General Dislikes

[Twigg]

Twigg, not sure how tall you are - but I bet super tall with a name like Twigg ;-). I'm 6 foot 2 and am plenty comfortable on my 2005 FJR. I had a bigger bike, 2006 Honda VTX 1800, which I could stretch out on, and the FJR is so much more comfortable in many ways...

Nope ... I am 6' 1" with a 33" inseam.

I am 55 and it's been a while since I rode anything that leaned "sports". My last bike was a 1986 Yamaha Venture Royale, and after that sofa the new position took some getting used to.

When I first bought it I was completely unsure if the bike and I would get along. Then I thought "sod this" and went and did 3000 miles in three days riding thinking it's **** or bust ... Well it was ****, and we got along just fine

Sometimes you just have to make it happen, then be pleased it did!

 

[RadioHowie]

I've only owned my 2004 Cerulean Battlecruiser, a.k.a. "Frankenbike" for 9 years and 90,000 miles, so my opinion might not hold a lot of credence, but here goes....

My ONLY dislike of the FJR is it is almost, but not exactly, 200 pounds too heavy. I really wished it only weighed 450 pounds, but the only way I could ride a bike that diminutive (and Euro-fragile) would be if I were 8 inches shorter and about 100 pounds lighter. I can't afford leg reduction surgery and eating good food is third only to smoking and marrying ex-wives on my list of questionable personal lifestyle choices.

Imagine, though, a 450 pound, fully faired motorcycle with 145hp, 100lb/ft of torque, 6.6 gallon/45~50mpg range, 155mph top-end and dead-nutz Japanese reliability! That would be the motorcycling equivalent of waking up next to a nymphomaniac, deaf-mute version of Kate Upton every morning.

Oh well, I'll deal with the extra 200 pounds and count everything else as a gigantic PLUS. My stock seat is just fine. No mythical "heat issues", I live in Florida so heated grips are a big "WTF" to me. I guess I missed out on the self-folding side stand, my oil choices don't require unobtanium additives, the bars and windshield are just fine for my 6'4", I don't ride gravel roads so a radiator guard isn't on my list of "must-haves", I absolutely LOVE the color, I run a car tire on the back, could give a flying f&%* about a passenger backrest, 'cause I leave Kate's worthless, plastic *** at home, I use a $15 dollar throttle lock that works as well for me as a $15,000 cruise control, and wouldn't know a good suspension from a bad suspension if it bit me in the ***, as my 90k-mile '04 still has its unsullied OEM suspension. But god, I wish it was 200 pounds lighter!!

I just turned 62 years old, experience chronic vertigo and Miss Piggy just ain't as much fun dancing with as she used to be. Keeping those damned R1s, GSXRs and Ninjas off my *** is getting harder and harder every day. But I make up for it by regular feedings of Sportsters, Road Kings and UltraGlides to Frankenbike on a bi-weekly basis. The faux-cruisers from the Oriental Big 4 are just as much fun to embarrass as those Milwaukee paint shakers.

 

[Redfish Hunter]

1) I've only owned my 2004 Cerulean Battlecruiser, a.k.a. "Frankenbike" for 9 years and 90,000 miles, so my opinion might not hold a lot of credence,
2) My ONLY dislike of the FJR is it is almost, but not exactly, 200 pounds too heavy. I really wished it only weighed 450 pounds, but the only way I could ride a bike that diminutive (and Euro-fragile) would be if I were 8 inches shorter and about 100 pounds lighter. I can't afford leg reduction surgery and eating good food is third only to smoking and marrying ex-wives on my list of questionable personal lifestyle choices.

3) Imagine, though, a 450 pound, fully faired motorcycle with 145hp, 100lb/ft of torque, 6.6 gallon/45~50mpg range, 155mph top-end and dead-nutz Japanese reliability! That would be the motorcycling equivalent of waking up next to a nymphomaniac, deaf-mute version of Kate Upton every morning.

Oh well, I'll deal with the extra 200 pounds and count everything else as a gigantic PLUS. My stock seat is just fine. No mythical "heat issues", I live in Florida so heated grips are a big "WTF" to me. I guess I missed out on the self-folding side stand, my oil choices don't require unobtanium additives, the bars and windshield are just fine for my 6'4", I don't ride gravel roads so a radiator guard isn't on my list of "must-haves", I absolutely LOVE the color, I run a car tire on the back, could give a flying f&%* about a passenger backrest, 'cause I leave Kate's worthless, plastic *** at home, I use a $15 dollar throttle lock that works as well for me as a $15,000 cruise control, and wouldn't know a good suspension from a bad suspension if it bit me in the ***, as my 90k-mile '04 still has its unsullied OEM suspension. But god, I wish it was 200 pounds lighter!!

