'08 FJR is home, finally!

[Lee B.]

Traveled to Cullman, AL on Friday....about 750 miles from KC....about 14 hours due to some parking lot traffic jam in IL and some hinky trailer lights. Got up Saturday and was at D&H by 9:30. Met Renaa, Jerold, Virginia, Nate/Nick?. Did paperwork, the delivery inspection, loaded up and was gassed and on the road by 12:15 PM. Made good time and was home by 12:45 or so, AM.

The trip was great thanks to a great friend with pu truck and trailer and time to ride along with me. D&H was great as expected by all the positive reports. Put about 75 miles on the bike on Sunday, w/o license tags. Added the peg extenders, the TRexx sliders and gave it a wash and wax. Today, Monday, hit the DMV first thing, paid them about $1100 for tax, fees, etc. Stopped by to show it off to a friend at his work. Went home for breakfast and then hit the road. Did a loop through MO and KS and now have almost 400 miles on it.

YOu all know this already but these are just great bikes. Period. I'm new to these ergos and still like my cruiser but this is a wonderful alternative and fun in a new way. Right now I'm liking stock shield, seat in lower position. Bars in the stock/middle position. I did strap on my throttle rocker and like that addition. It reminds me to not grip so tightly and allows for relaxing the grip/wrist some. Think I'll just ride it this way for awhile before adding anything else. Well, that is the plan anyway.

Thanks to the forum and members for wisdom, direction, encouragement. I was lurking here and on other sport touring sites for quite a while. Joined here recently once my decision was made and the serioius FJR shopping began. It's been a long journey to this point. I tend to overthink and analyze stuff but once I make up my mind I'm sold and have no regrets. I've been contemplating this purchase for about a year. Glad that part of the journey is over and the actual experience has started.

Looking forward to putting another couple hundred miles on it in the next couple of weeks. That doesn't sound like much but I'm saving vacation days for end Aug, start of September. I'll get to 600 miles before then, do the scheduled maintenance and then head out for Colorado for 5 days of riding and 4 days of hiking in RMNP. Life is good!

Best to you all.

 

[sonicspeed]

congrats on the new ride

but you need to skip the hiking and just add 4 more days of riding

 

[s_boy]

CONGRATS!

coming off of a 2005 road king (3 yrs & 28k miles) - i just brought my new feejer home saturday myself... t-rex sliders will most likely be my first addition.

btw - change your profile - YOU ARE NO LONGER CONSIDERING - ha ha!

 

[HartClimbs]

Congratulations!

 

[Lee B.]

congrats on the new ride
but you need to skip the hiking and just add 4 more days of riding

oh, that would be strange. The hiking restores the soul and reminds me that I'm alive. A lot like biking does. I gotta have both!

CONGRATS!
coming off of a 2005 road king (3 yrs & 28k miles) - i just brought my new feejer home saturday myself... t-rex sliders will most likely be my first addition.

btw - change your profile - YOU ARE NO LONGER CONSIDERING - ha ha!

Just updated two min ago!

Congrats on your new ride. Did you keep the King?

 

[Firedog]

Congrats! Since you only live minutes away from me, there's no reason to not get together for a ride someday. Let me know if you are interested. I'll keep you in mind for future weekend excursions.

 

[gasportrider]

Congratulation, Lee!

With all your pre-planning and research, I'm glad it worked out so very well for you.

Skip those long flat roads out to Colorado and come enjoy the twisties in W VA at EOM.

I'm really glad D & H was your dealer selection. Sounds like they treated you right.

Enjoy your new bike!

 

[ShawnKing]

congrats on the new ride

+1

but you need to skip the hiking and just add 4 more days of riding

LOL Yeah! Why buy a perfectly good motorcycle and then walk away from it?

 

[Lee B.]

Congrats! Since you only live minutes away from me, there's no reason to not get together for a ride someday. Let me know if you are interested. I'll keep you in mind for future weekend excursions.

Sounds good and will do the same here.

I have a loose sort of group that I sometimes ride with. We'll do the occassional ride to Lawrence for coffee, ride to Lexington for lunch, etc.

