wordsmith

I owned, for a short time, an earlier Tiger Sport 1050 SE, in a retina-searing orange colour (but I liked it!). The SE designation included colour-matched panniers. The SE was a nice bike, with a great triple engine, albeit at a wet weight of 245kg a little heavy for me even then, but its seat was - if you can believe it - even worse than on Gen 1 Tracers. Being an extreme sort-of banana shape when viewed from side-on - the screen-shot below shows it well - it made the rider fall into the bottom of the 'dip', with not much ability to wriggle around and find that 'sweet spot'. I spend over $400 getting the seat modified - it didn't help one little bit. I didn't keep it long enough to be able to comment on servicing costs! And I cannot understand why Triumph does not market the newer Tiger Sport in the US!

On Jan 3rd I posted details of my DIY flashing/ pulsing LED rear brake lights that I had just installed. Today I relocated the LEDs and the mounting bracket in preparation for fitting a fender eliminator, as the LEDs would have interfered with the fender eliminator, which will be moved right up and under the rear light/ brake lamp housing. It was one of those simple five minute jobs that took most of the morning, as re-wiring was also necessary. I moved the LEDs about 7"/ 17cm further back and attached them on their bracket to the back of the luggage rack - they are now the rearmost part of the bike. Viewed from behind the bike, the cluster of lights - brake lamp plus the flashing LEDs - still give me a good mass of lights all in one place, thereby maximising their impact and effect (I hope!). Pix below: 124 - no lights. 125 - rear running lamp only. 126 - rear brake lamp only. 127 - added LEDs which flash/ pulse several times when either brake is applied, then stay on in steady state. Brighter than a thousand suns! Note the increased mass of lumens.

1939 model here, and a shade under your own stats at 5'10" on a warm day, 85kg (187lbs) with all riding gear on, 32" inseam, moderately fit but getting less so with every passing day. My own riding usage also mirrors yours pretty closely - my typical weekend ride there-and-back would be about 200km (say 120 miles), up to about 400km (250 miles), and maybe two trips away each year of around 4500km each, say about 2800 miles. These longer trips would entail carrying fully (though lightly) loaded OE hard panniers, which do definitely make a difference to handling and suspension performance. I never ever carry a pillion. The harsh out-of-the-box suspension is a major point of criticism of the alleged 'touring' designation of the FJ/ MT-09, but I have mine on wholly OE suspension quite nicely tuned now, while others choose to have professional tuning and/ or aftermarket suspension parts installed, which can be pretty costly. Additionally, the OE seat also sucks, but there are many ways of dealing with this, mine being to purchase a superb BAGSTER seat from France at a cost of ~AUD$450. Bliss! IMHO, the FJ/ MT-09 will not match your FJR for day-long riding in terms of your comfort and the bike's ease of performance - the CP3 motor is a little buzzy at higher revs (needs to be lower-geared in 6th I suggest for stress-free distance touring) . Counter this with the FJ/ MT-09's flickability and lightness of being, and you may have a drawn match. The lightness also gives ease of shoving the bike around in the garage and given my advancing years and declining physical strength was a major reason for the choice of the MT-09 Tracer - I'm now on my fourth (4th)! Coming from a very long line of BMWs (Roadsters and GSs) I find my MT-09 Tracer pretty satisfactory overall, and certainly giving excellent value-for-money, but if I planned much more distance-touring the BMW (= FJR) would be the choice. For lesser distances in day-riding, however, the FJ/ MT-09 is decidedly a much more 'fun' machine to be on. And it can be heavily 'farkled' at minimal cost given the vast array of mostly inexpensive aftermarket parts now available. Enjoy the mental gymnastics!

Even the best-designed huggers cannot keep the rear of any bike 100% clean. It's unrealistic to expect otherwise, IMHO! My BMW R1200 R after running through some extensive roadworks on Tasmanian roads...

Strikes me that the mesh side and top cut-outs are an unnecessary bit of flim-flam that would still allow a substantial amount of water through at any speed. But a step in the right direction...

Love that doggie! Schnauzer? - tho' a bit hard to tell with such a small image...

