Mega-Ride, April 23, 2021

[Warchild]

I have a major-league ride coming up this coming Friday. Need to carry some bulky items. So I am going to use my bro's FJR1300 hardbags with the Yamaha Racing paint job.

The stripes alone should be good for an extra 10 hp put to ground.  😁

 

[betoney]

14 hours ago, Warchild said:

I have a major-league ride coming up this coming Friday. Need to carry some bulky items. So I am going to use my bro's FJR1300 hardbags with the Yamaha Racing paint job.

The stripes alone should be good for an extra 10 hp put to ground.  😁

 

Aren’t you near Tri-Cities?  What is your route and destination?  So many options in every direction. 👍🏻

[Warchild]

Headed south to Nevada... maybe HWY 395, or perhaps another route. 👍

[betoney]

50 minutes ago, Warchild said:

Headed south to Nevada... maybe HWY 395, or perhaps another route. 👍

The section of 395 in Oregon, from  Pilot Rock to Burns is amazing, way too much fun!!!  👍🏻

[Warchild]

On 4/20/2021 at 5:00 PM, betoney said:

The section of 395 in Oregon, from  Pilot Rock to Burns is amazing, way too much fun!!!  👍🏻

Definitely! Have down this route a gjillion times over the years - usually, it's my main path to Nevada.  Have killed two deers on this road since 2001 - the latest on the Hayabusa in Sept, 2019.

However, today I am doing one of the entry-level Iron Butt Association rides, called a "Saddlesore 1000" - a documented 1000 miles in less than 24 hours. Always need to do a legit IBA ride on any new bike I own. The Tracer is about 5 weeks old now - time to ride. Sadly, HWY395 isn't in the cards today.

In this particular Saddlesore, the rider starts out like any SS1K, but stops for a documented killer Milkshake (photo of milkshake with dated/timed receipt) anywhere from the 400 to 600-mile mark, then continue the ride as usual. So I will be stopping for one of the world-famous kick-ass Milkshakes they serve at Fields Station, OR, a little outpost in the High Desert just north of the Nevada border.

The first and last 200-ish miles of my route are I-84, because those miles will be night riding hours. Basically, the 1037 miles route is: Home - Flying J Truck Stop, Ontario, OR - Burns, OR - Fields, OR -Denio Junction, NV - McDermitt, NV - Jorden Valley, OR - Flying J Truck Stop Ontario, OR - Home

I did this very identical ride last year on the 2020 BMW S1000XR. Today may not be as fast as the ride was on the hooligan Beemer, still, but this is the intended route: 

 

Wish me luck, fellas! That first 200 miles to Ontario, OR will be some cooooooold shit - the Tracer will be fine; so let's see how the rider does. 😁

[Salish900]

Have a great time @Warchild So jealous and wish you all the best! Keep that rubber side down and come back with less rubber on those tires! Whoot!

[Warchild]

Well, made it back safe and sound,  but... it wasn't a very fun ride, to be honest.  😕

 

I don't really blame the bike... well, maybe 10-15% or so. Mostly, it was me. 

That said, I did succeed to finishing the Saddlesore 1000 - just took unusually longer that what is typical. The peanut butter-chocolate shake was awesome as always:

And it was a pleasant-enough day for riding through the Nevada desert - as always!   🔥  🔥  🔥 

 

 

In retrospect, I should've waited for another time when I was feeling better. The ride started off pretty well - just kinda deteriorated as the miles rolled on. 

Oh well... there will be another day.  👍

[betoney]

7 minutes ago, Warchild said:

Well, made it back safe and sound,  but... it wasn't a very fun ride, to be honest.  😕

I don't really blame the bike... well, maybe 10-15% or so. Mostly, it was me.

In retrospect, I should've waited for another time when I was feeling better. The ride started off pretty well - just kinda deteriorated as the miles rolled on.

Glad you made it back safely and successfully met your time limit.  Other than not feeling well, what shortcomings did you find with the bike to make the ride un-enjoyable?

[Waldo Jeffers]

^^what he said^^

[Warchild]

1 hour ago, betoney said:

Glad you made it back safely and successfully met your time limit.  Other than not feeling well, what shortcomings did you find with the bike to make the ride un-enjoyable?

Well, nothing really earth-shattering - honestly, I knew about all these before-hand:

• Weather protection for riding hundreds of miles in extreme cold (less that 40 degrees F) is fairly marginal. 
• The handguards are a cosmetic after-thought on the part of Yamaha. Handguards keeping phalanges out of the airstream would have made a huge positive impact. 
• Gas mileage is rather poor above 80mph - would necessitate an aux cell if I continued to do LD runs on the Tracer. Which I don't plan to do, truth be told. 

