mcatrophy
Privileged to ride a 2018 FJR1300AS
After a short ride on my new 2014 FJR1300AS (AE in the USA), some city riding and about 50 miles on a local loop I know well, some significant differences in the gear-change between my previous Gen II and my new Gen III have shown themselves to me. For anyone that's interested, here are my first impressions of the gear-change.
Cold idle is lower (not even sure it's above warm idle, only done one cold start when I picked it up from the dealer), so no embarrassing high revs with a slipping clutch when starting off on a cold engine. I always tried to allow my Gen II to warm up before moving off to avoid this, it looks like this is unnecessary on the new. To be confirmed.
Moving from rest is much smoother. My old one wasn't bad (particularly after its clutch soak), but this one is smoooooth, whether in touring or in sport mode. With a gentle throttle, it seems to start to engage the clutch at a lower rpm - I've only just realised this, I'll check on this on my next ride.
The blurb suggests the engine speed is adjusted by the ECU during the change. This is partially true, but the change is still smoother with a little throttle movement as the change is made. A closed throttle during a down-change gives a minor lurch, less than on the previous, but still there. Holding the throttle on during an up-change will give a momentary rise in engine rpm during the change, but not excessive. I've not tried it with a high throttle, I'm still running in! It's certainly less critical on throttle movement.
An added feature is "Stop Mode". If selected, as you come to rest, the bike will change down to first gear. This is not to be taken as an automatic in any real sense, it changes down at a far lower speed than would be useful other than when coming to rest. As best as I could judge, it would wait until the speed was down to 20mph before changing from 5th to 4th, the final change from 2nd to 1st was at about 10mph. This corresponds to an engine speed of a little under 1100rpm, so as soon as tick-over is reached. The down-change was smooth. I found it useful in traffic where you might stop in 2nd and not realise it. The Stop Mode setting is remembered with the engine off.
Finally, the finger flicker gear-change switch is enabled all the time. Excellent. Saves having to add a gizmo to do it at ignition on.
Overall I'm very pleased with the improvement. Now, if only I could sort out the suspension settings to suit me ...
Cold idle is lower (not even sure it's above warm idle, only done one cold start when I picked it up from the dealer), so no embarrassing high revs with a slipping clutch when starting off on a cold engine. I always tried to allow my Gen II to warm up before moving off to avoid this, it looks like this is unnecessary on the new. To be confirmed.
Moving from rest is much smoother. My old one wasn't bad (particularly after its clutch soak), but this one is smoooooth, whether in touring or in sport mode. With a gentle throttle, it seems to start to engage the clutch at a lower rpm - I've only just realised this, I'll check on this on my next ride.
The blurb suggests the engine speed is adjusted by the ECU during the change. This is partially true, but the change is still smoother with a little throttle movement as the change is made. A closed throttle during a down-change gives a minor lurch, less than on the previous, but still there. Holding the throttle on during an up-change will give a momentary rise in engine rpm during the change, but not excessive. I've not tried it with a high throttle, I'm still running in! It's certainly less critical on throttle movement.
An added feature is "Stop Mode". If selected, as you come to rest, the bike will change down to first gear. This is not to be taken as an automatic in any real sense, it changes down at a far lower speed than would be useful other than when coming to rest. As best as I could judge, it would wait until the speed was down to 20mph before changing from 5th to 4th, the final change from 2nd to 1st was at about 10mph. This corresponds to an engine speed of a little under 1100rpm, so as soon as tick-over is reached. The down-change was smooth. I found it useful in traffic where you might stop in 2nd and not realise it. The Stop Mode setting is remembered with the engine off.
Finally, the finger flicker gear-change switch is enabled all the time. Excellent. Saves having to add a gizmo to do it at ignition on.
Overall I'm very pleased with the improvement. Now, if only I could sort out the suspension settings to suit me ...
