wordsmith

dazz - to answer your PM question, the following settings are on the job notes given to me: Rear shock upgrade: compression - 16 clicks out rebound - 8 clicks out rider sag 51mm. These may well change when Joe at Ride Dynamics does his final fettling and fine-tuning next week, but might be a useful starting-point for you as we are of near-identical weight. I'll let you know. But beware the added weight of those GT stripes...

Not quite so good on the black GT with blue trim and blurple wheels. I'm convinced it takes a couple of kph off top speed...

I think you mean to say that one man's seat is another man's poison...😎

Private sale is definitely more effort, but if done right usually results in more bucks. But looking at on-line ads from private sellers I'm often amazed at the efforts some would-be sellers go to NOT to present the bike in its best light - ads sparse on detail, crap pix, and too few of them, etc etc. It's not that hard to tell the story, selling the sizzle and not the steak if you will, so long as it's truthful. I have always sold my bikes privately, always cash only (or cleared Bank cheque), and as others here say, have always come out way ahead.

LURV that Forum name, Waving Wheat - one of a kind! If I may, what's behind it?

After a fair amount of to-ing and fro-ing, and me getting increasingly terse and impatient, the E Bay vendor - EShop1May - has finally made a full refund of the $78.24 cost, so I'm only out of pocket by the $8 cost of returning the kit. A pity in a way that it didn't work out as it could be useful as a safety item, but again I think I may have found it distracting. Incidentally, in many years of buying all sorts of motorcycling stuff on E Bay this is the first time I've struck a problem, albeit resolved..

Looks great, fddriver 2, but the fact that the turn signals (pumpkins) are hidden from other drivers by the panniers makes it an unsafe proposition, I think - and may attract the unwanted attention of the pleece. It certainly would here.

The quote was actually coined by me, super. You may use it on payment of a small fee. In most respects the BMW F800 GT was excellent: usual BMW quality everywhere, frugal (which it had to be with a 15L tank), comfortable, and with the very significant - IMHO - benefit of belt-drive via a very shapely single-sided swing-arm, which you can see in the second pic below of me with my then-new GT. The only down-side, and a very important one at that, was its asthmatic underwhelming performance, especially off the line, and the ST had an identical engine.. Once going, it was OK, but the Tracer kills it for outright enjoyment of the motor. A near-perfect mid-weight motorcycle might be achieved by putting the CP3 motor into a BMW F800 GT everything else. And the mists of time have not dimmed my recollections, for it so happens that just a few weeks ago I took a pristine second-hand BMW F800 GT for a test-ride from a local dealership. After some years on Tracers, warts an' all, the experience reconfirmed in spades just how pathetic the BMW's power-plant was - and is - and conversely how outstanding is our CP3 engine. But rumour has it that a revised model with a larger (? 900cc) and more powerful engine is in the offing, maybe to be seen at upcoming northern-autumn motorcycle shows in Europe.

Page 9-2 of my GT's Owner's Manual states ; Maximum load: 179kg (395 lb). (Total weight of rider, passenger, cargo, and accessories).

Channelling Jane Austen - it is a truth universally acknowledged that someone newly coming into possession of a motorcycle, car, lawn-mower, goldfish, wife, whatever, always proclaims to the world that THIS is the finest of its kind ever, unsurpassed in every respect, better than all that came before, and guaranteed to satisfy in every way possible. (© myself, a long, long time ago). Having got that old saw off my chest I have to say that this is a super bit of scribing, superfist, and well done. As a dyed-in-the-wool BMWer having owned far too many bikes of that brand - albeit almost all being boxer twins, Roadsters and GSs - I know where you are coming from with many of your comments. Even the heat issue rings a bell. One of my non-boxers was BMW's underwhelming F800 GT, and on almost every outing I suffered roast leg - rare or medium-rare depending on the day - from excessive heat emanating from the lhs fairing. It was a very common complaint yet BMW, in all its arrogance, refused to acknowledge it as such. But niggles aside, the quality of everything with BMW is outstanding - fit and finish and attention to detail leaves our Tracers far behind, with all due respect. I hope you continue to explore and enjoy the RR.

