After much shopping, reading and such, I ended up buying an '07 FJR that was a trade-in at a dealership about 50 miles from here. I'm still smiling after the ride home (even though it's in the 90's here and I go ATGATT).
In my quest for a nice sport tourer to replace my '01 Tiger (which will become my son's ride once I'm confident he can handle it), I looked at and rode several bikes. First was a friend's '05 FJR (he's not selling it--just let me try it out), then a new C-14, an '04 R1150RT, two different K1200GTs (an '06 and an '03) and then finally an '07 FJR with almost 15K miles. It was a close call between the FJR and the '03 K1200GT, both of which I liked very much. What clinched it for me was the fact that the FJR (which was $1000 more) has a Y.E.S. warranty until 05/12, a factory top case, and I have a Yamaha dealer 2-3 mile from the house (compared to the nearest BMW dealer 90 miles away).
I'm sure I'll be around plenty asking stupid noobish questions and trying to gain as much knowledge as I can about this excellent cycle. I like to do a lot of my own wrenching (to a point), so it should be fun to learn about how to do the service and such on the FJ as well. Immediate mods I'm planning will be risers, a Cee Bailey touring screen (I'm 6'2") and some type of throttle device like a Tourmeister or something.
In my quest for a nice sport tourer to replace my '01 Tiger (which will become my son's ride once I'm confident he can handle it), I looked at and rode several bikes. First was a friend's '05 FJR (he's not selling it--just let me try it out), then a new C-14, an '04 R1150RT, two different K1200GTs (an '06 and an '03) and then finally an '07 FJR with almost 15K miles. It was a close call between the FJR and the '03 K1200GT, both of which I liked very much. What clinched it for me was the fact that the FJR (which was $1000 more) has a Y.E.S. warranty until 05/12, a factory top case, and I have a Yamaha dealer 2-3 mile from the house (compared to the nearest BMW dealer 90 miles away).
I'm sure I'll be around plenty asking stupid noobish questions and trying to gain as much knowledge as I can about this excellent cycle. I like to do a lot of my own wrenching (to a point), so it should be fun to learn about how to do the service and such on the FJ as well. Immediate mods I'm planning will be risers, a Cee Bailey touring screen (I'm 6'2") and some type of throttle device like a Tourmeister or something.