4) I just turned 62 years old, experience chronic vertigo and Miss Piggy just ain't as much fun dancing with as she used to be. Keeping those damned R1s, GSXRs and Ninjas off my *** is getting harder and harder every day. But I make up for it by regular feedings of Sportsters, Road Kings and UltraGlides to Frankenbike on a bi-weekly basis. The faux-cruisers from the Oriental Big 4 are just as much fun to embarrass as those Milwaukee paint shakers.

That has to be my all time favorite post from this man. That may in fact, be one of the best posts I ever read on any forum anywhere. I almost feel a tear in my eye I am so proud of Howie.

1. I see Mr. Howie has a memory and takes his shots of opportunity at other threads. Well played.

2. Beautiful.

3. That line is just... Words fail me. Where do I sign up to be a member of the RadioHowie fan club? I wish I had written a line like that. I will steal it and modify it for use in the future. But I shall always give credit to Howie when I do so.

4. My favorite part of doing that is how surprised they all look. The ignorant *******s act as though they cannot believe it actually happened. Every time. The overwhelming majority of these fools seem to have no clue that they are riding a slow bike. I mean, can't you hear how loud my shiny aftermarket pipes are? It has to be fast! The two funniest parts of this is that most FJR guys know about how fast any other bike on the road is, because we are usually fairly knowledgeable about motorcycles in general. Cruiser guys not so much. You hear them talking about their 14 second quarter mile bikes to each other. "Man that thing has got some power!" Yeah, it'll outrun any Prius on the road... The second thing is that they do it to themselves. I never, never go looking to embarrass them. They come after me.

My sense of fair play normally would kick in right here and I would ask that we wait and see if the OP, "Rider" gives us a worthwhile response and has learned anything before we attack him further. Since I know that 1) Such a plea may not work because some of our best and most respected have already tried reasoning with him, and 2) He does not seem to want to learn, he just wants to hear negative things to the point of finding negativity where there is none...

I respectfully ask the Admins to declare this an honorary Dogpile Friday even though the calendar says it is Tuesday.

 

[Punkinhead]

An FJR killed my dog.

 

[RadioHowie]

An FJR killed my dog.

Fell on it????? :rofl:

 

[Top_Speed1]

My FJR killed some Bucks, but luckily it was only at the fuel pumps... and, I traded those bucks in for some mighty big smiles

 

[erixun]

My FJR has killed some weekends.

 

[Bounce]

I respectfully ask the Admins to declare this an honorary Dogpile Friday even though the calendar says it is Tuesday.

Request denied. I've been dealing with "threadjacking" issues all week. I'll pass on the results that a dogpile would stir up. In one week a hand full of members have blown the stack off the top of the monthly threadjacking stats.

Oh yeah...

 

[HotRodZilla]

Is the OP related in anyway to PGRhodes? There is very little to dislike here, and almost all of it is personal preference. Please don't ask a "general" question and then get irritated because the answers were not specific enough.

I will address one thing. You mentioned the bike being top heavy. I came from a VTX1800R and had only ridden cruisers for a few years after riding crotch rockets in college. I quickly learned that my FJR is not as forgiving as the cruisers were. It's a taller bike, and at stops can be different. Not hard, just different. I think the slow speed handling is awesome, bit I've trained on that a lot, so maybe I'm not in the norm.

As said before, for YOU to figure out what YOU won't like, YOU will have to find a way to get on one and put some miles on. OR you can do like most of the rest of us did and just buy one, and enjoy what's here to be enjoyed.

We don't know what makes most people go away from FJRs becausee quite honestly, not a lot do, and those that do seem to snivel a lot. Many times they blame us for their shortcomings.

Those that aren't whiners are usually long time owners who have realized their FJR no longer works for them for many reasons.

 

[donaldb]

for a NEPRT thread this has gone on a hell of a long time. You guys are a bunch of old nothing better to do complaining farts. *****...*****....*****

I too like Howie's Kate analogy

but even if my FJR was 200lbs lighter I'd stick with riding Kate every morning.