IBR bikes

[Sin Saint]

I was curious which model turned up the most in these rallies. From the IBR site this year these models are in these quantities. Other models have only one or two in the rally. I'm not making a point, I'm just curious so I thought others might be too.

R 1200 RT - 12

R 1200 GS - 14

Gold Wing - 16

FJR - 16

ST1300 - 9

 

[bramfrank]

In other words, no clear preference.

Interesting that there were no significant numbers of the C14 . . . then again, it was a C14 that Davo Jones was riding last time around - perhaps bad Karma?

 

[Pat L]

I think that the fuel mileage for the C14 has been its big weakness for LDR folks. However the '10 includes an on-the-fly lean fuel map mode, which is really intersting. And that bike is really fun to ride.

The community does seem to gather around proven platforms. I truly believe that the FJR is as popular as it is partly due to this web community's support for it, which generates a lot of options for farkles, peer support and other good stuff.

 

[phroenips]

The maintenance involved in a C14 certainly isn't doing it any favors either (i.e. spark plugs)

 

[wheatonFJR]

..I truly believe that the FJR is as popular as it is partly due to this web community's support for it, which generates a lot of options for farkles, peer support and other good stuff.

Not to mention the beer and cookies...

 

[lddave]

I am also surprised the C 14 is not being used as a LD platform .

 

[Ignacio]

I am also surprised the C 14 is not being used as a LD platform .

Even though the C14 is a good platform...that's just one leg of the stool. The other two legs include an active community...which clearly the FJRForum represents AND a variety of sparkles and parts that folks like HMarc and Warchild promoted heavily as far back as '04 or so. That then begot manufacturers and dealers to do things....a critical mass has occurred for the FJR that really never happened (or yet anyway) for the C14.

 

[BrettB]

I'd argue that the C14 is NOT a good platform for LD. The maintenance issues scared me off even though I think it is a beautiful bike, and if I wasn't putting on a lot of miles, so I wouldn't need to tear it apart for maintenance so often, then maybe I'd consider it. Given its maintenance though, I think its a great weekend bike, not a LD platform. My $0.02...

Also, FWIW, I'm cheered when I come to work. Of the 8-15 bikes in our parking lot, of all kinds, scooters to crotch-rocket, Harley to BMW GS and everything in between, there are 3 FJRs. on average, 3/12 is a pretty good indication of how good this bike is

 

[lddave]

I have to agree about the COG community lacking and the vendors are not interested . I am an owner of a 2010 and have had no maintenance issues but then I only have 17,000 miles on it . If there had been a Yamaha dealer in my area I would have purchased a FJR .

 

[Roadstar]

I'm not surprised that there are alot of FJR's in the rally, as they are just so good for distance riding (with out all the stock electronic foo foo added to go wrong) . There was a few things that that made me not buy a C14 , when looking for a sport tourer, like the TPMS, the maintenance, the melting dash & premium fuel. As for community, COG is one of the biggest around& I think Kawasaki listened to them to building the C14.

 

[BDF]

I am also surprised the C 14 is not being used as a LD platform .

It was a big coincidence but I had just finished a CC 50 'the hard way' and happened to be in Tacoma when the 2011 IBR started, so I took a ride to Seattle on the Sunday before the IBR started and then stopped by on Monday to watch the start as I was on my way east (back home) that day. I was surprised that I did not see a single C-14 in the rally. I think a couple of previous posters made some good comments about the bike though- it does require a minimum of 90 octane fuel, and the major maintenance intervals are short and fairly painful to do. In actual practice, a lot of us are using mid- range fuel and quite a few actually run regular with apparent success although again anyone looking at the bike new would have to go by the manufacturer's recommendations of course. Same thing with the valve lash check and adjust; the non- US and non- Canadian bikes have a 26,000 mile interval on lash checks while the US / Canadian bikes have a 15,000 mile lash check interval. The bikes are mechanically identical so this reduced requirement must be an EPA thing rather than a real requirement. Quite a few of us have stretched the intervals with success (my bike has 70K miles and has had the lash checked at 25K and 50K, both times w/in tolerance) but a buyer would have to look at the recommendations. Finally C-14s seem to get similar or just slightly less mileage than FJR's and coupled with the smaller fuel tank (5.8 gal. although it really holds 6 gal.), the range is certainly less than an FJR.

