wordsmith

The little 250mm long plastic-coated swaged-end helmet-holding wire is useful, but less useful is the need to remove the rear seat to get at it, then secure it to the hook that’s under there. Impossible, even, if the pillion seat has luggage on it. My solution for quick and easy securing of the helmet to the bike is to attach a small carabineer hook onto the swaged loops, then put the wire around/ through the rhs rear pillion handle. The carabineer must match the gold-coloured front fork, of course… Only because I had some did I also put a small elastic lady’s hair-band alongside, secured by a small zip-tie to the adjacent luggage-strap securing peg, underneath the pannier mounting rail. Hooked through the open rearmost 'claw' this holds the wire and carabineer clip firmly and stops them from rattling around when I’m proceeding at warp speed… Now it’s just matter of clipping the hook to the helmet strap or through the D-loop, [em]et violin[/em] – hanging from the pillion handle the thing is reasonably secure from prying fingers. [em]Wordsmith – ’39 model, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia[/em][em] [/em][em]http://i.imgur.com/2k9Cx6B.jpg[/em][em]http://i.imgur.com/g6Dg0C7.jpg[/em][em] [/em]

The XSR is very quiet in the wind noise department and very stable. I haven't taken it on any twisties (not even sure there are any in Dallas that would qualify), but I think she's going to be just as nimble as the FJ-09. She definitely wanted to turn into a couple of turns where I was playing around a little, but the FJ would have done the same. The suspension/ride seems more comfortable on the stock settings than the FJ was. The FJ seemed harsh over bumps with the stock settings (I'm 210-220#), the XSR seems to soak up the bumps better. That could be a combination of the different seat and the suspension though. It certainly never made me "nervous" in the few corners I took and on a couple of the rougher roads I rode on, it was easier to control the throttle. That last bit (about throttle control) could also be that I think they've smoothed out the fueling / throttle even more. I've read how snatchy the FZ-09 is (was?) and how the FJ-09 is much better. But, even the FJ can be snatchy at low throttle inputs especially on rough roads. That was a big reason I had 2wheeldynoworks flash my ECU. The XSR is very smooth and I had no problems over the same roads I would take the FJ over! She still has pep, don't get me wrong and once I've got a few more miles in her, I'll play around with A mode. But, in STD, she's smooth. My dealer has offered me use of an XSR for a few hours while mine is having its first 1000km service shortly. I'll probably take him up on it - it will make for an interesting comparison. [em]Wordsmith[/em]

This is just a ‘teaser’ for both thee and me while I await delivery of my new seat. Many years and many bikes have proved to me that nothing about motorbikes is more subjective than seat comfort, and more money has probably been spent/ wasted in the fruitless search for the Holy Grail than on any other part of the bike. Been there, done that… By way of a lead-in, I’m now on my second new Tracer, and like so many others found the OE seat on both bikes to be an abomination (YMMV, of course). Since I like to do regular long-ish day rides of up to about 450km, and a couple of long interstate multi-day tours each year of some thousands of kilometres, seat comfort has always been important. On my first Tracer (April 2015) I took advantage of a special Forum offer of 30% off (IIRC) from sponsor company Seat Concepts, and purchased their three-piece kit. This consisted of foam and cover for the rider seat, and matching cover only for the pillion seat (I never carry a pillion), to be installed onto the OE seat pan/ base. Lacking a suitable staple-gun I had to get my local car and boat upholsterer to do the fitting, and he did a very good job for $90. The finished Seat Concepts job is pictured below, and looked pretty good. It gave some improvement in comfort and support, which – although nothing startling – was acceptable, and I later put in two consecutive days each of 580km on that seat in reasonable comfort: I doubt I’d have made the trip on the OE seat. I should also say that the harsh OE suspension had by this time been tweaked to give better compliance - again, it was a little better but still far from plush. Fast forward to the present: I knew when I ordered my new Tracer that the seat would have to be improved as soon as possible. This was quickly confirmed on the very short ride home from the dealership after collecting the new bike last week – my seat-bones began to ache almost immediately! A couple of later 120km – 200km outings have confirmed that view. Choices were considered, including the current Seat Concepts kit. There are also local motorcycle seat-makers whose products have a good reputation, but they may have little or no experience with the Tracer, and I didn’t want to be a guinea-pig. Reading favourable comments on this Forum about seats produced by the French company BAGSTER – whose tank-covers I’d seen and admired for a long time – I decided to bite the bullet on their product, ordering their Ready Lux model 5355Z with premium Bultex foam in both seats, with my choice of stitching and embroidery colour from an extensive menu of options. I ordered through the Australian distributor (Carlisle Accessories) at the mind-boggling cost of AUD549 (GBP295, Euro404, USD460 at time of ordering), and a lead-time of 5-6 weeks has been given. For comparison, the new Bagster seat has cost me about AUD120 [em]more[/em] than the current Seat Concepts kit (including local fitting), so I hope it is going to be worthwhile. Thinking further about the cost, I recall that I’ve seen prices for other well-regarded seats, mainly in the USA market, around the USD500 mark, so my USD460 delivered to my door doesn’t seem too bad. Another comparison may be useful in that the Bagster seat comes fully fitted to a new Bagster-design pan, whereas most alternatives seem to re-use the OE pan, which it’s been suggested leads in some way to the discomfort levels. I’ll report on my experiences with the new seat when it has been fitted and tried on the road. Pray for me… [em]Wordsmith[/em] [em]('39 model)[/em] - [em]Brisbane, Queensland, Australia[/em][em] [/em][em]below - the Seat Concepts product from last year's bike[/em] http://i.imgur.com/TZMqUQS.jpg

