OV9

None of that looks shit. None of it.

Dubai summer - FUCK OFF NOW!!

I'm staying here Friday night (to get the boring autoroute section from my folks' out of the way) https://www.boisrenault.fr/galerie/

Saturday night is center of Reim, which I already know is lovely. I should be there early enough to have another scoot around the old circuit and pits too.

Our parents live quite close to each other, don't they - it's a lovely part of France. Cotswolds with wine and cheese! I always used to do the autoroute schelp from Paris when I lived there to go see them - very dull as you say. I should have been a bit more adventurous really but I was young and dumb.

Where are yours?

Looks ace Tim. Perfect bike for the job! Got a map of your route?

tim wrote: Wed Aug 29, 2018 12:05 pmWhere are yours?

Little village called Saint Mathieu, basically halfway between Limoges and Angouleme.

JLv3.0 wrote: Wed Aug 29, 2018 12:49 pm

tim wrote: Wed Aug 29, 2018 12:05 pmWhere are yours?

Little village called Saint Mathieu, basically halfway between Limoges and Angouleme.

Beautiful part of the world all right - a friend got married in Brantome (about 40 km's south).

JLv3.0 wrote: Wed Aug 29, 2018 12:49 pm

tim wrote: Wed Aug 29, 2018 12:05 pmWhere are yours?

Little village called Saint Mathieu, basically halfway between Limoges and Angouleme.

Ha! We drove through it couple of weeks ago when we were here with the kids. Not far at all.

speedingfine wrote: Wed Aug 29, 2018 12:46 pm Looks ace Tim. Perfect bike for the job! Got a map of your route?

The red is where I've been so far. The green is my currently planned route back to Calais.

Oh FFS - left the bloody airbox temp sensor unplugged and have to take the fucking bike apart again to plug it back in

lol - it took 4 attempts at installing and removing the front wheel on my 748 last time I had it out, to get the poxy speedo drive in the right place.

Speaking of which, I just had a quote of £700 for a big service on that (inc belts shims etc). <gulp>. Still, it shouldn't go down in value. RT will need a new front tyre and a 12k service when I get back too.

Was offered £5500 part ex on the Tracer at the weekend, meaning it's lost £2800 in just over a year/7k miles. This was against a new GT version at £10,700. So I'd effectively have to pay the same again to upgrade. Nice work Yamaha, destroying second hand values of your own machines, excellent business plan.. Needless to say I laughed in the dealers face and left. Looks like I'm keeping the Tracer and upgrading the bits I want improving.

Might swap the gsxr for something else instead, just cos..

Barry wrote: Thu Aug 30, 2018 11:27 am Was offered £5500 part ex on the Tracer at the weekend, meaning it's lost £2800 in just over a year/7k miles. This was against a new GT version at £10,700. So I'd effectively have to pay the same again to upgrade. Nice work Yamaha, destroying second hand values of your own machines, excellent business plan.. Needless to say I laughed in the dealers face and left. Looks like I'm keeping the Tracer and upgrading the bits I want improving.

Might swap the gsxr for something else instead, just cos..

That's not actually that bad is it Baz?

The dealer's only going to get 6.5 for it tops so he's not exactly taking the piss.

It's not dealer margins I'm upset about tbh, more that with the cost increase on the new model I'd have to cough up £5k to upgrade. Which is as much at current one is worth. Just feels like a piss take even though it's "only" £5k..

Barry wrote: Thu Aug 30, 2018 3:59 pm It's not dealer margins I'm upset about tbh, more that with the cost increase on the new model I'd have to cough up £5k to upgrade. Which is as much at current one is worth. Just feels like a piss take even though it's "only" £5k..

Only £5k?

£5k gets you a nice motorcycle in my world.

What's the GT got over yours anyway? Bigger tank and screen I suppose?

Barry wrote: Thu Aug 30, 2018 11:27 am Was offered £5500 part ex on the Tracer at the weekend, meaning it's lost £2800 in just over a year/7k miles. This was against a new GT version at £10,700. So I'd effectively have to pay the same again to upgrade. Nice work Yamaha, destroying second hand values of your own machines, excellent business plan.. Needless to say I laughed in the dealers face and left. Looks like I'm keeping the Tracer and upgrading the bits I want improving.

Might swap the gsxr for something else instead, just cos..

as always, trade in to a dealer and you’re paying for two lots of dealer margin.

evostick wrote: Thu Aug 30, 2018 4:07 pm

Barry wrote: Thu Aug 30, 2018 3:59 pm It's not dealer margins I'm upset about tbh, more that with the cost increase on the new model I'd have to cough up £5k to upgrade. Which is as much at current one is worth. Just feels like a piss take even though it's "only" £5k..

Only £5k?

£5k gets you a nice motorcycle in my world.

What's the GT got over yours anyway? Bigger tank and screen I suppose?

I quoted it for that reason, £5k gets you a lot of choice in the biking world yes, which is why I'm a little annoyed at Yamaha.

GT over stock model:

60mm longer swing arm
Uprated (they're very clever in not specifying what is upgraded btw) suspension - now with remote preload on rear
Heated grips standard
Colour LCD dash (R1 style, compared to the Super Teneré version mine has, which I actually prefer as its easier to read)
Quick shifter (up only)
Cruise Control
Standard side cases - solid type (basically the early FJR models)
Better seats

And of course the new model has softer styling.

Same engine, same maps, same chassis..

Only thing I can't upgrade on mine is the longer swinger, which I suspect is the main culprit in calming the awful speed wobbles down.

Shock I can get from Nitron/others for £440
QS not arsed
Heated grips - £75 from Oxford if I wanted them (not arsed)
Dash - as above, prefer mine
Cruise - would be a nice toy but I can always get it aftermarket (many Tracer owners have done this already)
Side cases - I have bigger and better ones already 37l ea vs 22l Yamaha cases..

Screen is still noisy according to reviews I've seen, direction changes are slower due to the longer wheelbase, and many are convinced they've softened the mapping to help alleviate the light front end issue all MT range bikes have.

tl;dr - I'll be calling KTech/Nitron etc to get a package deal on upgrading my suspension, the rest of that list I can live without or already have.

'Quick shifter (up only)'

This makes me sad.

Suspect it's so they have something to add next year, to ruin the value of this years models.

My problem is I like gadgets and quick shifters and cruise are things I'd scoff at until I tried them. QS is great fun and really useful when you're pressing on, Cruise is useful as I occasionally cover fairly big numbers and it's tiring. So now I want them

Cruise control and heated grips - both bikes ticking those boxes

Every biker, except maybe Broccers who's too hard, has to experience auto-blip at some point. It's just one thing less to think about on track, and is Awesome.