So while I have found a C-14 to be a good long distance bike, I can see where the specs would point toward an FJR being better on several important points.

Brian

 

[Bounce]

Greg Roberts (IBR Finisher, rally rider, scoring at many of the IBR and other rallies) moved to a C14 a year or so back. He really likes it. They do a lot of miles and many (not all) of those are 2-up.

He moved from a BMW though so premium fuel & costly maintenance was already a requirement.

 

[SkooterG]

Roger Sinclair who rode a C-14 in '09, rode a BMW GS in this past IBR. I didn't speak with him directly so take it for what it's worth, but somebody told me he hated the C-14 and had all kinds of problems with it.

Interesting there was not one single C-14 in the rally this year.

 

[Hello Kitty]

I won't claim to speak for Roger, but I think the bulk of the problems might have been self induced in a way... He added that John Ryan-style tank* without testing it ever and that was probably the cause of many of the vapor lock and fuel related problems. He realized that heat was making the issues worse so he would strap bags of ice to the tank. I think there were some electrical problems as well, but Roger did a bunch of farkling and I think we all know that when you start dicking around in there....

*John Ryan modified his FJR tank to the Devil's Tower design. I think it held 15 gallons. (he was only doing cert rides and not the IBR so that is allowed) That thing was so big that when I sat on the bike, I really couldn't see over the gas tank! I could but not really to operate the bike in a safe manner.

 

[Jeff Earls]

Interesting there was not one single C-14 in the rally this year.

I found that statistic surprising too. The ergos on the C-14 are similar to the FJR.

I rode Davo's C-14 from the shipper to my house before the '09 IBR. He asked me what I thought of it. My answer was, "Nice. It's down on power and torque to my K1200GT, but at least it vibrates more." He wasn't sure how to take that.

Overall, I think the C-14 could be a very good platform but it needs community support like the FJR.

 

[BDF]

I found that statistic surprising too. The ergos on the C-14 are similar to the FJR.

I rode Davo's C-14 from the shipper to my house before the '09 IBR. He asked me what I thought of it. My answer was, "Nice. It's down on power and torque to my K1200GT, but at least it vibrates more." He wasn't sure how to take that.

Overall, I think the C-14 could be a very good platform but it needs community support like the FJR.

I found that statistic surprising too. The ergos on the C-14 are similar to the FJR.

I rode Davo's C-14 from the shipper to my house before the '09 IBR. He asked me what I thought of it. My answer was, "Nice. It's down on power and torque to my K1200GT, but at least it vibrates more." He wasn't sure how to take that.

Overall, I think the C-14 could be a very good platform but it needs community support like the FJR.

Agreed- the support is there for Feejers because they have been around a lot longer. There doesn't seem to be the solid knowledge base on the C-14 side though. From a distance, it seems that a much larger percentage of FJR riders are more serious, hard- core bike riders when compared with C-14 riders. It is hard to tell as the C-14 is so new and the economy tanked right after the C-14 was introduced.

As to the comparison between a C-14 and a K1200GT, I found them to be very close. The power is similar although the C-14 has more on the top end while the K1200GT is better at medium RPM ranges, at least until the 'flies are pulled from the C-14. Overall, the two bikes are very close in performance and abilities. The only significant different I found was that BMW front end without forks. There is no feedback as to what the front wheel is doing- it is like riding a video game instead of the actual bike.

There will probably be more C-14s show up in the next two IBRs. There are already quite a few showing up in organized SS 1000's and similar so as those people advance into longer rallies the C-14 will probably advance with them.

Brian