Dropping The FJR and YOU

[MsLilly]

I dropped mine while pulling out of a parking structure at work. Down a small ramp (where they park the bikes is actually a sidewalk area) and a hard right. I've done it so many times with no problem but this night I was going too slow!!! Fell to the right side. Luckily my daughter and a good friend were waiting across the street to ride home with me. They heard the bike hit the ground and came running over. Took all 3 of us to lift the bike up. Completely my fault. I was so disappointed. I hadn't dropped a bike in years!! Oh well. Now that I have some scratches I don't worry about it...sort of a relief! It's done and over with!

 

[fjrjonesing]

I dropped my 03 the first night I had it. Riding it home from Alabama it stalled during a tight, slow turn.

Haven't dropped the 05, although it almost went down this weekend. Rider aboard, I pulled off the road onto a steep, gravelled, down grade, hit the brakes to make a sharp turn, and stopped in a very awkward position. If I had not landed it perfectly (wheel straight), Ida gone down.

 

[jbt]

Yep, dropped mine too. Parked bike with front wheel facing the driveway. Put sidestand out, even double checked to make sure it's good to go. Walk up driveway to open garage door. BAM!!!!! my baby rolled forward off the sidestand and is now DOWN on the street. A quick look around to make sure none of the neighbours saw this, a few fine choice words, a red face (from yanking the beast back up), a long inspection to make sure it was just the left mirror with damage. Slapped myself on the head twice for being such a *******. Went in the garage fridge and cracked a can of beer to calm down.

Bert

 

[FJRScorpion]

Being a tippy-toe rider (32" inseam) I have lost it twice, both times with the wife on the back. Seems that it's just enough extra to make the FJR 'top' heavy and shift the center of gravity to the point of instability. We had slowly pulled into a 'cut out' for admiring the scenery along the Blue Ridge Parkway when the bike leaned unexpectedly to the right instead of the kickstand side- gravel I guess. No damage at all. The next time I had slowed down in a parking lot to check the 'Open' hours posting on the entrance door for a local restaurant and took the turn too sharply- down she went. I estimate about $500 damages to the cowling based on discussion elsewhere although I covered most of it up with creative pinstriping. Every successful stop I make on this bike I feel like I've cheated the body shop!

What year is yours? Might want to consider different seat foam or cutting it. I suspect your problem isn't the seat height, but rather the width. My '06 has the Corbin seat and I've got a 30" inseam and I'm a balls-of-my-feet guy when stopped. Never really feel like it's going to go over.

Mine is an '05. I'm having Rick Mayer upholster the seats, then if its no better I'm getting the lowering links. My inseam is probably really much more like a 30" according to the measurements they took during the seat fitting session. I believe that they measured from taint to ankle bone.

 

[Opus]

Yeah, mine went down with me on it.

I was touring the Icefields Parkway, and went offroad looking for a place to take a short break. Got into some nasty road that had been tracked heavily when wet, now dried and deeply rutted. I negotiated my return to the highway without incident, relieved that my turnaround had been successful in spite of the hazards.

Upon entering the highway, I stopped, as there was a stop sign there, and lloking left, didn't see the hole on my right that my foot found my way into. Over she went, with me jumping out of the way.

Tilted way over on a downward slope, I couldn't pick her up.

Stood by the side of the road, smiling at all the vehicles which passed.

After about 10 minutes, some people who were walking nearby noticed me standing there, the bike laying there, put 2 and 2 together, and came over to see if they could offer some solidity to my total embarrassment.

We brought it up, and I got on my way, but the scars remain. The gravel was unkind to the right fairing and case lid, and my knee had put a small mark in the tank while going over.

It was inevitable. I'm only doing the one, though. Yeah, just one....

 

[headude]

haven't dropped it in the entire 132 miles I've ridden it. Let's all keep the faith here, OK?

 

[2006FJR]

Never dropped the FJR bit came close once. I am overely careful when putting it on the center stand.

 

[hydrus01]

Only time I dropped it was coming home from dealership...DOH. Trying to get up my steep driveway into garage and didn't have enough speed. Wife who was already nervous as hell about getting such an expensive bike was only one watching. Lucky me it was a 'graceful' drop and no damage except a very minor scuff (you got to really look for it).

Took an advance rider course and saw a guy who had 20+ years of riding not only drop his FJR at a stop but fell over forward breaking his collar bone... Gotta give the bike plenty of respect at slow speed ---> we all know to be careful w/that front break!

BTW 32" inseam and on the balls of my feet most of the time but after 5k miles on my 05 I feel comfortable enough I don't even think about it. Wife encouraging me to get a custom seat but I feel good w/stock. Dang, wife wants me to spend money on the bike and I decline... what's wrong with me?!