In my optical world a transition lens is where it darkens in sunlight, returns to clear when not. Photochromic is the tech term I bleeve. My prescription spex work this way. Did not know that this feature can be found on m/cycle visors. Are we comparing apples with apples I wonder?

E Bay Motorcycle Parts and accessories, look under 'badges and decals'. Or 'seller' below... REDLAND BAY, Queensland 4165 Australia Estimated delivery: Fri, 01 Feb - Mon, 04 Feb 3D YAMAHA Sticker Decal Badge Emblem Logo Bike Quad Motorcycle Petrol Fuel Tank Item ID: 261302168772 Item price: AU $4.99 Seller: ezyshopau2013 (55002) Check order status

The flat matte black finish of the OE hard panniers is pretty drab, IMHO. I had thought seriously about painting them as I had on an earlier model, but decided against it as I was not able to find a spray-can with the exact colour match, and anything less wouldn't do. On my previous Tracer I was fortunate to get a paint that matched exactly the gunmetal colour of the tank - this time, no such luck! So I laid down a couple of pinstripe tapes, left over from the application to the channel along the bike under the tank, and a reflective patch, finishing-off with a raised/ 3D effect 'Yamaha' decal. The pair of decals cost me under $5, delivered within a few days of ordering, and are an exact match to both the colour and gloss of the bike's Lava Red paintwork. These touches will give a visual lift to and will 'lighten' the otherwise dull look of the panniers, I believe. In the pic below the colours are all over the place, but trust me that the pinstripes are a fairly good match to the bike, and the reflective patch is red, not orange! LATER EDIT: I had originally thought that I might buy the genuine Yamaha decals as found on the front fairings of the bike, but they turned out to be >$120 the pair!

Here's my simple - and dare I say - obvious solution, one of three (3) garage-door remote control 'clickers', others being in the car and in the garage adjacent to the door into the house. Cost about $15. It's mounted on the lhs 'bar (clutch side) so that I can press it with my left hand while keeping the other on the front brake to avoid inadvertent reversing while stopped on my sloping driveway. Tiny $3 battery - second pic - should last forever! The red ball is superglued to the actual press-button, which was too tiny to be readily activated with gloved fingers: the ball gives immediate effect. And the 'ball' is actually a pearl pinched from my wife's bead-working collection, with a flat angle-ground onto it and added red nail-varnish. The clicker is held in a small push-fit plastic slide-in housing and is immediately and easily removeable when leaving the bike or washing it. (You can also see my patented DIY anti-glare display-screen hood in the first pic...)

Summary of farkles completed. Today I completed the final (for now!) farkle on my new-to-me 2015 Lava Red Tracer. One or two other minor things may suggest themselves as time goes on, but the list is pretty complete for now, although I do intend to re-do the rear flashing/ pulsing brake LEDs as they don’t work as well as others installed previously. AUD$25 will cover that cost, and an hour’s work. I’ll probably also carry out a simple DIY tail-tidy operation, although that also requires some changes to the bike’s rear OE pumpkin indicators, as they will not work with panniers fitted if the rear support bracket is shortened, as I plan. The aftermarket farklings fall into one of two categories – added comfort/ convenience: and added safety. There’s very little added ‘bling’. Comfort/ convenience includes by-far the most expensive item, the BAGSTER seat, but that is really a must-have for me, and the decision to splash-out AUD$449 was made a lot easier by the fact that I’d had two of these seats before on other bikes. With some distance touring in mind, and two planned there-and-back trips of about 4,500km each the OE torture device simply wouldn’t cut it. In fact, it doesn’t even cut it on a simple local 100km ride! Safety-oriented items included new hi-viz LEDs front and back and a more assertive horn. Here’s the list (I’ve omitted individual costs as some items were bought in USD), and the total cost has been AUD$890, with the BAGSTER seat accounting for almost exactly half. · Grip Puppies · Headlight covers · Bagster seat · Rear carry-rack · Double-bubble screen · Mirror extenders/ risers · Stebel Magnum horn · Front FJR rubber-topped/ wider foot-pegs · Red reflective self-stick strips for pannier lids · Positaps x 10 · GS100A Modulator · Relay · Red reflective inserts in front of handguards · Red LED strips for flashing/ pulsing rear brake lights · Pair of front DRL LEDS · TREKA 6L top-box (re-used from earlier bikes) · Wheel-rim decals · Red pinstripe tape on bodywork under tank · DIY display screen anti-glare hood · DIY radiator guard. That's all, folks!

