FJR AE Info

[lotecredneck]

I received the following information from a tech person that has ridden the AE model and filed a report for corporate RSR's to read.....

The AE will act much like any FJR with a clutch with the exception there is a button that must be pushed on the handlebar to activate the paddle shifter if you want to operate the push button shifting. The gear indicator will flash when it is time to downshift, btu the biek will come to a start and disengage the clutch even if you do not downshift. The bike will take off in 5th gear or any gear for that matter, if you don't downshift, but it will slip the clutch in order to do so and cause premature clutch wear if you make a habit of this! You can downshift from a standstill, but it may require rocking the bike back and forth unless you ge lucky. This is to be expected as it is a manual transmission.

The clutch requires battery power to disengage, so if you leave the bike in gear and leave an electric vest turned on and run the battery dead the bike is NOT MOVEABLE until battery power is restored! I have additonal notes on the operation of the bike and will post them when I get back to the office and can look at my notes. (CRS Syndrome...)

Regards,

Tony Orihuela

Yamaha Sportscenter

 

[JREW]

Interesting information. Glad mine has a real clutch.

 

[rdfrantz]

Thanks for the update. More and more info will come trickling in.

And, even after the first road tests, the entire picutre won't be there. It will take lots of riding by lots of riders until we fully understand how well the the system meets, or doesn't meet a broad range of needs.

I've been critical of it, not its operation, only what it must address (the things I personally care about) so that people will look for how it meets those needs as well as other needs and wants.

I do have great faith in Yamaha, and that they won't dump an absolute pig of a system out there. That doens't mean its going to be something I personally want. However, I remain ever curious about it.

Thanks again.

 

[Randy]

The clutch requires battery power to disengage, so if you leave the bike in gear and leave an electric vest turned on and run the battery dead the bike is NOT MOVEABLE until battery power is restored!

Thanks for posting this info (not that I'm interested in one, but, it's good to hear the realities of how things will work). I think I'm having a problem with symantics. Do you mean it requires battery power to engage (similar to pulling the clutch in) or disengage (similar to letting the clutch out). If you mean disengage, the bike would be movable, but, you couldn't bump start it. If you mean engage, then couldn't shift the bike into neutral by rocking it back and forth to get the gears to disengage? I just tried it with mine with the bike off and not pulling in the clutch. On the center stand, I can pull the shift lever up until it goes into gear, and can continue to do this until I get to 5th. I then did the same thing to get it back to 1st then back up to neutral. So, the bike can be moveable. What would be challenging is bump starting it. Assuming you can get enough speed, there would probably be too much compression to keep the back tire from locking up.

As stated a gazzilion times before, mostly speculation and theory until the real world gets their hands on one.

 

[Vstar2FJR]

Hey Tony, good to hear from you again. It's been a few years since I've been on the VStar forums at Delphi (Chromehead), and I remember you as a regular there. As my forum name implies, I've moved up to an 05 FJR that I've had since August 04.

Welcome to the BEST FJR forum, and I hope you'll offer us some specials on Yamaha parts like you did for the VStar crowd.

John

 

[slapnpop]

The clutch requires battery power to disengage, so if you leave the bike in gear and leave an electric vest turned on and run the battery dead the bike is NOT MOVEABLE until battery power is restored!

Thanks for posting this info (not that I'm interested in one, but, it's good to hear the realities of how things will work). I think I'm having a problem with symantics. Do you mean it requires battery power to engage (similar to pulling the clutch in) or disengage (similar to letting the clutch out). If you mean disengage, the bike would be movable, but, you couldn't bump start it. If you mean engage, then couldn't shift the bike into neutral by rocking it back and forth to get the gears to disengage? I just tried it with mine with the bike off and not pulling in the clutch. On the center stand, I can pull the shift lever up until it goes into gear, and can continue to do this until I get to 5th. I then did the same thing to get it back to 1st then back up to neutral. So, the bike can be moveable. What would be challenging is bump starting it. Assuming you can get enough speed, there would probably be too much compression to keep the back tire from locking up.

As stated a gazzilion times before, mostly speculation and theory until the real world gets their hands on one.

If you have the hand shifter, then there's no foot shifter, right?

 

[Randy]

You can shift it by the buttons or the foot lever.

 

[Rogue]

You can shift it by the buttons or the foot lever.

The foot shifter isn't really a shifter, It operates a switch so you can't shift with no battery power anymore than with the paddles.

 

[Vstar2FJR]

Rogue said:

The foot shifter isn't really a shifter, It operates a switch so you can't shift with no battery power anymore than with the paddles.

Not true! From the Yamaha web site you will find...

Key Features:

FJR1300AE receives, in addition to the other `06 refinements listed, heated grips and a Yamaha exclusive electric-shift five-speed transmission that eliminates the clutch lever entirely—now you can click off supersmooth shifts using either the left bar-mounted paddles or the foot-operated gearshift lever.

See https://www.yamaha-motor.com/sport/products...0/features.aspx

 

[Rogue]

Rogue said:

The foot shifter isn't really a shifter, It operates a switch so you can't shift with no battery power anymore than with the paddles.

Not true! From the Yamaha web site you will find...

Key Features:

FJR1300AE receives, in addition to the other `06 refinements listed, heated grips and a Yamaha exclusive electric-shift five-speed transmission that eliminates the clutch lever entirely—now you can click off supersmooth shifts using either the left bar-mounted paddles or the foot-operated gearshift lever.

