seduced by the FJR

[Chris Prior]

I am not a new rider, but am new to the FJR. My previous bikes include Harley, 03 Goldwing and a couple of Coucours. Having seriously flogged my last Concours, I have some muscle memory that does not relate to the FJR. PLEASE, be careful with all power (that was for me, not for you). I set up and came into a decreasing radius right hander, where in the past, I roll on and gain stability in the apex. There is an immediate decreasing radius left hander that follows with kind of a nasty granite wall that lines the outside of the corner. I know that it is hard to believe, but the roll on that increased my velocity by about 3-7 miles per hours on the Conours, increased my speed on the FJR ( I have put 300 miles on the bike) significantly more. Realizing quicklly that I would not make the corner, I stood it up and did hard in line braking. Thank goodness that the brakes are much better than the Concours. I hauled it down, and did one of those "Laugh In" (yes, I'm old too) tip overs in the wet 6-8inch sand along the road. The sand grabbed the front tire and locked it left, and down I went. No damage, as the bike fell in the wet deep sand. Yes, I kissed the bike, and the ground, and now have a tempered throttle wrist as I am watchful of the seductive speed and power of the FJR. : I am hoping to become worthy.

Well fellow Coloradoan I glad you are hear to share the story. The FJR is a lot of bike to rip through the twisty turns. A great ride in our state is from Boulder to Grand Lake via Rocky Mtn. National Park. Go early in the morning before the RVs and Park rangers are rolling. Beautiful and fun. Spend the night in Grand Lake and come back the next day.

Chris

 

[Steel]

I hauled it down, and did one of those "Laugh In" tip overs in the wet 6-8inch sand

:lol:

 

[Fred W]

chicken strip,

Congrats on the successful save. One thing that you may find with added saddle time on your new bike is that the FJR is also a pretty darn capable turning motorcycle. That corner that you thought that you couldn't make, most likely influenced by your recent Concours riding experience (I had one too), may very well have been just fine on the Feejer. You have to learn to trust the bike and the tires and, as the popular mantra on this forum goes, "ride the bike".

I would say there are a lot more one bike accidents that occur from panic situations where the rider thinks they can't make it, straightening up and hammering the brakes, but ending up off road anyway, than people who low side because they ran out of clearance. I'm not saying that I would have reacted any differently. And clearly I wasn't there so maybe my assumption about the corner is wrong. I'm just saying that this it is one thing to try to keep in the back of your mind.

 

[PhilMills]

. A great ride in our state is from Boulder to Grand Lake via Rocky Mtn. National Park. Go early in the morning before the RVs and Park rangers are rolling. Beautiful and fun. Spend the night in Grand Lake and come back the next day.

As soon as Trail Ridge opens up (and decides it's not going to dump a foot of snow on me while I'm there) that's one of my planned rides ('cept through Loveland and US-34). The heated grips on my AE is going to make that a lot more pleasant for as early as I get up there.

 

[mophead]

I live in Fayetteville, AR and bought my FJR from a man in Houston, TX. I flew (by jet) down and rode the bike back. The seller picked me up at the airport. On the ride to his house he warned me than I had to be careful about speeding. He said that the FJR will run up on 100 without any special effect by me. I LMAO and told him I rarely rode over 70 on my VStar 1100 and he need not worry. He was kind and dropped the subject and only as I was leaving his house did he say again "Be careful, she'll be doing a 100 before you know it". I smiled and thought "No way". Well guess what... I found out he was absolutely right! It was the hottest day of the year. It was 105 when I hit Dallas and then it got hot in OK. Sooooooo I leanered that the FJR will cruise quite nicely at 100+ MPH. The off ramps is where I learned that I had to adjust my style (not that I really had one then). That's when I learn that the FJR's brakes where as good at stopping/slowing down as the rest of the bike was at going fast. WHAT A RUSH and it still is
Rick

You live in a damn fine place to ride an FJR or anything else for that matter. Ever go up in SW Mizzou?