Mostly HD riders (5 of those) and a few import riders. We hardly ever get more than 6 for a ride, so people come and go.

Anyone else on the forum that is in the area that you ride with?

 

[Lee B.]

congrats on the new ride

+1

but you need to skip the hiking and just add 4 more days of riding

LOL Yeah! Why buy a perfectly good motorcycle and then walk away from it?

or hike away from it....

gotta take care of the body and the soul. so far I've been pretty lucky in keeping them in balance.

I've gotta admit that this year will be harder, but this small group of buddies is in our 10th year or so of hiking RMNP.

I'll hit the CO border on a Thursday and will have two full days before meeting the rest of the group in Estes Park. I'll probably take 2-3 days to get home after hiking. So, I'll probably satisfy both itches as much as is possible.

 

[Lee B.]

Congratulation, Lee!
With all your pre-planning and research, I'm glad it worked out so very well for you.

Skip those long flat roads out to Colorado and come enjoy the twisties in W VA at EOM.

I'm really glad D & H was your dealer selection. Sounds like they treated you right.

Enjoy your new bike!

There was a time a few weeks ago when I probably could have backed out of the deal with D&H and got a similar deal closer in Minnesota. But, kept coming back to the wonderful rep of the folks at D&H. They did treat me right. I found out they don't take plastic. I had some oil, a filter, a couple of crush gaskets and the shop manual...about $135 worth of merch. When I told Virginia that I didn't count on them not taking credit cards she didn't even ask me to try to come up with the cash, just said, "oh, you can take the stuff and mail us a check when you get home." Sweet people.

Thanks for the invitation to WVA. Took a family car trip through there a couple of years back. Looks like a great place to ride. But even those long flat roads across KS can be fun on the FJR, especially if you take the state roads and stay off the interstate.

 

[ctfjr]

My congrats on the new ride also

I picked mine up at D&H on May 30th.

What I don't understand is why you didn't ride it home? You could have stopped & hiked a bit at several good trails and still enjoyed a great ride home.

 

[randy3116]

Congratulations on the new ride. Enjoy!

 

[Mark]

Congrats on the new ride. +1 on cutting the hiking and adding extra riding days.

Mark

 

[s_boy]

Just updated two min ago! Congrats on your new ride. Did you keep the King?

nah - loved it though (my 3rd HD) - i have enough toys to keep up with as it is. i owned an '03 concours for 2 years and really enjoyed every one of the 20k miles i put on it. not sure why i went back to cruisers except that they are comfy and the fellowship is always there (peer pressure?). but deep down i knew i'd come back someday, i much prefer the stance and performance of a good sport touring steed. been looking at the FJRs for years and felt the 2008 GenII was the right time to come back. i hope to ride about 20 more years and check off a few more big items on my bucket list. i think the FJR will take me anywhere i wanna go and last as long as i take care of it. we can hope anyway... right?

 

[Lee B.]

My congrats on the new ride also
I picked mine up at D&H on May 30th.

What I don't understand is why you didn't ride it home? You could have stopped & hiked a bit at several good trails and still enjoyed a great ride home.

I could have ridden it home but w/o tags. Local sources in the DMV told me LEO's discretion to ticket me/impound the bike or let me go with bill of sale and COO. I have a history of playing odds like this and losing. 750 miles, six states and officer's discretion? I'd have probably been okay. Others have done this w/o any reported problems. I played it safe. No regrets.

 

[Firedog]

congrats on the new ride

+1

but you need to skip the hiking and just add 4 more days of riding

LOL Yeah! Why buy a perfectly good motorcycle and then walk away from it?

I have not hooked up with any local riders from this forum. There is a group I keep in touch with from the Sports-Touring.net forum. We ride frequently on the weekends. Speaking of, there's a Lawrence ride on Saturday. We meet up about 9am, and ride out at 10am from the Lawrence Yamaha shop. It is usually a 2 hr ride with a group lunch. Come on by if interested. It's a safe and friendly group of characters.