I don't know, but don't see why not if there are no official USA dealerships/ distributorships to 'protect'. I read some BAGSTER stuff a few years ago and they stated that extending their US sales was a priority for them. CHROMEBURNER.nl is a Netherlands company and I'm sure they would ship for you - I'm currently in dialogue with them about the so-far elusive new GT seats from BAGSTER.

Sadly - and I'm sure it's true everywhere - even fully-loaded as your bike is, that means very little, whether trading-in with a dealer or selling privately. I have already mentally written-off most if not all the $2100 spent on top-notch K-tech suspension upgrade, both ends, as well as the rest of my (all non-bling) enhancements. It seems it's part of the price paid to get any bike to where one wants it to be. Just be thankful it's not a BMW!

That looks very familiar and very nice too, dazz! But you had me going there for a minute - I was about to start growing a beard and planning to leave the country! FWIW, I don't endorse this brand for any reasons except that for me these seats are sublime. Of course, for anyone else - except dazzler - YMMV. But I'm still waiting on news about the availability of the GT seats - I must send 'em a follow-up soonish. Enjoy that new perch! W

Several stickers for me and mates when I can find out the size of them (the stickers that is, not the mates!).

I ask again - what's the size of the stickers, please?

Innit strange! I was a dyed-in-the wool and fully rusted-on BMWer for many years, and followed the R1200R Forum assiduously. I well recall the shrieks of girlish outrage when linked-brakes were featured on a newly introduced and updated model. One would have thought that BMW had decided to remove all braking functions, or some such thing! Many Blokes vowed they hated the idea and claimed to be moving their loyalties and dollars to other bike brands. Me? - various of my Roadsters from the R1150 R of about 2003 onwards or thereabouts had the linked brakes, and the braking function of them together was entirely unobtrusive and undetectable, to the extent that it seemed it wasn't actually there. Never a problem whatsoever.

Excellent! I dips me lid...

Just checked mine (GT) - it's at 40mm as close as I can measure, at 2355km from new.

Kudos to you, Dr Dazz! i wouldn't know where to start on major surgery like that: my medical skills extend as far as removing the odd splinter and applying a Band-aid! Hope it works well for you.

Yes - def internal batteries as there is (was) a low-batt icon on the screen until I plugged the unit via the USB cable into the outlet on the bike. No regrets - I may have found the device took away my concentration on more important on-the-road things.

A 'titch' - now there's an Olde Englishe term I've not heard for a very long time! 25mm probably suits the Tracer - my 30mm is possibly a titch more betterer for the longer swing-arm on the GT. Whatever, you can't go wrong.

FINAL UPDATE: the pretty good English in which the Manual is written and as I said above is true, but unfortunately the instructions themselves are quite incomplete. Nevertheless, I stifled my usual impatience and read, learned, and inwardly digested the instructions to the nth degree, but fell at the first hurdle! Despite doing everything carefully and by the book I could not enter the first pressure setting, which is to put the LO parameter into the Monitor. So I have sent it back, which is disappointing: I cannot waste more time on it, even though it might be a useful device to have. I have made far too many purchases of motorbike bits 'n' pieces over many years - this is the first 'fail' that I've had. I just hope I can get my dosh back, as although only a modest AUD$78 it will buy other goodies.

I have found on my four Tracers that 30mm is pretty satisfactory and all but eliminates that harsh mother-in-law whining noise...

Intuitively, the CoG on Tracers is relatively high up, which contributes to its light feeling and flickability on the road. Just take a look at the engine which, despite being canted forward, is still quite tall. But I don't recall ever having seen any pix or diagrams of any bike side-on showing the actual point of the CoG. My BMW Boxer twins had a very low CoG because of the heavy flat-twin engine being located so close to the ground, and the absence of 'flickability' - and difficulty of shoving them around in the garage - was very noticeable in otherwise excellent machines.