Turbulent times
Will a bigger screen quieten down the noisy Tracer?
I MUST APOLOGISE. A few months ago I described the Tracer 900GT’S manually adjustable screen as giving “no turbulence, no buffeting” in its highest position. With hindsight, that might generously be described as utter tosh. In my defence I’d spent the previous few months riding an MT-07 so anything with even the slightest hint of wind protection would have felt like an improvement — and the Tracer offered just that.
Then I spent some time on giant adventure tourers (p16) and remembered what proper wind protection felt like. Getting back on the Tracer, the rumble off the short screen felt like I was riding around in the permanent vicinity of a Motörhead gig. For a bike that describes itself as a Grand Tourer, it’s not up to scratch. My solution was to try Yamaha’s accessory high screen (£143) which, my tape measure reckons, is roughly 9cm taller (49cm v 58cm) and a similar amount wider. In layman’s terms, it’s a whopper.
Fitting takes seconds: four bolts out, swap screens, four new bolts back in. (Weirdly, the originals need a cross-head screwdriver; the replacements a 4mm hex key. Why?) Sat on the bike, the difference is profound – the screen edge now sticks up far higher into my view, and the added girth looks like it’ll deflect wind away from my hands. Out on the road, there’s a marked reduction in windblast. At 60mph I can now wave my hand in front of my visor and pretty much feel still air. However, frustratingly, it’s still not that quiet. It’s not very stable either. At low speed it wobbles back and forth, as if its mounting isn’t rigid enough (and the fixings too low on the screen) to hold it solid. It’s like trying to hold a huge slab of MDF upright by grabbing the bottom edge with your fingertips.
I’m not giving up though – I want to find which aftermarket screen gives the best protection. So if you’ve got any tips, drop me an email.