labor cost involved. 

The upside to mine was that I was without the bike for only six hours. 

Don't sweat the cost.........worth every penny!!! 

Edited May 6, 2021 by johnmark101