[strong]Drilled a hole[/strong] in the black rubber bung that fits behind the front seat release-catch (have you ever seen such a clunky thing on a motorbike? Almost as bad as the nearby seat height adjustment system!) Used a short bit of copper wire to form a loop to make removal of the bung easy, but on the last Tracer a thin zip-tie did the same job.. Also – [strong]ordered the Bagster seat[/strong], model #5355Z Ready Lux, with the optional Bultex foam. ETA 5-6 weeks – will report on its arrival and first rides. [em]Wordsmith (’39 model) - Brisbane, Queensland, Australia[/em] [em]2015 Matte Grey MT - 09 Tracer – now at 346km. Stebel Magnum horn; 2” ‘blind-spot’ auxiliary mirrors; Third Gear mini top-box; lots more coming.[/em] [em]http://i.imgur.com/nPayS1a.jpg[/em][em] [/em]

http://i.imgur.com/6Qv1zc8.jpg Stuck a tiny 10mm diameter silicone 'dot' (furniture surface protector) onto the equally small indicator button. The resulting slight protrusion makes it easier to locate with a gloved thumb. [em]Cost[/em] - nil: [em]time taken[/em] – about ten seconds. [em]Wordsmith[/em]

Fitted a mini-size [strong]Top Box[/strong], $29AUD, and 28L capacity. Had this on other bikes; it takes – [em]just![/em] – my full-face helmet. I don’t care much for top-boxes that are so huge that if filled with water could serve as a swimming-pool, but this excels for day-trips and even a weekend away. And it doesn't look over-sized or unbalance the bike visually, especially when the rider is on the bike. Distributor here in Oz is Third Gear (Melbourne-based)– I’ve dealt with them often and they have good products at very keen prices, and excellent service. Stuff is arriving every day – LED indicators from China just delivered this morning! I'm exhausted! [em]W [/em] 2015 Matte Grey MT-09 Tracer – now at 33km. [em]Stebel Magnum horn; 2” ‘blind-spot’ auxiliary mirrors; Third Gear mini top-box; http://i.imgur.com/ldBApIM.jpg[/em][em]http://i.imgur.com/YLQhWhc.jpg [/em]

Installed the new [strong]Stebel Magnum horn[/strong] (AUD$28), a simple five-minute plug-and-play task using the original horn bracket, but I expect to have to relocate it when installing the on-its-way AdventureTech light-bar and front LEDs. I’ve had a Magnum on a number of other bikes, and while it’s not obnoxiously loud its attention-grabbing mini-Mack truck two-tone note does seem to cut-through to texting or dozing drivers, and I find it effective. It does need to be mounted correctly, with the horn pointing downwards, even if only slightly, so that water does not gather inside. I managed to drown an earlier Magnum when carelessly hosing the bike down, and all future editions have been covered tightly with a plastic bag when the bike is being washed. [em]W[/em] 2015 Matte Grey Tracer – now at 33km from new. [em]Stebel Magnum horn; 2” blind-spot auxiliary mirrors;[/em][em] [/em][em]http://i.imgur.com/sWxdLbC.jpg[/em][em]http://i.imgur.com/fPATrnK.jpg[/em]

exactly - the main stand on this bike has a good pivot action - just make sure both feet of the stand are on firm ground and then use your right foot to load the lever with your body weight. Thank you both. Trouble is - my body weight is feather-light (I'd kill to be a seven-stone weakling), and I foundin the past that pulling on the pillion handle just wants to move the bike forward rather than up! But the pvc tube works OK! [em]W[/em]

