In love with a Tracer

[LiquidGnome]

Fleegle said:

Steve Bass said:

Fleegle said:

Steve Bass said:

LiquidGnome said:

Budget £1500 for decent suspension. Great bikes other than that.

Silly question but if you're spending 1500 quid on suspension for the Tracer, surely you're now in the price bracket for substantially better machinery?
Putting 1500 quid into the Tracers suspension isn't going to up its resell value whereas a bike costing 1500 quid more will retain more of its value further down the line no?
And not sure how a bike can be considered great if the standard suspension is so woeful it needs 1500 quid throwing at it to make it work.

What is the £1500 based on?

It's based on making a shyte Yamakak less shyte( which is actually umpossible).....

£1500 just seems a bit steep for suspension on this type of bike. It doesn't exactly 'need' Ohlins

Define 'better'. And yes, £1500 is the upper end of what you would be spending.

And since when resell price your biggest concern?

[Fleegle]

LiquidGnome said:

Fleegle said:

Steve Bass said:

Fleegle said:

Steve Bass said:

LiquidGnome said:

Budget £1500 for decent suspension. Great bikes other than that.

Silly question but if you're spending 1500 quid on suspension for the Tracer, surely you're now in the price bracket for substantially better machinery?
Putting 1500 quid into the Tracers suspension isn't going to up its resell value whereas a bike costing 1500 quid more will retain more of its value further down the line no?
And not sure how a bike can be considered great if the standard suspension is so woeful it needs 1500 quid throwing at it to make it work.

What is the £1500 based on?

It's based on making a shyte Yamakak less shyte( which is actually umpossible).....

£1500 just seems a bit steep for suspension on this type of bike. It doesn't exactly 'need' Ohlins

Define 'better'. And yes, £1500 is the upper end of what you would be spending.

And since when resell price your biggest concern?

What suspension would you put on the Tracer? I'm curious as to how you get to £1500

[LiquidGnome]

Fleegle said:

What suspension would you put on the Tracer? I'm curious as to how you get to £1500

Aah, well 2 people I know have changed the suspension on theirs. One was K-tech front and rear, which apparently was £1500 (I have no reason to disbelieve him). I can't remember what the other has, it wasn't cheap either though.

Yes I know, it's 3rd hand information, but I can totally understand why people spend that much. If the bike suits your needs in every other way, why not

As for what I'd put on it, I haven't looked into the options since I don't own one.

[Tribal Chestnut]

jcelee said:

Besides the Tracer, what do people rate as a reasonably lightweight, upright, moderately powered sports tourer with at least ABS in terms of modernity?

I was after a similar bike but couldn't find one, not one that had a centre stand anyway, so ended up going down the used route.

[Fleegle]

LiquidGnome said:

If the bike suits your needs in every other way, why not

I totally agree, however I think if I had one I would look at changing the suspension to road bias components rather than brands I would tend to use for a sportsbike

[LiquidGnome]

Fleegle said:

I totally agree, however I think if I had one I would look at changing the suspension to road bias components rather than brands I would tend to use for a sportsbike

Didn't know that, I'm not familiar with that brand. The other brand has a H logo with writing underneath it. Not sure what brand that is?

[gareth_r]

According to MCN, spending £403 (£288 on fork springs, spacers, and fork oil, and £115 on having it set up) transformed their Tracer.

EDIT:
A quick search found that £1400 buys a full Ohlins cartridge kit, S46DR1 rear shock, fitting, and set up. Overkill?

Edited by gareth_r on Wednesday 7th October 12:08

[Fleegle]

gareth_r said:

According to MCN, spending £403 (£288 on fork springs, spacers, and fork oil, and £115 on having it set up) transformed their Tracer.

EDIT:
A quick search found that £1400 buys a full Ohlins cartridge kit, S46DR1 rear shock, fitting, and set up. Overkill?

Edited by gareth_r on Wednesday 7th October 12:08

I personally believe so, particularly for this genre of bike

However, for those that want Ohlins, why ever not??!!

[gareth_r]

Fleegle said:

gareth_r said:

According to MCN, spending £403 (£288 on fork springs, spacers, and fork oil, and £115 on having it set up) transformed their Tracer.

EDIT:
A quick search found that £1400 buys a full Ohlins cartridge kit, S46DR1 rear shock, fitting, and set up. Overkill?

Edited by gareth_r on Wednesday 7th October 12:08

I personally believe so, particularly for this genre of bike

However, for those that want Ohlins, why ever not??!!

Absolutely! I'd never criticise anyone for spending money on shiny, beautifully machined toys.

However, I know expensive suspension would be totally wasted on me.

[gareth_r]

moto_traxport said:

...restricted to 128mph...

Is this confirmed? The Canucks and the Yanks seem to believe that it's a North American market "feature".

[MoelyCrio]

gareth_r said:

moto_traxport said:

...restricted to 128mph...

Is this confirmed? The Canucks and the Yanks seem to believe that it's a North American market "feature".

I did try to find out but the front gets awfully skittish above 110ish. I've put a smaller screen on and taken the handguards off (couldn't filter!) so need to retest it.

