MartyO
Well-known member
I’ve managed to put some miles on my 2014 ES since January and I’m very pleased with the bike. The back Bridgestone lasted 12,000 miles and the front almost made 15,000. I hear people say a lot of bad things about the OEM tires but they lasted well and had good performance. I put a PR2 on the back and put a Pirelli Diablo Corsa on the front since I still have a stack of the Pirelli’s that a buddy gave me (can’t beat the price – free).
I’ve had the Yamaha emblem on the right side case fall off the chrome strip twice and had the shop replace it under warranty. Other than that, no problems at all with the bike.
I’m impressed with the handling and to me, the upgraded ES suspension is excellent. I do find I switch it on the fly since I have a 50 mile one way freeway ride to work each day. May as well glide along in soft or standard when I’m cruising. The hard +1, one-up with bag setting is my sweet spot with or without the bags. I’ve done the two-up with bags when my adult daughter and I took a trip and it felt very good. About the handling: I get much less wiggle on the high speed bumpy corners, very solid and holds the line very well. In aggressive cornering, it inspires confidence. It doesn’t seem like I’m pushing too hard but I find my chicken strips are a 1/4 inch on the back tire and were more like 3/8 to 1/2 inch on my 2006. It just feels good to carry more speed through corners on the 2014. I haven’t touched a peg feeler yet on the 2014 but I did occasionally on the 2006. Seems I have more cornering clearance now.
I don’t get any buffeting with my Cee-Bailey sport shield on the 2014 but my 2006 offered a quieter bubble with the +2 reverse flip stock width Cee-Bailey.
I changed my spark plugs at 8,000 but I think they were fine. There are no iridium plugs for this bike yet and I will push the current plugs a little longer before I replace them. As I stated in a previous post, I did find some pretty dry drive shaft splines early on and took care of this potential problem.
When I hear and read about some of the reliability problems with other sport touring bikes, I’m very glad I went with the rock solid FJR again. Besides, it's red and looks very sporty and cool. Who needs sixth gear.
I’ve had the Yamaha emblem on the right side case fall off the chrome strip twice and had the shop replace it under warranty. Other than that, no problems at all with the bike.
I’m impressed with the handling and to me, the upgraded ES suspension is excellent. I do find I switch it on the fly since I have a 50 mile one way freeway ride to work each day. May as well glide along in soft or standard when I’m cruising. The hard +1, one-up with bag setting is my sweet spot with or without the bags. I’ve done the two-up with bags when my adult daughter and I took a trip and it felt very good. About the handling: I get much less wiggle on the high speed bumpy corners, very solid and holds the line very well. In aggressive cornering, it inspires confidence. It doesn’t seem like I’m pushing too hard but I find my chicken strips are a 1/4 inch on the back tire and were more like 3/8 to 1/2 inch on my 2006. It just feels good to carry more speed through corners on the 2014. I haven’t touched a peg feeler yet on the 2014 but I did occasionally on the 2006. Seems I have more cornering clearance now.
I don’t get any buffeting with my Cee-Bailey sport shield on the 2014 but my 2006 offered a quieter bubble with the +2 reverse flip stock width Cee-Bailey.
I changed my spark plugs at 8,000 but I think they were fine. There are no iridium plugs for this bike yet and I will push the current plugs a little longer before I replace them. As I stated in a previous post, I did find some pretty dry drive shaft splines early on and took care of this potential problem.
When I hear and read about some of the reliability problems with other sport touring bikes, I’m very glad I went with the rock solid FJR again. Besides, it's red and looks very sporty and cool. Who needs sixth gear.