You, sir, are all heart! A quick walk around just now suggests that only I might be dissatisfied!

Wheel-rim decals ordered (from Scotland) ten days ago arrived. In the past I’ve satisfactorily applied them according to the vendor’s detailed instructions so I decided to do so again rather than following some tips here about using soapy water to position them, but the vendor did tell me that this method is OK for his product. I cleaned the wheels, first using a foam degreaser, then after washing-off and allowing them to dry overnight gave a careful detailing with alcohol (sob!) to ensure perfect adhesion. This is a pretty fiddly job, and care and patience and attention is needed. As are concert-pianist’s or brain-surgeon’s fingers and a steady touch. In particular the tiny spindly letters forming the word Yamaha, less than 1cm high, are tricky. This is not a job to be started in a dark corner of the garage using a torch, and having the bike off the ground on a stand or hoist would definitely make application a lot easier. Two decals are applied to each side of each wheel, and I chose to place one immediately over the tyre-valve stem, shown in the bottom pic below by the spot of blue masking tape, to assist its quick location when needed. I’m not super-satisfied with the results this time – I’ve done better before, and frankly doubt if I’d bother to do so again, despite the added ‘custom’ touch these decals give to the wheels. But at a cost of AUD$19 this is about the only bit of ‘bling’ on the bike, and just about completes my farkling list – for the time being!

One capital city here (Adelaide) reached 47 deg C today, an all-time record - that's 116 deg F. Too hot, you say??

Far too hot and humid to ride.

Installing Grip Puppies on each handlebar grip is a proven way to minimise/ eradicate vibration, unless it is very pronounced - in which case something may be wrong.

That would also make a great anti-theft security clamp!

Now there's an idea! There is plenty of faux carbon on Gen 1 models (not sure about 2018s and beyond) and it might blend very nicely to have the beak carbonised to match. In my case it would also complement the carbon-look cross-bar under the headlight that carries the two DRL LEDs...

Thank you all - it looks fine on the red Tracers shown here (britelitebob's two pix show the diff before and after very clearly), and I cannot now help wondering if it would better still if painted red to match. Has anyone done this?

Coming off a beaked BMW GS I'm not sure whether I like this effect or not - I'm leaning towards 'like', even though I know it's only 'bling' with little or no practical function. I'd certainly want to see one installed before buying.

Spot on! My only Tracer puncture was on a very wet day, in the country, miles from anywhere, and with no safe verge to work on to plug the tyre. I ended up riding about 80km or so - may have been further - very, very gingerly to a motorbike shop I'd noticed miles back! They plugged it for me.

These replacement levers are so inexpensive (scores of on-line vendors), can be had in many colours, can be span-adjusted on the clutch side, and make the clutch pull so much easier as pyotr has said, that I'm surprised everyone doesn't do the swap.

i didn't do this, but these top-box mounted rear brake LEDs look effective...

I did nothing to my Tracer today. Some self-adhesive stripes to dress-up the pannier lids arrived, and I got ready to apply them using the approved (here) soapy-water method. But as I started I noticed that the stripes on each of the two pieces were different - one piece had skinny side stripes and a wide centre stripe: the other had wider side-stripes and a narrower centre stripe! WTF! This is the first time I've been dissatisfied with any purchase from E Bay, so I have e-mailed the vendor with a pic, asking for a refund. The two stripes cost under AUD$7, so I'm hardly distressed, especially as the red colour was no match for the bike's Lava Red paintwork. But it will be interesting to see how this request goes...

Old idea! On my first Tracer way back in mid-2015 I actually made one of these, but I doubt it was as neat and precise as the one you've shown. I recall that it was very fiddly and precise work - which made it an enjoyable challenge for me! - and that I had a cuppla tries that went into the bin, then I made a cardboard template and worked from there. Looked OK I recall, and I still have material left-over so may repeat the process. But what a pity I wasn't smart enough to have kept the template... Thanks for sharing.