How Long do FJR's keep their Power

UHOH · Nov 24, 2007

OK, does FJR1300 power fade away with miles, wear and how fast?

Today I took mine to a local shop (Shumate, Kennewick, WA) who was offering incentive dyno testing at the season tail-end.

My recollection is that Cycle-World(?) had tested these FJR's as putting out 123 HP at the rear wheel, and I don't recall the torque figure (anybody?).

Well, mine is a 2004. I use regular dyno oil, changed every 2000 miles; oil filters every 4000. Valves inspected @ 27,000 miles, no adjustment needed. It's as stock as stock can be...

OK, so today, at 39,000 miles and riding to the shop in 31F weather (cold!), my bike dyno tested

to 120 1/4 HP (7800-8000 rpm) and 86 1/2 ft-lbs. torque (6800 rpm).

During the dyno testing the exhaust was monitored and the technician said it was running rich the whole way and suggested that the air filter might be plugged. After returning home I checked my records (yep, it had been 12,000 miles since I'd even checked the filter, and I live on a dusty, gravel road). Plugged air filter - my bad; maybe that's why I thought it didn't feel as quick.

But, I think the bike is still running close to new power figures (memory) after 39,000 miles with just normal oil change maintenance and despite a probable plugged air filter. Comforting, as I look to keeping the bike for years still... [Need to do that air filter]

Has anyone else tested their bike after more or less miles?

OR HAVE ANY OTHER QUANTITATIVE MEASURE OF POWER RETENTION vs. MILES?

Even if it's imperfect, as mine is...

Oh, and here's a 2007 photo of the FJR on one of our scenic roads.

radman · Nov 24, 2007

A well maintained motor will gain power as it settles in, peak power should be seen 20-70k. After 70 thou or so a fresh valve job will restore, or actually increase power over any good earlier figure, assuming the oil has been changed often, and state of tune is good.

Toecutter · Nov 24, 2007

Nice looking pic!

skuehl · Nov 24, 2007

Dude your loosing power fast. In a month it wont even make it out of the driveway. For safety sake go out and buy the black 2008. Tell your wife/SO, or whomever, I said that its imperative to do so in order to stay alive.

markjenn · Nov 25, 2007

This is one of those things where there is going to be very wide variance between samples, but I'd guess most bike engines run their best when they complete break-in (1K-5K or so) and then very slowly lose power over the lifespan of the engine as valves stop seating as well and rings allow more blowby. But in a well-maintained bike, I wouldn't expect power to be down more than 5% up to 50K or so.

Dynos vary all over the map, so your 120.4 vs. 123 really isn't statistically signficant. About all you can say is that there doesn't appear to be any major problem.

I've always found the best way to check power is to top-end the bike on the same stretch of deserted road every now and then. Of course, that's a lot harder to do safely with a bike like the FJR and foolhardy on bikes like the Busa or ZX-14.

- Mark

user 10407 · Nov 25, 2007

Hi UHOH,

if you have not a prevecious dyno run of your FJR with better performance don't worry about power loose.

You do well service to your bike apparently. Did you warm up the bikes engine before run fast? Yes? Okay - no matter to get a bad performance.

If you did not ride lika a deparado then 39k is nothing for the engine of the FJR.

A telediagnose via forum isn't really a good thing. But I'll see how I can give you some ideas.

First 31F is not a good temerature to make da dyno run. Best performance will given at round 68F. In my feeling between 59F to 72F. It is addicted to the density of the air which is addicted to the temperature. There are computer controlled compensations in the ECU/EFI, but how well it works? On my testrides this autumn (fall?) I decide a loss of performance under 41F. In summer above 80F the same. Prior in higher RPMs close to the red with a loss of topspeed. But I'm confused about your mechanicans statement. If he says that the bike runs rich by monitoring at the cans end there is something wrong. Measuring after the catalyst normally takes no conclusion to the adjustment of the fuel injektion. High exhaust emission could be the result of weak cats (maybe cold cats) or of very very wrong adjustment.

In this case I say again what the most of FJR owner won't want to hear: modify the elbow pipes with probe screws, for US rider: do the barbarian jumper mod, put a new or replacement airfilter in, measure the CO per cylinder and adjust it with the CO-mode of the MFD. In most cases after that you think you've got a new bike. Then run on the dyno again (on the same roll).

I'm sure the power is not gone, it is only covered.

ionbeam · Nov 25, 2007

As mentioned, dyno results vary and 3 hp is a very small difference.

What does bother me is the chart you show. The hp and torque lines should cross at 5252 rpm due to the way that hp is calculated, all dyno charts for all engines should have this crossing point. Your dyno chart shows the crossing at ~7,400 rpm which is bogus. It would be interesting to see why your chart looks this way. (The chart does have Harley Davidson in the title block, perhaps that means something....)

Fred W · Nov 25, 2007

ionbeam said:
As mentioned, dyno results vary and 3 hp is a very small difference.
What does bother me is the chart you show. The hp and torque lines should cross at 5252 rpm due to the way that hp is calculated, all dyno charts for all engines should have this crossing point. Your dyno chart shows the crossing at ~7,400 rpm which is bogus. It would be interesting to see why your chart looks this way. (The chart does have Harley Davidson in the title block, perhaps that means something....)

