Peg Grinding....

[GeorgiaRoller]

I went for a ride with a friend of mine on Saturday out on the winding country backroads down to Columbus, GA. He rides a Suzuki GSXR-750 and is a good rider. I feel I'm a safe rider, I don't take risks, I try to ride within my ability and the road conditions and I prefer to err on the side of caution. That being said I like to twist the throttle in the curves and power through them. I try to work on my riding lines and use proper technique and I pride myself on staying away from the centerline and staying in my lane at all times.

So I led most of the route but I waved him in front of me on a particularly twisty section of road we both know. We were riding pretty hard and I was staying with him on my new FJR. However in the tighter curves I dragged my left side peg on 3 occasions and my right side peg on 1 occasion. I just found out by measureing my bog bones that I do in fact have stock length bones and so my bike has not been lowered. I was kind of surprised that I dragged my pegs. He pulled away from me in the section because he's on a Gixxer and of course he's not scrapping at all.

Coming from a M109R I scrapped all the time in the curves and it got old. The FJR is sooooo much easier to ride in the curves, I can ride at a faster pace yet I feel it's actually at a safer and more confident pace, it has much better lean angle than my previous bike and is much, much more agile. So overall I'm very impressed with the handling of the FJR. It's truly a pleasure to ride. But it's not a true sportbike. Not that I thought that it was, and I certainly dont want a sportbike.

The FJR to me is the perfect balance of power, handling, performance, cornering....yet it also has comfort & storage. If on a riding perforamce scale of 1 to 10 I'd rate the M109R as a 5 the GSXR sportbike as a 10 and the FJR would rate as an 8. If you have to have one bike that does it all I think I made the right purchase on the FJR. It's not quite as fast & nimble as a GSXR (yet it's fairly close and it's 10 times more comfortable) but yet it's quite a bit better than the M109R in all performance categories and it's even slightly more comfortable than that high performance muscle "cruiser".

But apparently my peg grinding days aren't totally dead.

 

[SaharaJp99]

Fun isn't it? If you don't want to grind them hang your butt off the seat! Short of dragging a knee I think it'd be pretty hard to scrap them if you are moving around on the bike.

 

[madmike2]

1) Did you have the rear shock set on "hard"?

That may have helped.

2) How many miles on the '05? If you have over 15K. it's time to think about replacing the rear shock and that will make a huge difference.

3) How much preload on the forks? And when were they serviced last?

These seem like little things....

 

[kolonial72]

1) Did you have the rear shock set on "hard"?

That may have helped.

2) How many miles on the '05? If you have over 15K. it's time to think about replacing the rear shock and that will make a huge difference.

3) How much preload on the forks? And when were they serviced last?

These seem like little things....

Agreed. After replacing the 27k stock rear shock with an Ohlins, I can take the 05 through twisties faster with more ground clearance and a more solid feel. I can only imagine what new front springs (etc.) are going to feel like next year.

 

[GeorgiaRoller]

1) Did you have the rear shock set on "hard"?

That may have helped.

2) How many miles on the '05? If you have over 15K. it's time to think about replacing the rear shock and that will make a huge difference.

3) How much preload on the forks? And when were they serviced last?

These seem like little things....

1) I was riding on "soft" mode but will ride on "hard" mode if I'm doing more aggressive riding in the twisties from now on.

2) 4000 miles on the bike right now.

3) It was on 4 and I just tightened it to 2 tonight. Again the bike only has 4,000 miles on it and I've had it one week and only had time to but about 300 miles on it myself so far.

 

[GeorgiaRoller]

Well I made the above changes and rode the mountains on Saturday. I realize now by looking at the location of the pegs on this bike that quite honestly their about the same height as my old cruiser. The only difference is that the are moved back and they don't stick out quit as far, but the ground clearance is about the same. So with that being said it's much easier to grind the pegs than I was hoping for. Looking at the peg location of my friends GXSR-600 that was riding with me his pegs are much higher and farther back and of course he never scrapes on the sportbike. I guess I'm a little disappointed that they scrape when riding hard in the twisties. But the comfort of the FJR foot position compared to a sportbike is much greater so I guess you can't have everything! :glare:

Overall the bike performed very well. I rode 2up with my wife and she loved how it felt back their compared to my old cruiser and she liked using the hand holds especially. She said it was very smooth and much easier on her knees when we ride faster in the twisties on the FJR compared to my old M109R so the comfort factor along with decent handling was nice.

I think the FJR is a good overall combination, but if you want pure performance & handling for technical twisties stick with a sportbike. To me the FJR is built perfectly more so for high speed sweepers like the Cherohala Skyway. It also is great on the interstate with the adjustable windscreen and the power to pass vehicles. Riding at 75-80mph is a breeze on this bike.

Lastly I adjusted the front preload/dampening/rebound back closer to stock because I was feeling every bump in the road. At least now I have a feel for the difference and can adjust it accordingly.

 

[phroenips]

Come Unglued (from the seat)

 

[MEM]

Come Unglued (from the seat)

Good article. I've changed my riding style from leaning to more 'coming unglued' (from the seat).

A lot less scraping and you can see the difference on my tires

 

[GeorgiaRoller]

Good article. I can definitely work on this!!! Thanks for sharing!

 

[dcarver]

FWIW, I used to drag pegs all the time. A trip to GP Suspension for new inner forkages and Penske 3 way rear have eliminated peg scraping unless I just wanna show off. Seriously, the best money I've spent on the fjr is suspension..

 

[allrider]

Good article. I can definitely work on this!!! Thanks for sharing!

Dave Houghs one of the foremost authorities on riding and i highly recommend all his books on "Proficient Motorcycling."

Great winter reading to keep your mind in the game.

 

[rogdeb]

FWIW, I used to drag pegs all the time. A trip to GP Suspension for new inner forkages and Penske 3 way rear have eliminated peg scraping unless I just wanna show off. Seriously, the best money I've spent on the fjr is suspension..

Ditto

Grinding pegs was common for us (2-up 99%) until I got aftermarket suspension installed -- HyperPro. Money very well spent.