Until now, I’ve had limited success in making the Yamaha Tracer 9 GT Seat comfortable. Opinion remains divided. There are those who consider the seat a crime against humanity, and then there are those who can’t understand what we are complaining about.
For those of us in the first group, I may have found the solution. SW-Motech 20mm bar risers.
Getting Here
I should have worked out something was wrong when I ordered the comfort seat for my Tracer 9 GT after an hour-long test ride.
Everything else on the Tracer was so invigorating I told myself it would be fine. Yamaha has a comfort seat option, and that will fix everything. It didn’t.
The first thousand miles was a road test to Wales, which turned into a tour-de-pharmacy to buy countless paracetamol and ibuprofen. I kept telling myself everything was OK. I just needed to get used to the seating position. When the comfort seat arrived from Yamaha, everything would be fine. It wasn’t.
At the six-hundred-mile service, the dealer kindly lent me the tools to adjust the foot pegs and the bars to see if that would help … you guessed it … It didn’t.
Tracer 9 GT Seat Kit
A few months went by, and nothing was getting any better. The forums remained divided, and suggestions for fixing the problem kept coming.
Some recommended swapping the rubber bungs under the seat around, as the ones on the rear were slightly taller. Others took the path of copying modifications typically made to the Tracer 900 seat.
When the JK3D Seat Slope Kit appeared on the market, it had the right idea. The kit, which takes about 40 minutes to fit, lifts the rear of the tank by 6mm or 8mm.
The Tracer 9 GT, in part, uses the tank to secure the seat, so fitting the JK3D kit alters the slope of the seat by raising the front.
I was game for anything by this point and bought one of the kits from the USA and installed it, and yes, it makes a difference. It wasn’t a total fix for me, but there was a definite improvement.
Dark Days
By the time I was halfway to Portimão on the Tracer 9 GT, I was ready to set fire to it. I could not find a comfortable seating position. I tried an air cushion, which again was an improvement but not a solution.
All I needed was a temporary solution to get home, after which the Tracer would be traded out for something I could ride for more than fifty miles without needing painkillers or a physiotherapist.
Thinking that the problem was at the back of the seat, as my coccyx and lower back ached the most, I found a chunk of foam from somewhere and gaffer-taped myself a pad to sit on.
I pushed the pad between the tank and my nuts, hoping to take the pressure off my coccyx by allowing me to lean further forward. Thankfully, it worked, even if each fuel stop was a rather comical affair as I stuffed my foam pad into the Gentlemen’s department, much to the amusement of my colleagues.
It appeared that the seating position was putting a strain on my lower back because I was supporting my body weight through my back. Add the pad between me and the tank, and my lower back could relax as my thighs took more weight.
Seat Rebuild
The day after I returned home, I took the standard Yamaha Tracer seat to Core Motorcycle Seats and asked them to rebuild it with more of a scoop to the main section and a raise to the front. Something similar to a horse saddle.
This they did, and along with the JK3D tank raise kit, things were a lot better. Not a perfect solution, but I was up to almost a hundred miles a day before I suffered from back ache.
A Month on a Multistrada
While I was working through the problem with the Tracer, I bought a Multistrada as a winter project.
It didn’t need much doing to it – which is a different story – and in May 2023, I rode the Multistrada daily, covering 5,000 miles through Germany, Austria, Slovenia, and Croatia. [See: Month on the Road]
I didn’t once suffer from back or neck aches through all that riding, other than the normal backside ache from sitting still.
Ergonomics
I adore my Tracer 9 GT. The factory panniers are crap, but it handles well, especially on Dunlop tyres. In the 16,000 miles I’ve covered on the Tracer, I’ve used Mutants, RoadSmart IVs and now the SportSmart 3 and have zero complaints.
The engine is perhaps the most flexible I’ve experienced, especially now the throttle position sensor problems and the ECU update have fixed the early issues.
The quick shifter is so smooth it makes me want to use it even when I don’t need to, and the MRA Screen cuts out all the buffeting associated with the standard one.
If only Yamaha could design better ergonomics, I would be a very happy camper. And that is when I had a moment of clarity. I know the ergonomics of a comfortable motorcycle, and it is parked in my garage.
Comparing the riding position of the Multistrada to the Tracer, the most significant differences were in handlebar height and reach.
I’d tipped the bars forward at the first service to try and take the weight off my back and inadvertently made matters worse, as I was now stretching further forward.
Raising the bars, which would allow them to rotate back towards me, would alter the ergonomics of the Tracer and bring them closer to those of the Multistrada. The questions now were how much was enough and whether the cables would accommodate the change.
SW-Motech Bar Risers
The cables and brake hose on the Tracer 9GT don’t appear to have much slack, but I was able to install SW-Motech 20mm bar risers without any problems.
I’ve read forum posts that suggest others have gone for 30mm, but that looks very tight.
The primary consideration is the brake hose connection to the master cylinder, which has a rotation stop.
Rather than being able to loosen the banjo connector and relocate the brake hose as desired, there is a pin that limits the orientation of the banjo connector relative to the master cylinder.
With a 20mm increase, I’ve not had any issues with any of the cables and, most importantly, the brakes, but if you are in any doubt, talk to a qualified motorcycle engineer.
Fitting Bar Risers
I didn’t even think there was a technique for fitting the bar risers. Surely, it would be as easy as loosening four bolts, removing the top clamps, inserting the risers, lifting the bars back into place, replacing the top clamps and tightening the bolts. Not quite.
The handlebars have to sit inside the lower riser, which is inside the factory handlebar mount. To remove the bars, you need to lift them out of the original mount, insert the riser, lift the handlebars over the side of the riser, and drop them into place.
This requires the bars to be lifted around 40mm before dropping them into the riser. The cables and brake hoses were not long enough for this, and faced with disconnecting everything and turning a ten-minute job into two hours in the garage; I had a momentary flash of intelligence.
Remove the original top clamps on both sides, taking care to protect the tank as the bars are now free to move. Lift one side of the handlebars and slide the riser across and into place – slide it along the length of the bar.
Once the riser is in place, insert the bolts without the top clamp to keep it in place and repeat the process for the other side. Now replace the top clamps, adjust the angle of the levers to suit you and tighten everything to the recommended torque settings using Loctite where appropriate.
Bottom Line
Of all the changes I’ve made, the SW-Motech 20mm bar risers have been the most significant. I’ve covered a few hundred miles over two days without backache.
Whether the bar risers alone – without the seat remodelling and the JK3D kit – are the answer is difficult to judge. That will depend on whether you find the standard seat hard or not.
For me, I think there is one more visit to the seat upholsterer required. The centre needs more sculpting, and the edges need different padding, but compared to where I was when I wanted to watch the medieval torture implement Yamaha calls a seat burn in hell, I’m back to being very much in love with my Tracer 9 GT.
Roll on the next 16,000 miles.
Clarity
The SW-Motech bar risers, JK3D kit, the seat rebuilding and even the Tracer 9GT were all paid for with our own cash money.