Look at the scales on the left and right sides. They have been offset (don't start at zero).

ionbeam · Nov 25, 2007

[Edited to agree with Fred W, the scales are not equal like most dyno charts; the chart I've shown here is more typical.]

Most dyno charts don't start at 1k rpm, usually they start graphing around 2k rpm. While they can start charting earlier, most motorcycle pulls don't begin graphing until they actually start to make power. If you look at the bottom of UHOH's chart you can see in the Fuel/Air ratio section it shows the % beginning at 1k rpm.

Chart for a Honda CBR1100:

HaulinAshe · Nov 25, 2007

Consider a new cam chain. You may be experiencing a timing shift between intake and exhaust, due to cam chain wear or "stretch".

Fred W · Nov 25, 2007

ionbeam said:
Most dyno charts don't start at 1k rpm, usually they start graphing around 2k rpm. While they can start charting earlier, most motorcycle pulls don't begin graphing until they actually start to make power. If you look at the bottom of UHOH's chart you can see in the Fuel/Air ratio section it shows the % beginning at 1k rpm.

Understood. But the reason that the torque and HP curves normally cross at ~5200 rpm is because the two scales are the same (regardless of where they start) although for different units (hp and ft-lbs). If you change the left and right scales (such as in UHOU's example) the crossing point will appear to move horizontally.

What bothers me more about his (apparently hand drawn) chart is how lumpy the torque curve is. That doesn't look good.

ionbeam · Nov 25, 2007

Fred, I had edited my previous post to agree with what you saw on the chart scales.

I also agree with Hauling Ashe, about timing chain stretch causing power loss.

Checkswrecks · Nov 25, 2007

The difference between 123 and 120 could be as simple as tires, but your air filter would easily account for it. Performance is typically normalized to "Standard Day" conditions of sea level and 59F, so there's some more testing error. Etc etc etc.

The Honda chart would be as lumpy if it had the scale stretched as badly as the one on UHOH's chart. Look at the torque's scale difference between 6000 & 8200 on each. As our German friend pointed out, if you don't have earlier runs to compare with, your chart is a single data point. It's a shop dyno, so take it as a general indicator that things are going OK, and nothing more than that.

As an interesting reference, about a year ago one of the moto-magazines recorded engine output (I think it was just revs) over time for several riders. There was a novice, experienced rider, and some racer. Even when they knew the output was being recorded and they were trying to ride fast back-roads, the racer rarely used more than about 10% of what the bike could do.

If your Feej is riding well, I wouldn't touch it. Lean it out and you can get the dreaded throttle hesistation. Ride happy until you have a real problem, or I like the thought of using this as the basis of "Oh My God Here's Proof That It's Gonna Blow-Up And I Gotta Get a 2008" when talking to the wife.

Bob

MCRIDER007 · Nov 25, 2007

Checkswrecks said:
If your Feej is riding well, I wouldn't touch it.

I think that is good advice. There is something going on with that dyno run that is misleading because the slightly rich mixture in the midrange should not cause the dramatic dips in the torgue curves. It was pretty cold yesterday and that makes me wonder if the tires were not fully warmed up and were slipping on the dyno -- or there was some other dyno problem because that dyno failed to plot any torque curve for another bike but did output a HP curve (how do you compute a HP curve without a torque curve).

And finally, I rode that bike 2 weeks ago, and it felt as strong as any FJR I have ridden and didn't have a hint of any flat spots.

twowheelnut · Nov 25, 2007

At 55,000 miles, mine has never run stronger. Um, I verified that this weekend.

TWISTEDPILOT · Nov 25, 2007

Dont really think most people really use all the power bike is capable of, in the real world. So IMO, dont think 3 to 4 hp will really make a difference unless your racing. Power is worthless without control.

colin · Nov 26, 2007

I think the only time I noticed the FJR losing power was when I got a bike with more......

UHOH · Nov 26, 2007

appreciate the responses, guys - esp Troy@'s thoughtful analyses.

yeah, nobody's passed me that I didn't want to, but I'm still going to clean / change out that air filter this winter. For you others, I drive on a gravel road 1 mile each time I take out the bike.

Last time I let the filter go to 16,000 miles and FJR seemed to have an undefined sluggishness - well, the air filter was fully clogged: fine dust blew over everything as it was taken out. So if you encounter gravel routinely check your filter before 16000 miles.

Also, the flip side, Yamaha stock air filter must do a good job of filtering out the fine grit...good for Yamaha!

Mildly interesting to note that nobody's [SIZE=18pt]yet, yet[/SIZE] offered quantitative measurement of retained FJR oomph (twowheelnut excepted);

I guess we're all too busy riding to record such stuff.

03HiYoSilver · Nov 26, 2007

Uhoh,

Glad you found your problem. The OEM filters are not designed to be cleaned, but replaced. You may look into getting the Foam Uni-Filter if you need to acquire a cleanable filter. K&N Filters, it has been said, will let too many fine particles escape the media.

UNI air filter # NU-3255 UMotors 701-235-6478

How Long do FJR's keep their Power

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