How to drop your FJR and not damage it...

[mikatollah]

I took Mark Lawrence' advice to heart when he said most of what you need to learn on a motorcycle can be learned at slow speed. So when I made the jump from a 300 lb bike to a 650 lb FJR I bought some sliders and headed off for a parking lot. I took a couple of extra precautions that served me well: I removed the hard bags and folded the mirrors forward. My goal is 25 hours of slow speed maneuvering and other MSF type of stuff to get me ready to face the cruel realities of riding in traffic and maneuvering around parking lots, gas stations and my garage.

Then about half way through hour one I laid my beautiful bike down on the concrete. I was in a left turn with the handlebars up against the stops going about 8 mph when somehow I hit the red cutout switch and the bike just hit the pavement. I looked around to see if anyone was looking then picked her up. Thankfully the only damage was a deep gouge in a $21 slider. I was so happy to have survived a drop and not have broken a mirror or scuffed up a bag. I have no idea how I touched that cutout switch, but it was definitely in the off position when I went to restart the bike.

I finished out my hour and headed home, determined that Mrs. tollah will never find out that I dropped my new toy.

Mike

 

[BwanaDik]

Well done! Good thing to practice. How did you ever pick her up by yourself?

 

[Knifemaker]

...I finished out my hour and headed home, determined that Mrs. tollah will never find out that I dropped my new toy.
Mike

I forwarded your post to her facebook page. No nookie for you tonight...........

I only have dropped my baby at crawling to zero speed, and would be happy to do it again in place of any higer velocity tip over.

Practicing slow speed manuvers is a big key in learning to deal with lifes little problems...like finding the road is a dead end and covered with gravel..

KM

 

[Bungie]

Practicing slow speed manuvers is a big key in learning to deal with lifes little problems...like finding the road is a dead end and covered with gravel..

Ya ya ya.. blah blah blah. Bring back the girl with the swords in your avatar. I miss her.

 

[mikatollah]

Well done! Good thing to practice. How did you ever pick her up by yourself?

I grabbed the left handlebar and left handhold under the seat, straightened my back and used my legs. If that hadn't worked I would have turned my back to the bike and walked it back with my legs like they show you in the you-tube demonstration videos.

As it turned out, the lift required wasn't much more than my 300 lb dual sport which I had the occasion to pick up several times. It had a much higher center of gravity than the FJR.

 

[dbm]

Slow speed maneuvers are scary...being ready to straighten her up seems to be key...along with a lot of practice and different experiences...but when she is leaning too far...there is nothing you can do. Thank goodness you came out of it with little or no damage and no wrenched back.

 

[Eric L]

look at the underside of your muffler, - you scratched it up.

 

[mikatollah]

look at the underside of your muffler, - you scratched it up.

Good call Eric, you made me look. I did find some black paint rubbed off, about the size of a match head on the underside of the Two Brothers exhaust. Also, I could see a tiny scratch on the center stand, but it was hard to tell if it is from dropping it or normal wear and tear. Since the bike is 3 1/2 years old it all looks pretty normal.

 

[08FJR4ME]

Practicing slow speed manuvers is a big key in learning to deal with lifes little problems...like finding the road is a dead end and covered with gravel..

Ya ya ya.. blah blah blah. Bring back the girl with the swords in your avatar. I miss her.

+1 Lose Charlie and bring back the sword.

 

[jrr]

Well I am happy to see that I'm not the only goof in the bunch. I dropped my black beauty (FJR) last week when I tried to park on a uphill grade. The bike would not lean enough where I parked and as I was getting off it started to lean the other way. There was no stopping it and down it went. I used all I had to soften the fall but the hard bag on the right and the right mirror now sport ugly white scrapes. I was in full view of lots of people and really felt stupid. Luckily, as I struggled to lift the bike upright a young man stepped up and assisted me. A lesson well learned. I don't know the young man's name but thank you who ever you are!

 

[Eric L]

I rode a Suzuki GS500 for 7000 miles in 6 months (first bike), never dropped it, then dropped the new FJ twice at a standstill in the first month. Damn thing is heavy . Mostly I assumed I could handle it as nonchalant as the 400 pound bike wen pushing it around. Luckily it's been another 700 miles without incident.

Always be aware of it's mass and momentum and when it falls past the point of no return, get the heck out of the way.

 

[bikerkash]

When you installed the Slider, that saved your bike, did you use a lock tight type product on the bolt? If you didn't remove the bolt and do this. This bolt is a motor mount bolt and if it comes out you will not be able to steer the bike and you will lose control. It happened to me at a very high speed. Trust me on this one!!!

 

[Knifemaker]

Practicing slow speed manuvers is a big key in learning to deal with lifes little problems...like finding the road is a dead end and covered with gravel..

Ya ya ya.. blah blah blah. Bring back the girl with the swords in your avatar. I miss her.

+1 Lose Charlie and bring back the sword.

OK,OK...She's still on vacation, but here's her little sister...

KM

 

[bluesdog]

... a $21 slider. ...

Where did you get those sliders? Only ones I've seen advertised are significantly more expensive!!!

 

[supertankerm60a3]

Amen on the sliders. Can you show some pix? The sliders on my Gen 1 are to high to do much at all. Of coarse the only time I went down was by powing into a cliff in a thunderstorm and all I go was a broken right turn signal and a bunch of shallow scratches. I used touchup paint on them, then are no longer considered damage, they are now considered battle scars.

 

[kolonial72]

OK,OK...She's still on vacation, but here's her little sister...

KM

Oh, I like her sister....

mike t, when I read your OP, I thought to myself, "I shoulda done that." Not the drop-the-bike part, but the slow-speed maneuvering part. You're doing a smart thing there IMHO. The longer I ride the Feej, the more I Make myself slow down and try the low-speed stuff, even when it's not required. Sure makes a rider better. (My main problem is ADHD, which does not allow slow-speed ops for more than about 37 seconds at a time.)

 

[Fred W]

One thought that occurred to me while reading the OP:

It's very possible that you didn't actually hit the kill switch until she was already on the way down. In the panic that ensues with a drop it's easy to knock it to the off position.

There have been a number of folks that have had similar stalling / dropping incidents at slow speeds and start-outs from a stop that were eventually traceable to simply having the idle speed set too low. Check yours and make sure it is set to 1100 rpm. No lower. Wouldn't want you to scrape up the slider on the other side right away...

 

[mikatollah]

... a $21 slider. ...

Where did you get those sliders? Only ones I've seen advertised are significantly more expensive!!!

D2Moto.com. But if you are willing to wait for an auction to end you can get them a couple dollars cheaper on e-bay. I'm not sure how well they would work in an actual slide because they are not real heavy like the t-rex sliders, but they are fine for what I need.

 

[BwanaDik]

Practicing slow speed manuvers is a big key in learning to deal with lifes little problems...like finding the road is a dead end and covered with gravel..

Ya ya ya.. blah blah blah. Bring back the girl with the swords in your avatar. I miss her.

+1 Lose Charlie and bring back the sword.

OK,OK...She's still on vacation, but here's her little sister...

KM

:yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo:

Much better!!!