[LiquidGnome]

gareth_r said:

Fleegle said:

gareth_r said:

According to MCN, spending £403 (£288 on fork springs, spacers, and fork oil, and £115 on having it set up) transformed their Tracer.

EDIT:
A quick search found that £1400 buys a full Ohlins cartridge kit, S46DR1 rear shock, fitting, and set up. Overkill?

Edited by gareth_r on Wednesday 7th October 12:08

I personally believe so, particularly for this genre of bike

However, for those that want Ohlins, why ever not??!!

Absolutely! I'd never criticise anyone for spending money on shiny, beautifully machined toys.

However, I know expensive suspension would be totally wasted on me.

Just goes to show how much I know about suspension aha! (fk all!)

Wouldn't mind some Ohlins bits on my bike though. Not that I need it.

[sjtscott]

Tracer is on my list as a blackbird replacement, downsizing basically.
I've test ridden the MT-09 but not the tracer yet. MT-09 suspension one word s**te, loved the engine and A mode mapping throttle response pre yamaha remap was fine for me and really not an issue some made it out to be.
Guess I need to test the tracer then based on others feedback here.
Worse case I'll go plough the money into a 2011 speed triple I was looking at before.

[moto_traxport]

LiquidGnome said:

Didn't know that, I'm not familiar with that brand. The other brand has a H logo with writing underneath it. Not sure what brand that is?

Hyperpro at a guess?

In my experiments with Firestorms their Combi-kits (replacement progressive fork springs that bolt straight in, different fork oil and a progressive spring for the standard rear shock) are awesome and more appropriate for a road bike than revalved forks (new compression and rebound valves with custom shim stacks, linear fork springs with spacer tubes cut to the appropriate length chosen for mine and the bike's weight etc and then a sexy Öhlins chucked in the back - what a load of hassle and expense.

When I tested the Tracer I didn't think it was anything like as bad as the MT09 which is basically mis-matched front to back.

MoelyCrio said:

gareth_r said:

moto_traxport said:

...restricted to 128mph...

Is this confirmed? The Canucks and the Yanks seem to believe that it's a North American market "feature".

I did try to find out but the front gets awfully skittish above 110ish. I've put a smaller screen on and taken the handguards off (couldn't filter!) so need to retest it.

No factual evidence so far on the Tracer. MT09 naked thing is definitely restricted to 128mph in 5th and 6th gears. People are offering to "flash" the ECU to derestrict the Tracer as well so I'm assuming really .....

Glad I'm not the only one that's going to go down the smaller screen, no hand guards route. I also spotted the MT125 uses the same type of bars (with the fat bit in the middle) that are narrower again and I might have a stab at fitting them - coming from sportsbikes this type of bikes all seem to have bars that are too wide for my tastes - I will ride it standard for awhile to see whether I adapt.

[gareth_r]

moto_traxport said:

...I also spotted the MT125 uses the same type of bars (with the fat bit in the middle) that are narrower again and I might have a stab at fitting them - coming from sportsbikes this type of bikes all seem to have bars that are too wide for my tastes - I will ride it standard for awhile to see whether I adapt.

Hacksaw.

[boyse7en]

jcelee said:

Besides the Tracer, what do people rate as a reasonably lightweight, upright, moderately powered sports tourer with at least ABS in terms of modernity?

BMW F800GT ?
Honda CBR650F ?
MV Agusta Turismo Veloce ?


Not ridden any of them, but have got a BMW F800S which the GT is a more modern version of. I think it's great for what I want, but it's not to everyone's taste.

[anonymous-user]

I was on the market for a new commuter and went to try out the MT09 Tracer...on paper it was perfect!

I then took it for a ride and noticed that I couldn't rest my feet on the pegs correctly as I have size 13 feet my feet were hitting the rear pegs when resting on the front pegs so it was really annoying. The seat was super uncomfortable. The power delivery was very 'sports bike' like, even in the lowest of settings which was too much for zipping in and out of traffic. The bars were very wide.

I think I am 100 percent now that my new commute will be a twin of some variation.

[Chicken Chaser]

Got a test ride booked in tomorrow, hoping to get a ride in on a KTM 1050ADV or a Tiger 800 also if the weather is good. Will report back

[Alex@POD]

I've been reading this with interest as the Tracer is also on a bike I am interested in. I have a test ride booked tomorrow morning as well! I look forward to it, I'm not sure if I'll prefer this or a big naked instead...

[Tribal Chestnut]

yammyfan said:

I was on the market for a new commuter and went to try out the MT09 Tracer...on paper it was perfect!

I then took it for a ride and noticed that I couldn't rest my feet on the pegs correctly as I have size 13 feet my feet were hitting the rear pegs when resting on the front pegs so it was really annoying. The seat was super uncomfortable. The power delivery was very 'sports bike' like, even in the lowest of settings which was too much for zipping in and out of traffic. The bars were very wide.

I think I am 100 percent now that my new commute will be a twin of some variation.

No good if you want some thing brand new, but an FZ1 is the perfect commuter bike.