But there were some pleasant (or at least, interesting) findings, too:

• Now that the Dunlop RoadSmarts are fitted, bike stability at very high speeds is quite impressive, even with the FJR1300 bags I was using.
• The highest recorded speed was 124mph - the bike was as planted as can be. 👍
• Gas mpg can be pretty impressive - when riding below 70 mph. Slow speeds don't really happened in Nevada, tho. 🙄
• The speedometer reads a very consistent 1 mph low over a wide spectrum of speeds. 
• Factory cruise control will not operate at or above 100mph (that is to say, it behaves as expected at 99mph or below). You can't set if at 100 or above, nor can you "bump" it up past 99 using the ^ switch.

[Waldo Jeffers]

FYI, I use these when it’s cold and have been relatively pleased. 
 

https://obradvgear.com/enduro-grip-mitt/

 

 

 

[Warchild]

That is excellent, Waldo -  these would have been a big help last night!  😕

Do they fit around the existing handguards, or...???

 

 

[Wintersdark]

2 hours ago, Warchild said:

Well, nothing really earth-shattering - honestly, I knew about all these before-hand:

• Weather protection for riding hundreds of miles in extreme cold (less that 40 degrees F) is fairly marginal. 
• The handguards are a cosmetic after-thought on the part of Yamaha. Handguards keeping phalanges out of the airstream would have made a huge positive impact. 
• Gas mileage is rather poor above 80mph - would necessitate an aux cell if I continued to do LD runs on the Tracer. Which I don't plan to do, truth be told. 

But there were some pleasant (or at least, interesting) findings, too:

• Now that the Dunlop RoadSmarts are fitted, bike stability at very high speeds is quite impressive, even with the FJR1300 bags I was using.
• The highest recorded speed was 124mph - the bike was as planted as can be. 👍
• Gas mpg can be pretty impressive - when riding below 70 mph. Slow speeds don't really happened in Nevada, tho. 🙄
• The speedometer reads a very consistent 1 mph low over a wide spectrum of speeds. 
• Factory cruise control will not operate at or above 100mph (that is to say, it behaves as expected at 99mph or below). You can't set if at 100 or above, nor can you "bump" it up past 99 using the ^ switch.

It's interesting that the US models are speed limited for cruise control - I've heard reports of that a few times.  I've locked mine at 200kph though, and it's worked just fine there.

Did you have heated gear?  Even with the (absolutely garbage) stock windscreen, I'm warm and toasty with heated grips+gloves+jacket+helmet, even in -25C.  People like to scoff about them (ironically mostly the fair-weather-riding-only people) but I'm really a fan of being warm and having direct, instant control of exactly how warm.

Yeah, the handguards are cosmetic at best.  I've often thought about making extensions that attach to those inside two bolts; just some smoke plexiglass bent to extend up and down an inch or two for winter riding.  I've considered swapping them, but I'm dubious about finding alternatives that look like they're supposed to be there.  But heated gloves+grips get you warm hands even without handguards at all.

Honestly - I'm REALLY curious if Yamaha improved the handguards and windscreen for the Tracer 9.  The reality is that both are terrible and there's a strong argument that the bike is just better if you remove them entirely.  

I've had mine up to around 135mph a couple times(about as fast as it goes under normal circumstances with my huge frame on it), and it's quite comfortable and planted even there.  No sketchiness at all, which to be honest I was kind of surprised about.  I don't have the FJR lids (only the lids differ), but the stock bags in general seem to be well designed aerodynamically, they don't really seem to impact handling at all.  Or at least, again, not with me on the bike.

 

Those bags are gorgeous.  I want my whole bike painted like that, so very badly.  So beautiful.

[Waldo Jeffers]

2 hours ago, Warchild said:

That is excellent, Waldo -  these would have been a big help last night!  😕

Do they fit around the existing handguards, or...???

 

 

Yes they fit perfectly and they’re relatively cheap. 

[Warchild]

1 hour ago, Wintersdark said:

It's interesting that the US models are speed limited for cruise control - I've heard reports of that a few times.  I've locked mine at 200kph though, and it's worked just fine there.

Did you have heated gear? 

Oooooooh, yes. Never travel without the 110v Warm-N-Safe liner, at any time of the year. I can't even set it on high without the possibility of leaving burn marks.  And I use LDComfort long-sleeve and long johns - very warm stuff. And I have all manner of layers clothing that comes from LDRiding for 25 years. Truly, in this instance, only the fingers were the real issue - nothing else. But it was enough, apparently, to give me an attitude problem.  😕

1 hour ago, Wintersdark said:

Those bags are gorgeous.  I want my whole bike painted like that, so very badly.  So beautiful.

Aren't they stunning? They came off the all-silver very first year FJR1300... 2003 (though it was a calendar year 2002). My friend had them done up in this paint in 2005.  He says these bags are mine, now, and he actually told me it's fine if I want to paint them the same gloss black as I had the Tracer done. There is no possible way I could bring myself to do that.

Here they are at a Rest Area in northern Nevada yesterday afternoon: