wordsmith

Can someone please confirm (or not) that the mirror mounts on the our bikes have a 10mm thread. And I recall from earlier installs of these that one is reverse-threaded - which one, please? I've fitted more than one pair of these on earlier Tracers and want to do so again but need the info before ordering. My memory is not too good these days! TIA...

The extra stability for touring purposes is what Yamaha has claimed to be the reason behind the extra length.

Piston kit, 8.5 springs, oil. Razor R.

According to Joe - yes. I'm hoping for the installation to be done on Aug 19th, obviously depending on arrival of the K-tech parts. I'll post some pix of the finished job, and maybe even one or two of the actual installation, if he'll let me hang around! I'm deferring my planned two-day ~1000km circuit until the job is done, which over that distance and many varied road surfaces and conditions should give me an excellent feel for the results, and the ability to get things fine-tuned if necessary.

Thanks, betoney. I originally intended to source the parts - if possible - from K-tech in the UK, saving the 19% European VAT/ sales tax thereby, but the price quoted is pretty competitive so I cannot be bothered to jump through all those hoops. Joe's installation charges are reduced by 15% as he's also the parts vendor, and the rider set-up fee of $45 is also waived. I'd mentally budgetted for about $2000, so although it's still lot of dosh, it's close enough. And I guess I'll be able to put the almost-new OE shock up for sale, possibly recouping a little of the cost. Main thing is, though - is it gonna work and be worth it? Judging by the enthusiastic comments and reports from others here, it should be! And after some thought, unless there's going to be a delay of many weeks in having the work done, I'll defer my planned ~1000km circuit until it has been completed: the country roads I'll be riding will quickly tell the tale!

Intrigued by the very positive comments here about the gains that can be made with various after-market suspension parts, I took myself off to a local suspension guru this morning, who advertises that he uses the highly-praised UK brand K-tech. The business is called Ride Dynamics, so that’s a good start! Thanks to captainscarlet for introducing me to K-tech. It’s only about a 30 minutes drive from home, so a consultation to get a feel of the business and its owner seemed worthwhile. And it was – the workshop was spotless, a place for everything and everything in its place, as was the office. Joe was working on some fork legs when I arrived, and spread out on a steel-topped bench were assorted parts including steel shims so thin I could almost see through them. I’d never before seen the innards of the fork – only pictures – and it looked mighty complex. It reinforced my intention to have a professional do the work – I have neither the tools nor the expertise. We talked about my requirements, chiefly a Rolls Royce (or Cadillac) ride. Joe is familiar with the shortcomings of Tracer suspension, saying that he had at least two MT-09s in his workshop every month for upgrades, and indeed there were two such bikes there awaiting work, along with many others. I was quite impressed with the apparent know-how that Joe exhibited, his willingness to listen and discuss, and the options he offered – all without calling me ‘mate’ all the time. Upshot is that we have agreed an all-up price – labour plus K-tech parts plus setting-up the bike when done – of just over AUD$2100 (USD$1425, Euro €1270, GBP£1171). This includes the new Razor-R rear shock as well as fork internals upgrades. By no means cheap, but if it gives the improvement I’m looking for in ride comfort I may not later need to buy the ~AUD$500 Bagster seat (at least, that’s what I’m telling Mrs Wordsmith)! I hope that the availability of the required parts here in Oz is such that the work can be done quite soon so that I can test things on a planned short-ish ~1000km two-day loop. Then, I'll have a real work-out on two much longer multi-day tours each of ~4500km later in the year. Stay tuned for updates and objective comments.

I am a great fan of the BAGSTER seats from France. They are about to produce seats for the GT, which requires different seat pans (bases) from the earlier Tracers. I was very pleased to find out today that I can order mine with a 'GT' logo on the front vertical panel of the pillion seat rather than 'Tracer' as before. It's a small distinction, but worthwhile IMHO. I cannot wait, for although the new seat on the GT is a little more comfortable than the shockingly bad earlier versions, it's till only just...

Below is a pic of how I solved this issue on both the turn-signal button and nearby cruise-control button. From the (extensive) Thread titled 'Farkling my new Australian 2019 GT' to be found here under the 'GT Discussion' topic heading.. Enjoy the GT! Another mini-farkle. The GT's cruise-control is a dream to use, but the buttons are quite small and very close together, so I used an earlier idea from a mini-farkle to the indicator button (bottom left in this pic). Here, I super-glued a tiny silicone furniture-protector 'dot' to the central on/ off control button, now making it quicker and easier to locate.

Cunning!

Looks familiar, John, especially the top pic! Not much green about...

Wye? 😉

I wouldn't want one, but I think they've nailed the styling of the grey one on the left. I see quite a few of these from time to time here...

I feel your quandary, boc07! But if dimming the LEDs so as not to blind oncoming traffic is a main objective, how about a much simpler solution of installing a simple on-off rocker switch, mounted in a handy position on the handlebar. Just a thought - don't want to hijack your very interesting Thread...

Great! Sounds like the sort of service everyone should offer, but so few do. I had some SKENE lights on an earlier BMW and had a problem, which they advised me on via e-mail - even further from Oz to WA!! - and all was well in little time. Great guys to deal with.

D'you REALLY need that SKENE item? Jus' askin'...

All my later model BMWs had Can-bus - which I re-named as Can't-bus - as for an electronological know-nothing like myself it was a nightmare. It's one of the many reasons that makes the Tracer so appealing, with very little to go wrong with adding lights, horns, etc.

Wow - that looks like a schematic of the London Underground!

Any chance of a pic of the finished installation please, flyfifer - purely for reference and comparison? TIA...

I back that 100%. Switching to Michelin PR 4s on my previous Tracer after a puncture rendered the rear tyre unusable was a revelation! Will probably go to Road 5s on the GT in due course...

The hypothetical '80%' above is not to be taken too literally: I may have got to 99% of what's achieveable, or much less, but the main thing is that judging by my built-in seat-of-the-pants-o'meter, the changes made have greatly improved the ride quality and removed a great deal of the harshness. So as mentioned above, I took a final step today and softened the ex-factory front fork preload settings (page 4-39 in the GT Owner's Manual). The adjustment made was only 2mm, out from 16mm to 18mm, and to make it easier to see this tiny graduation I put a piece of blue tape across my steel ruler at the 18mm mark; it took only one-and-an-eighth of a turn to get there. Will ride out later to see if there's any detectable improvement. On my last Gen1 Tracers I found this small increment made a lot of difference.....

I'd be interested indeed, as no doubt would many others - any link(s) to the articles? TIA...

Delete the word 'pretty!'

I well recall my first 2015 Tracer, which – after being ridden home the 70 or so kilometres from the dealership – I HATED, chiefly because of the suspension; in fact I don’t think it had any, or if so from an 18th century ox-cart! But thanks to good advice from this Forum I was quickly able to tame it to a degree, and did the same to subsequent Tracers. Out-of-the-box the 2019 GT has that well-remembered harshness about it, which also requires fixing, which may or may not be made easier because of the extra adjustability of the suspension, meaning more variables and permutations of settings. It might be useful for me to clarify what I’m seeking: not a magic-carpet ride (but I’ll take that if on offer!), but less of the bike leaping into the air like a bucking bronco every time we cross a shadow. 'Harsh' and 'unforgiving' are terms that understate the problem: my dentist bought a new luxury car on the proceeds from replacing my shaken-out dental fillings after a few outings! My goal is increased seated comfort, not pin-point razor-sharp road-holding and handling, and for the record I’m a relatively lightweight 85kg (about 187lbs) or thereabouts fully kitted for the road. My settings from the Gen1 Tracers were ignored for this exercise, which I commenced after much reading on the subject (still something of an art, it seems, rather than a science), contemplating my navel, and studying the entrails of a chicken. As before, I was super-careful to write down every change that I made. At the first outing, it seemed that nothing had altered or improved. Back to the drawing-board, making only small changes at any one time, and riding the same 32km varied outer-suburban road circuit to try to get the feel of the bike. One local road – the well-named Double Jump Road – is pretty rough and corrugated, but by the time I had finished the tuning it was more than just bearable. Other lumps and bumps in the roads around here also succumbed to my fine-tuning, until I have finally arrived at a very satisfactory state of affairs. The rear of the bike shows no signs of wallowing on regular but shallow corrugations, but when the bike is (rarely) carrying loaded panniers and top-box I’ll dial-out a little pre-load on the shock. It may be possible to improve things a bit more, and I might even be at only (say) 80% of what’s achievable, but I don’t want to risk messing-up at this point. The only other minor change I might make is to take a couple of millimetres out of the front forks pre-load to soften it a little. The factory setting is now at 16mm, and the 18mm that I had on previous Tracers may just be right. Without being too precious about it, since YM may – and almost certainly will – V, I don’t intend to share my settings, as I think that much can be learned an owner by going about it in a systematic manner, learning (and discarding) as you go. I'm sure it will be understood that my settings almost certainly wouldn't suit one of you well-nourished 220lb owners! With all my farkling and now this final suspension work I’m pretty sure that my GT is now about as accomplished a bike as it’s going to be for the time and money spent on it. Good one, Yamaha!

FWIW - from a fully topped-up tank to the level receding to '1/2' on the bar was exactly 210km of mixed riding. And on my previous Gen1 Tracer (and I assume would be identical on the GT) I had 50km range remaining once the reserve came into play and screen so indicated.