Suncoaster - PM sent, 5.28pm April 6th. [em]W[/em]

http://i.imgur.com/onUIhlj.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/ZFZgnws.jpg I’d like to avoid cutting the palm of my hand in half when hefting the bike onto its main stand, using the lhs pillion foot-peg bracket to assist the lifting process. I found some clear pvc tubing about half an inch in internal diameter (larger would have been OK too); cut a piece 4” long; slit it along one side; and slid it onto the inside rear surface of the upper footpeg support, securing it with a black zip-tie. Instant comfort when lifting! And I fitted a pair of 2” diameter ‘dead spot’ mirrors to the main mirrors to improve the breadth of field of rearward vision. Some M-Store mirror risers are on the way to complete this improvement. And - I managed to remove the tank sticker without ruining the paintwork underneath. Used a semi-blunt nylon decorator's spreader to prise and lift it off in narrow strips after soaking it with petrol. What a job! [em]W [/em] [em]2015 Matte Grey Tracer with 33km from new[/em]

[em]"Taken an unfortunate turn for the worse?"[/em] [strong] [em]Nah![/em][/strong] I went back to BMW (R1200 R). But I would not have returned to the Tracer - in a search again for lower, lighter, more 'flickable' and frankly more exhilarating performance - had I not enough confidence that I can now improve it in areas I found lacking before, given my and many others' experiences over the past twelve months. It's a great platform, but does need work, in my view. [em]w[/em]

Today I brought home my new MT-09 Tracer, my second. It’s almost exactly one year – on April 9th 2015 to be precise – since I took delivery of my first Tracer, which like this new one was the Matte Grey version, my preferred choice. In fact I’m told that this is the very last one of this colour available here in Australia, and I went to some trouble to finally source it. Nudging 77 as I am – in fact if I want to be precious I can say that I’m closer to 80 than 70! – this is undoubtedly going to be my last bike, so I’ve got to get it right. Possibly the most important thing I also brought home was a pretty good understanding of what I need to do to fettle the new bike to a degree that suits and satisfies me, based on my experiences with my first Tracer. With that bike I found early on that the suspension and seat were both harsh and uncompromising, and eventually managed to fix both to an acceptable if not perfect degree, though not without some cost for a new imported seat. The past twelve months have been full of new aftermarket products and many helpful ideas, tips, hints, and experiences posted on this Forum, all of which puts me streets ahead of where I was a year ago. I’ll have a couple of early long-ish day trips on hilly and winding country terrain that will be ideal to commence the running-in period for brakes, gearbox, engine. From that, I’ll also be able to see just what needs to be done, assuming that Yamaha hasn’t fixed both the suspension and seat shortcomings. It goes without saying, of course, that these are my personal experiences and views – as always YMMV! [em] One man’s seat is another man’s poison[/em], and so on. The short 27km ride home didn’t give rise to any surprises, nor any indications of improvement in these two areas, but it’s early days, of course. Last time, my dealer was able to improve the suspension to an acceptable – but not perfect – degree, so I’ll be having that discussion again. But I do find the Tracer ergonomics – very BMW GS-like, IMHO – suit me very well, and even the screen, which is a source of much unhappiness here, is OK for my needs. (For comparing different bikes, go to <cycle-ergo> - it’s an extremely useful tool). Other useful enhancements that I also had on the earlier bike will quickly follow, hopefully all practical and useful and with no bling, things like added hi-viz lighting front and rear: mirror risers: new audible horn: Grip Puppies: amber LED indicators: rubber-topped foot-pegs: small 2" diameter blind-spot mirrors: and a pair of adjustable levers. Here in Oz we are fortunate that new Tracers are delivered with very useful good quality hard panniers, about 20L each, so I’ll supplement those with a small 28L lookalike top-box. That should be it! Two things that definitely won’t need attention, of course, are the stonking engine performance and the excellent gearbox – it’s an exhilarating package! The new bike has cost me $15,300 ride-away with twelve months registration. I think I may have paid a bit over par for it, given that it’s a 2015 model with discontinued paint, but I don’t much care for the ‘16 colours, and especially the blue anodised fork – again, YMMV! Comprehensive insurance is $402. Stay tuned for further progress as I work through a list of things to be done. [em]Wordsmith [/em] Queensland, Australia [em]2015 Matte Grey Tracer now at 33 km from new. [/em]