 

[fjrb0]

As Fred W said, the bike is a better bike than 90% are as riders, keep looking where you want to go, and RIDE IT!!!

Two stories, from when I picked my bike up at D&H and rode it home. Garould and I were talking about the break-in period. He told me to take it slow for the first couple of hundred miles, not so much for the bike's health, as for mine. I was coming off an old GL1500, and this was a radical departure from that riding style. As he put it, break myself into the bike, while I'm breaking the bike in...

Second story, one of my best friends and riders, rode his CBR down to meet up with me in Southern AR to ride back with me. I let him ride the new baby, and we were having a blast. Harley Rally that weekend in Hot Springs, so about a 100 bikes parked in Mt Ida. HO decides he is going to show them a real burn out on the FJR, revs it up pretty good, drops the clutch, and all hell breaks loose. Not exactly what he wanted, the bike launched straight up, I swear the bike tire came a foot off the ground when he dropped the clutch it grabbed that well. As he came back down to earth, he hit the throttle rest I had on it, and it launched for number 2 in the monkey rodeo. If I hadn't been scared to death he was going to drop it, it would have been funny. But he kept it up, rode around the next curve, and parked it. You should have seen the size of his eyes inside his helmet.

Sorry for the hi-jack, but everytime I hear of new FJR rider, I think about the advice Garould gave me, and the monkey rodeo show HO put on for the H-D riders.

 

[Lone12]

I remember the same power jolt when I went from my Honda Nighthawk 700 to the ZZR1200.

My father and I were taking his Goldwing to the shop and he somehow convinced me that we would ride two up and I could take him back to the house. Since the ZZR was only about 5 days old at that point, and the weather was perfect, I think I said yes, just so I could ride it more.

Once we dropped the Goldwing off we went two up and started for home, I was driving. My dad's about 6'6" and 275lbs, and I'm 5'10" and 160lbs. We merged on to the interstate and of course a dump truck is right in from of us as we're trying to merge, and traffic is pretty steady on the fast lane. <_<

I merged behind the dump truck (cursing the whole time thinking of all the lovely rocks that were now pelting us and the new bike) and them proceeded to check my mirrors and blind spot for the first opportunity to merge. I found it at last. I knew from my past tenure on the 700 that I would need to give a little more throttle than normal since I was 2 up. (Not to mention my passenger was much, much bigger that I was use to riding with.) So I goosed the throttle and the ZZR took off! I was already in a lean so I didn't need to worry about kissing the back corner of the dump truck and I was amazed at the power that the bike had, and how quickly we accelerated.

I was in love instantly with my new found power and ability to accelerate at the drop of a hat... There was only one problem... I noticed something coming into my peripheral vision that looked surprisingly like my dad's shoes. :blink: I moved my eyes, and sure enough they were my dads shoes and legs. As if in slow motion, his feet continued above my head. My dad hadn't quite prepared himself enough for the quick acceleration, much less how naive I was to the power that I had recently acquired from my 700. I distinctly remember thinking that I had just thrown my father off my bike. I immediately let off a little from the throttle (not wanting him to slam back into me from the decel ) and felt his weight begin to shift back toward me, saw his feet passing back down beside my head, and I realized that he was still with me. At this point I started laughing at what a site it must have been for the car behind us, seeing that everything turned out alright. We were laughing pretty hard about it once we got home.

Just a good lesson to me that not only does the driver need to be aware of the power, but the passenger as well.

Be safe out there!

 

[playgtar]

I feel ya. Came from a Honda Shadow 750. It's like night and being shot out of a cannon.
Oh, and the 'busa would be less like cruise missile and more like NCC-1701 going from full impulse to warp 7.

(Holy s***, did I just nerd out on a MC forum????)

I too came from a Honda 750 Shadow. The power of the FJR is awesome........and seductive!

 

[petercwelch]

Ditto the throttle rocker. Works great for fine throttle control. I have a power commander that smooths the throttle response on my 06 FJRA