NAFO Ride Notes

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Windjammer

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I thought it might be fun to share some experiences and thoughts from the NAFO journey....so here goes:

1. The FJR really started to suck gas as the speed limits increased. It's 75 in NE, and I usually keep it around 10 over. At 85 MPH I was draining 5.5 gal in about 165 miles. That's 30 MPG - much lower than the 40 I normally get. Now I understand why you guys who ride fast like extra fuel cells. More on this later.

2. The running temp of the FJR went from 2 bars to 3 (Gen 1) as we approached high altitudes. And now I understand why some of you ***** about heat. There was noticeably more engine heat.

3. The closer we got to Denver, the more people we found driving BELOW the speed limit. It's like some kinda wierd disease out there or somethin'.

4. We didn't see a single FJR on our 1000 mile journey - not one!! - until we pulled up at the hotel in Golden. What are the odds?

5. I kinda liked when Ari touched on "Spidey Sense" in his speech. I don't care if you believe in it or not - I use it ALL THE TIME.

6. The food at dinner on Friday and Saturday was AWESOME :cheff: - all you heard was chewing and the clinking of silverware. Just the rally staff doing their part to put some padding on yer *** for all the riding!!

7. Some damn tasty roads out there in the Rockies, but lots of traffic! If we could have just gotten the CO Highway Patrol to close them to all traffic except FJR's......at least for a certain week of summer!

8. The people who organized this rally worked their ***** off and did a kickass job! THANK YOU! B) My pathetic life has kept me so damn busy the FJR only left the garage ONCE this year until the NAFO trip. I really need to quit pissing my life away with responsibilities and get out more often...(sigh). :(

9. Heading out after the rally, Spidey Sense kicked in during our descent of Thompson Canyon. I just KNEW that girl in the SUV was gonna pull out right in front of us!! Thanks to Spidey Sense, I was on the front brake by the time her SUV entered the intersection. Close call....gave her a little blast of horn to kinda say WTF??? :eek: But we escaped unscathed. Thanks Spidey! :D

10. Heading back home, Eastbound and Down on I-90, we passed The Only Harley In The World Who Wasn't Heading To Sturgis. He was in the right lane of the slab, doing about 75 and we went by at 85 or so. :p Spidey Sense told me he wasn't gonna take to being outgassed by a Jap bike, but he didn't pursue....until about 5 miles later I notice him on my six, riding staggered behind me. I bumped up to 90 MPH to make sure I wasn't holding him up, but he matched my speed and just stayed on my six. Harley Dude has no helmet, no windshield, riding in a t-shirt. Damn that's a lotta wind beatin' on ya at 90 MPH! :huh: Then we approach a single lane construction zone - I squirt out around a semi but Harley Dude don't have enough time to make it around the semi and gets stuck behind. Several miles later the C-zone ends and the semi with Harley Dude behind it is totally gone from my mirror. I bump back up to 90, thinking I've seen the last of Harley Dude. The dude would have to ride like 110 MPH with no wind protection to catch up, assuming his bike goes that fast. But DAMN!! 10 miles later I'm shocked to find him right back on my six!! :eek: And this time he stayed there, never trying to pass, but never more than 50 feet behind. We stayed in formation like that for MILES, which was OK, cuz the 10,000 Harleys heading West to Sturgis wouild actually wave back with him riding behind me. :lol: Then the unthinkable happened. The last 4 bars on my fuel guage were dropping off like every 10 miles, and soon I found myself staring at a single flashing bar - with only 138 miles on the trip meter! I had no choice but to pit for fuel. I signalled and gave Harley Dude a friendly wave as I pulled off onto the exit ramp. He didn't look at me, wave or nuthin' - just rode off into the distance with his bare face in the 90 MPH wind, knowing that he just kicked a Jap bike's *** into the dirt. Don't need no stinkin' helmet, Dont' need no stinkin' windshield, Don't need no stinkin' Sturgis, Don't need no stinkin' pathetic Jap bike. Now I know what it feels like to be a pre-pubescent sophomore in a high school locker room. :blushing: My old Connie, as gutless and top heavy as it was, would NEVER have allowed this to happen to me. 10 minutes and 5.4 gallons later (less than 26MPG if you're keeping track) I hit the road again, but never saw Harley Dude, and didn't try to catch him. My DL is my job, so risking 100+ MPH speeding tickets is simply out of the question for me. As I got closer to home the speed limits went down and my mileage got back up to nearly 40 MPG - I don't know if the plains states have **** gas or if the FJR just sucks up that much at higher speeds. I just know it sucked getting my *** kicked by a Harley. :skull: But I'll get over it..... :D

11. As we finished the ride home, I pondered the significance and Great Cosmic Meaning of the Great Harley *** Kicking Incident to my Motorcycling Karma. Was it retribution for all the times I out-rode Harleys on the Concours? Or were the Cosmic Motorcycling Gods punishing me for my lack of seat time this year? After arriving home with no tickets, no bike damage, nothing lost or stolen, and having dodged all the major thunderstorms we saw, I finally realized it happened for one simple reason - without this incident we would have had an absolutely PERFECT trip, and since nothing is perfect, the Great Harley *** Kicking Incident took place simply to ensure a lack of perfection.

Pride is a small price to pay for such a wonderful journey......

 
Nice report WJ. And about the HD dude, you really didn't get your rear kicked. Actually sounds like all you did was pull off for gas. Believe me I ride a HD as well and I don't care if he had a full face helmet with race faring on that hunk of iron, if you would have really showed him who was boss, there's no way he could cause you any problem so don't feel bad about the encounter. Really you won he was just a legend in his own mind. Just my $.02 peso's worth. PM. <><

 
Only 90mph?!?!?!

