Guess what I saw today.
IMS - New York. In the back of my mind I figured there was a 50-50 shot of a '16 being there so I brought the camera along just in case. (After downloading the shots and realizing just how bad my photography skills are though I probably should've just stuck with the cell. Sorry.) They had only one and it sat towards the edge of the carpet in an unremarkable display. No banners or spotlights, just another bike in their line-up. First impression - the color is NICE! Or maybe smooth would be a better description. Somewhere between the look-at-me red and the quietly powerful grey. I know it's listed as Cobolt Blue, the same as the other two years, but it looked darker on the floor than what the pictures show. Maybe it was the lighting or the new paint. The black wheels along with the black accent panels I thought worked really well together also.
A rep came over after a few moments and I ended up having a truly nice conversation about the bike. A fellow FJR owner and just a pleasant guy to talk to, he took the time to answer whatever questions I had and pointed out a few other things too. I'll let Skooter vouch for his credentials but I feel pretty confident saying Ashley knew what he was talking about.
The trans, gearing and clutch came up almost immediately and we both acknowledged that the FJR didn't 'need' a sixth gear but as he pointed out, it doesn't hurt also. From his test rides he felt sixth dropped the RPMs enough to notice but with no detriment to the others, that is it still took off like a shot and pulled through them just as we like. He talked some about the helical gears and the benefits there, including not having to increase the space needed and screwing with the engine. He saw no downside to the slipper clutch.
We talked somewhat about the lighting also. As we know the adaptive lighting (ES models only) operates in turns via a gyroscope type of sensor. Simply turning the key on will not activate the system. The bike must be moving forward at about 15 MPH and then the amount of lean will determine how many of the LED lights will illuminate on the leaning side. As the bike straightens up, the lights will sequentially extinguish. Cool system but it makes me chuckle as I think about what kind of light show another rider leading an ES through a set of twisties would get in his mirrors.
I'm thinking headlight modulators might be a bit much there. Oh, I believe he confirmed the electrical system hasn't changed either so there should be a nice jump in excess power for us to use.
Not sure small hands will help you here.
One other thing he pointed out which he didn't believe made any of the published releases is that this bike now utilizes OBD II with the port located under the seat. Strange or not, I thought of Ionbeam immediately.
I went there thinking that if I did get to see it, I was prepared to go, "meh" and then hope to look for a left-over '15. BUT . . . it might have changed my mind. We'll find out this Spring I suppose.
A few other pics
here.