 

[BudoshinFJR]

Well it had to happen; I dropped my 05 last Friday leaving work. The parking lot is crushed stone and mostly sloped. I can usually find a fairly level spot to park but couldn't that day. It was a nice clear warm day and I was planning on taking the long way home. So I gear up, jacket, pants, gloves, helment... get on the bike, start her up, snick her in 1st, handle bars full left and pointing down hill; easy out the clutch and go about 6" when it feels like the front brake locks up. Put out my left foot to try and catch her but lost my footing on the gravel and down we go. You guessed it I forgot to take the lock off the front rotor; to say I was pissed at myself is a gross understatement! :angry: Scratched upper fairing, engine case and hard bag. Repairs will have to wait awhile, leaving this Saturday for a ride down the BRP to Maggie Valley NC and Deals Gap. :yahoo:

 

[Tom]

Doesn't seem to be a category for my ****** move, so I'll describe.

Wanted to take the FJR with me to a 50cc event, yet wasn't sure both bikes would fit in the bed of my Titan. So, I park the truck at the end of the driveway and position the loading ramp just as I've done several times. Well, with the exception of one minor small detail - I've never loaded the FJR in the truck by myself. Why on that day I thought I could is beyond me.

So I line up the FJR with the ramp, roll it down the downward sloping driveway at a good pace, hit the loading ramp and only manage to get about 2 feet up the ramp before bike weight and gravity dictate that it's not going further. Well crap I think, now what to do? So I ease it back off the ramp and park it.

At this point most of us would've figured out that another human was necessary to make this loading thing happen. But ooooohhhh nooooo.....not me. I came to the conclusion that the bike just needed a bigger head of steam.

Me and bike get running start down driveway, hit the loading ramp, bike gets all the way up the ramp and decides to stop once front tire is on tailgate. It's about this time that my brain finally comes to it senses and the thought strikes me, "Holey **** Tom, you're in a bad situation. You're standing on the ground, arms out-stretched holding onto the handlbars with the front brake locked, you've got no leverage nor enough strength to push the bike further. Oh....and letting it roll back down the ramp using the front brake to slow it's decent might pull the ramp lip off the tailgate. Yep Tom....you're F*CKED". After a moment of trying to noodle through how to salavge this, I decide to try and let it back down the ramp.

As the bike starts backwards, it leans a bit too much towards me and I immediately know what's going to happen. I try to grab what I can to slow the fall all the while yelling, "NO, NO, NO....YOU BITCH....NO!" At some point I realize that a 650+ pound bike on top of me is not a good thing so I back away. Unfortunately my right leg doesn't get out of the way in time and the seat of the bike lands against it just above the knee. The next thing I realize is that the weight of the bike is pushing my knee in a direction God DID NOT design the knee to be moved. Later Doctor visit confirms my suspicion - complete ACL tear.

So there's my FJR - front and rear tires still on the ramp and the bike on its side on the concrete. I was sick - and my knee was killing me. It was at this point that I remembered what my tennis partner said to me one night after blowing a macth point with one of the dumbest shot attempts I'd ever seen. He just looked at me and said, "Tom.....is it not just amazing how quickly stupidity can take over your entire body?"

Oh - the damage?? Slight abrasion to chin fairing, scuffed mirror, minor scratches on muffler, and a very small crack on edge of front fender. Me?? ACL repair and 8 months of rehab.

Tom

 

[Grievous Angel]

Never let the FJR all over, but I have scared myself a couple of times with the front brake.

My first bike was a 98 Honda Pacific Coast. It had neat little tipover guards built in, so it could fall over with almost zero damage--and I let it fall a couple of times for the usual reasons (abruptly stopping forward momentum while leaned in a slow turn).

The ZR-7 that followed was much lighter, and I think experience helped too.

The FJR is by far the hardest of these three to manage at slow speeds. Haven't dropped it yet.

 

[Fred W]

No drops yet. Came awfully darn close last week, though, when I wasn't really paying attention while doing a sharp u-turn out of a parking space.
My old Connie, though, went down three times. Two softly. Once hard enough to break a few bits. The hard one, of course, was the day I bought it. I was also doing a slow u-turn, in the parking lot of the license agency. Sheesh.

Now that I've said I haven't dropped it, I'm off to knock on some wood.

Yeah, I dropped my Connie too when I had it. Everyone does. Those things have a really high center of gravity and the sidestand is too damn long. I tried to put it on the side stand on the side of a road and the slight incline from the road crown was enough to do it. Sumbiotch was a heavy momma to lift too. :dribble:

Compared to the Connies the Feejers are stable.