Bought One

[jammess]

WOO HOO!! I just became an FJR owner! Just clicked the Buy-It-Now button on e-Bay and bought a nearly new 2010 with less than 1K miles. Bike is in Montana and plan to drive over this coming Monday and ride it home.

Anybody interested in a one owner '04 R1150RT with Russell saddle and wideband O2 sensor with LC-2 controller and no god awful linked ABS? Runs and looks perfect with only 50K miles.

 

[samamoto]

Congrats! You'll be happy.

 

[thompsonian]

Congrats!! You wont regret it one bit!

 

[Steel_Gin]

Congrats!!

 

[Prestone]

Congrats. What do you mean by no linked brakes? Did the previous owner remove that feature? Or did you come from the linked brake system on the kawasaki concourse?

 

[N4HHE]

Congrats. What do you mean by no linked brakes? Did the previous owner remove that feature? Or did you come from the linked brake system on the kawasaki concourse?

I think he's thankful for "no god awful linked ABS", as opposed to good linked ABS.

 

[jammess]

Congrats. What do you mean by no linked brakes? Did the previous owner remove that feature? Or did you come from the linked brake system on the kawasaki concourse?

I think he's thankful for "no god awful linked ABS", as opposed to good linked ABS.

You are right. I'm referring to the BMW servo assisted linked brake system. That's the one where if the ABS system faults you end up with virtually no or very hard to use brakes. Kind of like older cars with power brakes when you turn off the ignition while in motion. The ABS modulator on my '04RT retails for about $2200 (maybe higher) and is known to fail so typically if an owner can't find a used modulator the ABS system often gets removed which results in very powerful and predictable manual brakes. BMW stopped installing this system in about 2005 only because police departments stopped buying their bikes. If I would have known some of these things in 2004 I would never have bought the bike in the first place. And then there is the COP (coil on plug) system also known as stick coils that were failure prone and very difficult to troubleshoot unless one had a spare unit and as you can imagine they weren't cheap. Problem was they wouldn't just fail but would become intermittent, not a lot of fun. I could go on but you know the drill. Oh, and then there is or was the final drive failure problems and the way BMW handled that fiasco. And let"s not forget the failure prone transmission input shaft spline failure problem. I don't like to sound bitter but I kind of am I guess but I'm going to get over it.

 

[SwollenRaccoon]

^^^^ Geez, sounds like a gem. When can I pick it up? (He said sarcastically......)

 

[wheatonFJR]

Welcome to the FJR ownership.

Now stop yacking and twist that wrist!

 

[escapefjrtist]

Congrats on the new [to you] '10.

FJR is a great bike, you won't be disappointed!

--G

 

[900gc]

Congrats! Welcome to the fold. The FJR is really good stock but can be GREAT with some tweaks and well spent farkle $$. We are happy to help you with that on this forum, especially the spending $$ part.

My only triple digit 'performance award' in my life was on my FJR so be...forewarned.

 

[Craigar]

Congrats on the bike. I saw that listed on ebay and it looked real nice.

Enjoy!

 

[Uncle Hud]

We have a winner! Enjoy your (almost unused) FJR and start figuring out what tires you'll need in a few months.

 

[bgross]

Woohoo! Another member of our Cult.

Congratulations - enjoy the ride home.

 

[jammess]

Thanks guys, I mean i just can't wait to go get it! Me being a do-it-yourself type I can't resist looking into things like throttle body adjustments and I got to say Yamaha engineering is impressive. How easy to access the top end when you can just pivot the gas tank up and out of the way without even disconnecting fuel lines. I have a Harmonizer two port synchronizer which ought to work good on the FJR if all one has to do is just sync all TB's to TB#3. How simple is that? This maybe isn't the right forum to get into things technical but the more I learn about this beast the more excited I am. Truth is I've been watching the evolution of this bike since it was introduced. I was very impressed with the way Yamaha took care of the ticking valve train issue with the generation one bikes. They just fixed it no horsing around. You notice I'm not saying anything nasty about a certain manufacturer who shall remain nameless. I'm having attitude adjustment training. lol..lol..

Lolo Pass here I come.

 

[DezzertRider]

Actually you really effed up buying a Gen-II FJR and should have held out for a superior Gen-I, but the Gen-II is ok. Enjoy your new bike, it will likely be as reliable as a Toyota.

The newer 2014 - 2016 BMW 1200RT seems to be all the rave by the cycle magazine reviews and they refer to it as the gold standard for sport tourers. But with all those major issues, I don't know how they can say that with a straight face. I recently sat on a 2016 1200RT at a dealer and I will say it is really comfortable out of the box. But $23K and a history of final drive failures, ABS issues, and also some are prone to the rear seal leak where the whole bike has to be disassembled for the repair, I just don't understand the following on these Beemers. Guess its the same type of decease that Harley owners have.

 

[jammess]

Hi DezzertRider, I mostly agree with you. I like the new wethead but can't get past the recent history with very expensive drive train failures and no way am I going to shell out 23K for a bike that I don't really feel I can trust. I do all my own work and in the last 12 years I have put in the hours on my 1150. When she's running good she's a great ride and you can really stuff it through the curves with a passenger on board and with the AFR set to 12.9:1 she has really great snort as well.

The new wetheads have been reliable so far I'll give them that but time will tell. Oh, I gotta say that to my eye the wethead is butt ugly! The FJR is one fine looking motorcycle and I've always thought that. I rode a Yamaha XS1100 when it came out in around '77 or '78 and I still remember how impressed I was and if I remember they were in short supply at the time kind of like the FJR.

 

[Lowcountry Joe]

There's been a lot of positive, substantive changes since 2010, but that was a good year. Enjoy.

 

[DezzertRider]

James, Since you do all your own wrenching, you've come to the right place. There are a lot of knowledgeable and experienced forum members to help with almost any issue you might run into.