I had a request for my thoughts on this bike, and I thought others might like to see this as well. I’m going to cover what I believe to be the most important things in this order: my use case and experience, drive train, chassis, ridability, and maintenance. In each point, I will attempt to cover, with some detail (including pictures where I have them), both positive and negative points. I apologize in advance for my rather dry and long winded wall of text approach to this.I am in my late 40s and a daily rider living in Japan. I ride both for commuting and for pleasure both single and two up with a passenger. My daily commute is less than 20km a day, so a vast majority of my riding is in Japan’s copious and technical mountain twisties and breathtaking coastlines so I wear out the side of my tire before the center. I ride almost daily, year round since my area of Japan has very mild winters and snow is a rare and short lived sight. I’ve held motorcycle licenses in the US (Kansas, Illinois, and Missouri) and Japan (unrestricted Ogata). I have been through Japan’s difficult and rigorous licensing system, and have taken part in gymkana events. My history of owned bikes covers Honda CB500 four, CB750 four, Yamaha XS750, CB1000 Big One, CB1300 SB, Honda VTR250, BMW 1200RT, Honda Goldwing 1500 Interstate, Yamaha XJR400, Honda CB400 Super Four, Kawasaki W400, Moto Guzzi 1100S, Suzuki SV400, BMW GT1600. I’m missing experience on cruisers, lack extensive experience with super sports, and (while I have no hesitations about taking my Tracer over some pretty tough off pavement stretches that approach single track though) I have essentially zero off road bike experience. I have also never been on a track for a track day.Now for the bike. I think it’s pretty well known that the crossplane triple in this bike is a brilliant gem of an engine. It’s a perfect mix of low down torque and raw top end power. The stock exhaust barely makes a sound in the lower RPM range, but bring it up closer to red line and it really sings. The six speed gear box is clunky and notchy but reliable and has a good useable range of ratios. I think the biggest complaint I read about here is the noisy OEM cam chain tensioner which has had a few different iterations and recalls against it. My personal experience has been that the updated version caused more trouble than the OEM version. I’ve been through three of the updated CCTs due to failures. Since almost new, my bike has had a lingering issue with occasionally failing to restart when hot, and getting worse over time. Yamaha even went so far as to replace my entire intake assembly including valve bodies under warranty in order to solve the problem, but it kept returning over time. Fortunately, my shop stuck with me on this issue and finally solved it. This bike is super sensitive to varnish on the valve body butterflies and occasionally spraying some carb cleaner down their throat keeps this problem at bay. Within the last few weeks, I’ve started to experience a problem where the throttle will stick open at random times. I suspect there’s a problem with the TPS or something else in the ride by wire tech. Not looking forward to hunting this one down on my own yen.The chassis is tight and predictable, but most importantly, it’s super light. Absolutely no complaints here. The rear suspension is undersprung for my weight (73 kg plus luggage and frequent passenger) and when I blew out the OEM shock, I replaced it with a Nitron unit sprung for my riding weight and adjustable for my full two up touring weight. This has probably been my best and most expensive investment on the bike. The OEM front suspension isn’t race spec, but it’s more than adequate for very spirited road riding. There are many complaints about the instability of this bike’s suspension. When I first bought it, I had frequent and worrying wobbles and tank slappers. It didn’t take long to figure out that the bike has a fairly aggressive suspension geometry and requires the suspension to be correctly set for your riding weight. I haven’t had any problems with wobbles or tank slappers since I had the suspension adjusted.Where ridability is concerned, I find it to be mixed. At first the off to on throttle response was jarring and super sensitive, but I’ve gotten used to it and it’s actually done a lot for my throttle control. I was considering having the ECU re-flashed, but I don’t think it’s necessary anymore. My passenger complained frequently about the pillion, and one of my first upgrades was a custom seat with thicker and more firm foam for her. The pilot seat is adjustable to two heights, but feels terrible in the low setting. The foam is thin and too soft so I sink through to the seat pan during longer rides. I wear cycling shorts as a cheap way to combat this problem. One of these days I’ll invest in a custom seat for myself as well. The windshield is also adjustable, but both settings simply point the dirty air right at my head with the high position being the worst at highway speeds where the wind just whips my helmet around. As a result, this bike has more wind noise than a pure naked bike. The riding position is extremely comfortable and upright with lots of leverage on the long bars making tight technical twisties and even very rough off pavement riding effortless. I’d rather have rubberized foot pegs, since my riding boots slip easily on the OEM metal pegs. The complete lack of on bike storage was a big problem when I first got this bike in 2015, because aftermarket manufactures didn’t have anything available yet. The multi function display I found to be clunky at first, but I love the ability to customize the three pages on the information display so it shows what I want to see. I also love the fact that this bike has LEDs all around, including the headlights. Finally, with all its nooks and crannies, this bike is a real pain to wash and keep clean. I do love how it looks so unique though.On top of regular consumables, my maintenance record also includes replaced front suspension. My tendency to ride non-stop through an entire tank of gas heat stressed the lower fork tubes, so I replaced both front shocks entirely with OEM rather than going for after market. Replaced rear suspension as mentioned above. Replaced water pump. Front brake rotors replaced under warranty because they were warped from the factory. Intake system replaced under warranty as mentioned above. Rubber cush drive inserts in the rear wheel replaced. Valve bodies balanced. Valve lash adjusted (most were in spec). Consumables include: god knows how many tires, oil changes, at least one brake fluid change, coolant flush and replace, three sets of chains and sprockets, brake pads all around several times (I’m due for a new set of rears now), full clutch pack including basket and springs. That’s about it, and really that’s not bad considering how hard and often I ride and the distance I’ve covered with this bike.For me, this bike ticks a lot of boxes. I like an exposed ride because summers here are unbearably hot. I wanted a light, but powerful bike capable of comfortably touring two up over long distances and in technical, tight twisties. I need a tall bike because my knees are getting old. It’s a confident bike that I feel very comfortable taking nearly anywhere in almost any condition. And the technology to price point ratio is extremely good. I’m not looking forward to the day I’ll have to replace this bike.Feel free to ask any questions. I'll be happy to respond. via /r/motorcycles https://www.reddit.com/r/motorcycles/comments/bmlq1z/the_mt09_tracer_aka_fj09_4_year_85000km_review/?utm_source=ifttt
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