See https://www.yamaha-motor.com/sport/products...0/features.aspx

It's a shifter as much as the paddle shifter is a shifter. What I meant was that it isn't connected to the tranny, It's connected to a switch. All shifting is done by a solinoid.

 

[twowheelnut]

What's a solenoid? Is that like a gerbil or something - you know like in a running wheel powering up the clutch? Does it need to be fed? What's the best kinda feed for a solenoid? Will it need shots?

Just wonnerin... :dntknw:

 

[Scythian]

Does it need to be fed? What's the best kinda feed for a solenoid?

Fresh breast milk.

 

[FJRocket]

What Rogue said. It has a foot shifter, but the thing just pushes an electric button, more or less. It's not mechanically directly linked to the gear box. So dead battery would mean dead in the water. Hmmmm. Can you say JUMPER CABLES?

Interesting that the gear light flashes to tell you when it's ok to downshift. Guess that means SMOOTHLY downshift, or maybe so as not to eat up the clutch? I hope I can learn to rpm match and catch it. I like engine braking. Wonder what RPM the gear light starts blinking?

OK, waiting for more info, thanks.

 

[Pacman]

Yet another "selfimposed" conundrum! Anybody thinks a manufacturer like Yamaha would dump a crappy unuseable system that would leave you stranded out there? And more so on a first year model that would have to overcome precisely the kind of sckepticism I see here? I don't see any eagerness on the part of Yamaha (or any other manufacturer this side of Ducati for that matter) to shoot themselves in the foot !!!!

PLEASE !!!!! Other than not being able to bumpstart it because of the lack of clutch lever.... That is IT!

I owned a 1969 VW beetle with an "auto shift". Anybody remembers that? Three speed + reverse transmission that would work just as a regular transmission BUT without a clutch pedal. Add the paddle shift Ferrari is famous for introducing on street cars. That's the FJR AE 35 years later. End of the "problem"........ Now is that so HARD to grasp?

Like the idea? Buy the bloody bike. Don't like it? Don't buy it! It's seems to me it's quite a simple propossition !? Quit bitching about it and try to come up with problems where there isn't any! For crying out loud! :dribble:

The only thing I'm mad about is the fact that because of the ridiculous buying system Yamaha insists in implementing I won't be able to test ride it before buying mine, so I had to play safe and order the A. It's because of that, that when and if I get to test ride one I hope I don't like it. Otherwise I'll be pissed.

Sorry for the rant! It must be my "look at the facts engineering background"...

 

[lotecredneck]

The clutch requires battery power to disengage, so if you leave the bike in gear and leave an electric vest turned on and run the battery dead the bike is NOT MOVEABLE until battery power is restored!

Thanks for posting this info (not that I'm interested in one, but, it's good to hear the realities of how things will work). I think I'm having a problem with symantics. Do you mean it requires battery power to engage (similar to pulling the clutch in) or disengage (similar to letting the clutch out). If you mean disengage, the bike would be movable, but, you couldn't bump start it. If you mean engage, then couldn't shift the bike into neutral by rocking it back and forth to get the gears to disengage? I just tried it with mine with the bike off and not pulling in the clutch. On the center stand, I can pull the shift lever up until it goes into gear, and can continue to do this until I get to 5th. I then did the same thing to get it back to 1st then back up to neutral. So, the bike can be moveable. What would be challenging is bump starting it. Assuming you can get enough speed, there would probably be too much compression to keep the back tire from locking up.

As stated a gazzilion times before, mostly speculation and theory until the real world gets their hands on one.

You can't rock the bike back and forth to get it out of gear if the battery is dead as the shifting is done electrically. This is a simple work around as one simply needs to put a polarized plug on the battery terminals when it is assembled the put the mate to the plug in the tool kit for such an emergency that you can either charge the battery or apply 12 volts so the bike can be shifted into neutral.

Tony

 

[lotecredneck]

I was told that the bike can be upshifted with the throttle pinned, but you have to back off the throttle to downshift. The bike will not go into gear if the engine rpm is too high unless it is the warm up cycle that the computer introduces at startup.

Tony

 

[FJRocket]

Like the idea? Buy the bloody bike. Don't like it? Don't buy it!

Ok, I'm buying the bike. I'm buying the right to be skeptical and critical. Opinions are like ********. Everyone has them, and most stink. Including mine.

I'm not worried about killing the AE and it not starting. Just glad it came up in discussion so now I know what I'm in for. Haven't had to bump start the '04 yet, but sure have jumped it a couple times.

I'll set up the bike just like the one I have now. Battery tender cable to allow fused access direct to the battery. Maybe not able to full blown jump that way, but at least it wouldn't take long to get enough juice to turn it over.

Then again, maybe my new found bad habits will have worked themselves out of my system by the time I get the AE.

I'm ready!

I figured that backing down on the throttle was going to be necessary to downshift. Glad there's going to be some protection in the system. Again, hope after a while to be able to find the sweet spot on the downshift. Prolly play with that on my '04 FJR and my '05 REKLUSE clutch WR250F. Can you say AUTOCLUTCH?!

 

[Vulcan]

The "new" Hondamatic.....Remember those dogs? They had a 400 and a 750 model if I recall. Auto clutch with a manual shifter for the 2 gears.....Gutless.

 

[bikemonster]

Has anyone had much luck "bump starting" these fuel injected bikes? It's been my experience it's almost impossible. Have worn myself out trying to on my Tuono, much easier just trying to find some jumper cables.