After 2300 miles with my 08 FJR I thought I’d give my initial impression (which has probably been done thousands of times). The seat isn’t as bad as I had feared, once broken in. I did a three day trip about 530 miles the first day, 400 the second and then a 750 miles to get back home. After day one I thought the seat was an ancient torture device. By day three it was well broken in and my only complaint with the seat was that my knees ached. I’ll have to try the seat in the taller position. One thing I really liked about the seat is that it allows you to move around when the road gets twisty. We were in the Texas hill country and when the roads got twisty you can move around a lot, you aren’t stuck in one position like some seats.
The windscreen leaves a lot to be desired. It is too tall in the lower position, directing wind just under my helmet, or too short in the upper position, causing my head to move side to side. I haven’t decided what I’m going to do about that yet. So far my options seem to be the taller touring shield, or trying the laminar lip. All I know for sure it took what I thought was a decent quite helmet and made it so loud that I had to reposition the speakers and turn the volume up full blast to hear anything above 60mph. As a side note, I got out my old race helmet and gave it a try. A vast improvement, I may have to find a different modular helmet. The Nolans I’ve been using is just too noisy, any suggestions would be appreciated.
There is a fair amount of heat coming from the engine. Keeps the bottom of the legs nice and toasty. Not sure what can be done about that.
The stock suspension isn’t too bad. It’s a little weak in some areas, but no where near as bad as the Goldwing I sold to get the FJR. I messed with that suspension for over two years and never got it took work as well as the FJR’s stock suspension.
The glare from the dash, when the sun is low and behind you, is quite bad as well. At first I thought it was just coming off the digital panel, but since then I’ve had it from the speedometer and tach as well.
The biggest thing I learned was if you read something on this forum ie, Use thread lock on the saddle bag locks, don’t ignore it just because you know the guy who assembled your bike. More then likely it wasn’t done, and you will have a lock fall out somewhere along your trip. Luckily for me my riding buddy noticed it during a gas stop, so I didn’t lose any parts, and was able to fix it at the end of day one.
So far the only comment my wife has given when I asked her if the Goldwing was more comfortable was that they were both uncomfortable, just in different ways. Taking her on a trip this weekend, I'll see what she says then.
The windscreen leaves a lot to be desired. It is too tall in the lower position, directing wind just under my helmet, or too short in the upper position, causing my head to move side to side. I haven’t decided what I’m going to do about that yet. So far my options seem to be the taller touring shield, or trying the laminar lip. All I know for sure it took what I thought was a decent quite helmet and made it so loud that I had to reposition the speakers and turn the volume up full blast to hear anything above 60mph. As a side note, I got out my old race helmet and gave it a try. A vast improvement, I may have to find a different modular helmet. The Nolans I’ve been using is just too noisy, any suggestions would be appreciated.
There is a fair amount of heat coming from the engine. Keeps the bottom of the legs nice and toasty. Not sure what can be done about that.
The stock suspension isn’t too bad. It’s a little weak in some areas, but no where near as bad as the Goldwing I sold to get the FJR. I messed with that suspension for over two years and never got it took work as well as the FJR’s stock suspension.
The glare from the dash, when the sun is low and behind you, is quite bad as well. At first I thought it was just coming off the digital panel, but since then I’ve had it from the speedometer and tach as well.
The biggest thing I learned was if you read something on this forum ie, Use thread lock on the saddle bag locks, don’t ignore it just because you know the guy who assembled your bike. More then likely it wasn’t done, and you will have a lock fall out somewhere along your trip. Luckily for me my riding buddy noticed it during a gas stop, so I didn’t lose any parts, and was able to fix it at the end of day one.
So far the only comment my wife has given when I asked her if the Goldwing was more comfortable was that they were both uncomfortable, just in different ways. Taking her on a trip this weekend, I'll see what she says then.