Dude. You should have smoked him.

Life on an FJR begins at 90.

I don't think we spoke at NAFO? Sorry I missed you.

 
Damn man, you must have gotten one of them HummerFJRs with that kind of gas mileage. I am at sea level and totally flat land here in cajun country, but at 75-85 cruising my '04 easily gets 40-43 mpg. If I keep her under 75, it is not uncommon to see mid to upper 40's.

The HD must have been near redline for him to catch up to you...

Jay

'04 FJR 1300

 
Only 90mph?!?!?!
Dude. You should have smoked him.

Life on an FJR begins at 90.

I don't think we spoke at NAFO? Sorry I missed you.
You're correct that in a top speed run, I most likely would have won. But since I was two-up and need to protect my driver's license to keep my job, I was looking to outlast him, not out race him.

I saw you at NAFO, and I too regret we didn't get a chance to chat a bit. Have to make a point to fix that on the next go-round :D

I think you better check your airfilter. At those speeds, you shouldn't be using that much gas.
I had the same thought - I'm defintely going to take a close look at it. I've already got a new replacement sitting on top of my tool cabinet. The current one has about 10K on it.

Damn man, you must have gotten one of them HummerFJRs with that kind of gas mileage. I am at sea level and totally flat land here in cajun country, but at 75-85 cruising my '04 easily gets 40-43 mpg. If I keep her under 75, it is not uncommon to see mid to upper 40's.
Normally, I get about 40MPG riding two up on the freeway at about 75 indicated, riding around Wisconsin and Minnesota. The super low mileage might have been **** gas, or maybe an airfilter/spark plug issue. Something I'll be looking into. Interesting to note that in the mountains of Colorado, riding at higher altitute and lower speeds, I was getting just over 50MPG!!

I've read in other threads about some FJR fuel maps being leaner than others, which to me accounts for some guys getting 45MPG while others average 40 - but I never thought I's see below 30. Anyway, it sure didn't spoil my ride, it was just one of those things that make you go "Hmmm..."

 
great story.. :) had kinda the same happen this spring..passed a gaggle of em , maybe 8-10 guys, spread out all over both lanes..just kept my normal +10-15 and rolled around them....2 came up behind me and sat there..Now I am no good at being the rabbit, so i did the pass the semi, pull in and nail it trick..the fjr whomped up to 240+kph, let her hum for a mile or so till nothing in sight, then continued on...bout 5 minutes later here they come...hahaaa..did it a few more times..took em about 5 to catch up every time....finally they eased up beside me, grinning like mad, so i slowly picked up the pace..see, i had a 02 flht with the stage one, and it would do maybe 180kph wound out forever, no more..so i led em up to that figuring to have some fun....soon the one fell away, but the other guy styed even..picked it up slowly to 200..wow..not bad..he hung right there..another little bit and he was done..musta had the big engine and toys..It did good!...but since i didnt need a ticket today and we were the only ones in sight on the trans canada in saskabush, , figured time to gett back to my normal..well he just kept on going! I could hear that thing barking ahead of me for miles..eventually his buddy went by, same thing,..a big smile and a lot of noise! they faded into the distance..I was amazed they were keeping it up at that speed for so long, as on the prairies I could see ahead for miles and caught a glimpse every now and then on a hill and they were still motoring!...anyway..about 20 minutes later i come around corner and they are sitting on the shoulder, one in a cloud of blue smoke....

Now not to make the typical harley blowup joke, but i figured they both shoulda by now..thats a long time running that engine to the bag...they did well...and I got a huge wave and 2 big grins as i went by...There is more..i stopped to eat another hr up the road, when i was leaving they pulled in and we had a laugh, seems he just blew a gasket out somewhere and lost a pile of oil,, no big deal..we had a good laugh and i went back to riding across that mind numbing %^%&^% prairie!

Always good to have a little fun on the road...especially when u know u can leave it behind any time u want to.... :)

thanks for reminding me!!

 
I call that one a "no contest." Don't feel bad about it. Now I hope you'll pardon me if I tell one of mine that might redeem the FJR brand a bit. Ran into a couple in all-BMW gear in a Montana rest stop. Talked for a while, they were both riding R1200's. He told me "when she decided to ride with me, we realized we'd want to buy a second one, and it HAD to be a BMW. After all, they're the best, right?" "Oh, ARE they?" I replied. "Wellllll. . . " All in good nature, of course.

So I left first and stopped for lunch shortly in Libbey, MT. Up the road after a while, tooling along, up comes the guy behind me, so we took turns leading a good paced ride up along Lake Koocanusa, a very nice road of gently climbing sweepers. After a while we came up on his wife, who'd apparently gone on ahead. I rode on by, expecting him to stay back with her, but instead he stays with me and gets on it a bit more. So I passed him, he passes me, and so on, till we came to a long stretch where you could see 3 or 4 miles up the road--all easy curves, still climbing, and zero traffic. He opens it right up and pulls on ahead, so I gave it the works. And just left him behind so bad it was funny. Must have been at least 20 miles ahead when I'd pulled in for gas and got talking to another guy who was heading back where I'd just come, so we were comparing the routes we could each expect. The BMW guy pulls into the station, doesn't stop, but slows enough to yell to me "Hey, I thought I was faster. Guess not" and rides off! Now man, that just made my day :yahoo:

 
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