Ok, now MY first impressions...

[swingman3]

Alright, I picked up my "new" '05 today. 2300 (yes, that's correct - 2300) miles, handle-bar risers, grip-puppies, Vista Cruise, left-side heat mod completed by last owner. Love the bike, and I only rode it about 50 miles today (home, then around neighborhood a few times to show it off). Anyway, holy CRAP! does this bike throw off some serious heat. I mean, my god, it's hot as balls, so I've got to figure that out. I thought my nuts were gonna spontaneously combust. I plan on getting the gas-tank insulator blanket thingy on eBay for 30 clams, then I'll investigate the right-side heat mod. I'll admit, after reading this board for about a week and hearing all the complaints about the heat, I thought to myself, "ah, it can't be that bad at speed". Was I wrong and you were all right.

Also, I'm not totally thrilled yet with my wrist position, but I'll play around and figure that out. Believe it or not, my most comfortable bike (wrist-wise) is my 99 Suzuki Bandit S. Completely natural wrist-position and light throttle spring = hours of comfortable riding, even without a throttle lock.

All other expected praise applies. Do I have to go on and on about how smooth and powerful this thing is? Or how my butt just melts into the seat? Although, again, I gotta give props to the Bandit. I did 550 miles in a day, twice, including riding the Dragon at Deal's Gap about six times and I only had moderate monkey butt but no body stiffness after over 12 hours in the seat.

Ah, but I digress. Bottom line, Yahama did a great job with this machine. I did notice the low-pressure system forming in my lap at high speed with the windshield up. And there are about a dozen of the plastic push-pin thingys missing off the bike making the plastic rattle a little. But these are minor, and correctable complaints. Gotta fix the heat issue, though.

Maybe cause it's as hot as the sun here in Charleston, SC? Nah, gotta fix the heat issue.

Peace. Swingman Sends

 

[BrunDog]

Fuckin' A!! You mean someone beat my record?? Gotta slow down...

-BD

 

[odot]

Sorry, brun.......all records are meant to be broken.....or is that rules?

Swing, I never noticed the heat till all the whineygash criers complained about it when I joined this site. What kind of pants you wearing? Hope you ain't wearin cut off jeans. My leathers deflect the heat quite nicely.

 

[Calimus]

Glad to see you love the bike. Congratz on the super low miles. I thought I was doing pretty damn good when I picked up my 05' in June with only 8,600 miles. As for the heat issues, first thing, put the windscreen all the way down. When it's up, it pulls the hot air from under the tank and directs it right to the nut yard. If you have the stock screen, having it down may not help much, in that case, I reccomend the CeeBailey sport screen. It's designed for the warmer climates and keeps a nice steady flow of air right to my chest and helemt vents.

However, on slower roads and sititng in traffic, there isn't much I can say that you haven't already found out. I also need to invest in the tank insulation. The heat from the side vents doesn't really bother me as my last bike was a Vmax and so I'm very used to having the flame throwing motor right next to my legs an inncedently, the rear bank of cylinders right under my boys. Now thats a damn hot ride in 100f heat.

If you are sitting in traffic that isn't really moving, like when you are sitting in line at a traffic light and you know you won't make the next light cycle, I've found shutting the bike off via the key and then putting the key in the on position works well to tame some of the heat. By putting the key back in the on position and leave the kill switch in run, the only draw on the battery is to the running lights. By using th key to cycle the power, you cut the power to the headlights and the bike starts nice and quick when your ready to move again.

I don't know if that would work well if you have several lights to pass through, but I only have one PITA light on my way home and I've found by using that method that the twins don't end up broiled.

Hope some of that helps

 

[FuzzyRider]

swingman - nice find on such a new bike with such low miles. Heck, I got my FJR 8 weeks ago and I already have 4500 miles on it. You'll love the bike - just search through the forum and you'll find a lot of ways to fix and deal with the heat.

 

[evilmedic13]

Swing, I never noticed the heat till all the whineygash criers complained about it when I joined this site. What kind of pants you wearing? Hope you ain't wearin cut off jeans. My leathers deflect the heat quite nicely.

Gunny on that!

When I had her I rode w/ gear into weather where it was supposedly in the 100+ heat indexes w/o a problem. The only thing I did was get a seat that got he boys away from the tank and that made the only difference I needed. Coming off a Bandit to this is nice, just remember the bodywork tends to keep some heat whereas the naked bike dissipated it while moving pretty nicely. Plus, I liked the heat when it got below 40 alot, and it kept me comfy when temps went to 60's. If it got too hot I would just stick my knees out and nature would provide some venting for free.

I had some idiot a while complain to me how his was soooooooo hot in the summer I figured maybe something was bad on the bike, until he told me he wore shorts :glare: . Basically told him to wear pants or a Tampon, pussy!

 

[Mr. Underhill]

I did the Ebay $30 tank blanket the other day, put it on in 20 min. I have noticed that it still gets pretty dang hot when it gets low, so I try to fill up at 1/3 tank. Seems to help quite a bit with the tank full, but even then still gets pretty warm around the bottom edges of the tank after 30 min or so.

Getting ready to do the left side mod myself, and was wondering if the panel that Chromit recommended removing after installing the metal piece is still on your bike. Reason I ask is that I saw a few posts where the mod was done but the plastic was getting left in place for aesthetics. He seemed pretty adamant in his posts to leave it off the bike or the heat would not get vented right however, so I am going to take the sucker off.

Good luck!

 

[C&C]

Another Charlestonian here (actually Mount Pleasantite). My '04 is hot as well but yesterdays ride was Downtown (road temp. 104, humidity very high and quite a lot of slow speeds and stop and go) so there's no bike that's going to be cool or for that matter too much less hot. I have a tank insulator on mine as well but eventually the tank is going to get warm (nay I say hot) and the heat just slowly (okay fairly quickly) begins to wear you out.

Congrats on the bike, and remember, at least the summer is about half over.

 

[tmassey]

Move to Maine. It never gets hot here.

 

[FJRMGM]

+1 --- this piece MUST come out for the Cromeit heat fix to really work. ---"was wondering if the panel that Chromit recommended removing after installing the metal piece is still on your bike. Reason I ask is that I saw a few posts where the mod was done but the plastic was getting left in place for aesthetics. He seemed pretty adamant in his posts to leave it off the bike or the heat would not get vented right however"