The FJR can't cruise

[krouske]

Why did you not pass the Harleys? The will relentlessly speed up for awhile then slow down for awhile. The FJR just wants to speed up. Slowing down is hard on it.

KR

 

[James Burleigh]

I know what you are talking about. Most hd people don't ride. They putt around...the highway at 50mph.

When I bought my first bike, a Harley Sportster, I did a group ride and all. But fundamentally I realized that my riding style was not to putt along at 50 MPH in the no. 3 lane of the freeway (or sometimes in the no. 1 lane) with cars tailgating and flying past me from all directions. I realized I liked to be moving fluidly at slightly more than the average speed of traffic. That's where I felt / feel safe. That's also my fun sweet spot. Cruising like a car ain't riding IMHO. So I traded up for a sickle with the performance characteristics suited to my style.

Jb

 

[PTINSTRUCTOR]

I know what you are talking about. Most hd people don't ride. They putt around. Once on a ride with my wife and other hd riders my wife splits off and I stop her and ask her what's up? She says she might as well be home sitting in front of a fan for all the fun she is having putting along the highway at 50mph. What I ended up doing was finding a sport bike group and riding with them. It takes me an hour to meet up with them but at least they ride, both distance and speed. Find some additional friends/riders or you will not enjoy the excellent bike you bought. Everett ps semper fi

Exactly! We moved to the Albuquerque area. Went to the Harley dealer to get our free bags (nice) for riding a Buell. Got an invitation to join the local BMW group by a couple...one on a Suzuki the other on a Honda (?????) Turns out the Albuquerque BMW group is made up of all types of bikes and riders. Really love it. Early Sunday morning breakfast, ride over to a neat little coffee shope (run by an ex Navy Seal), form a ride with someone going where you wanna go, and then spend the rest of the day exploring mountains! Plus, at the coffee shop, you can see all forms of motorcycles...exotic, expensive, old and fast...there are some of each.

Hey, yesterday my wife and I got to go on a 400+ miler, in the mountains, with the winner of the 2001 Iron Butt(I'm impressed with those guys). We "CRUISED" the mountains of northern New Mexico, only at a pace your wife would love. FJR heaven!

Asked him why he didn't ever stop to go to the bathroom. Said he didn't like water...never drinks it so he doesn't have to stop. Also carrys his "camping gear" where ever he goes. A WalMart berber throw rug and a kiddie pillow. Says that those and a concrete rest area picnic bench is all he needs for the night. Iron Butt riders are really different (but not as strange as Harley Riders).

And Semper Fi back!

 

[cyoungmo]

I find it really fun to blow my brother away on his heritage, then wait, let him get way ahead, blow by again (sometimes on the back wheel) and just keep doing that. I am going to try this method with a larger group of HD guys from work soon, hope it is as much fun. I tend to do the same offroad with my 650 v-twin. Some of the other guys whine about me roosting them, passing them, doing donuts, jumping, riding wheelies. I am not sure why they ride, could go that slow on my couch!

 

[heretic]

Never had a Harley, so I never learned to cruise. Although I enjoy riding with my cruiser buddies sometimes, I perfer to take week long trips solo. Within the last 2 weeks, however, I met women on a) an ST1300, B) a BMW RT1100, and c) a Ducati up in the canyons outside of Ogden, UT. I'm beginning to like riding with friends now that more of them are of the opposite gender and are riding bikes that are built for riding.

 

[krashdragon]

Funny about the going Under the speed limit...

When I lived in Hawaii, the gals I rode wit had about half cruisers and half sport bikes. I actually bought my Suzuki Banidt for days we would be doing twisty type rides, sort of.... and we generally rode a bit above the speed limit just to keep the cars off our tail... 25 to 30 gals all riding together kinda draw attention, tho...<G>

A group of us flew to Vegas, rented Harleys and my friend from Vegas (she has a hot pink-magneta Road King) took us on a great ride for a day. Only about 350 miles, but that's twice as far as we could ride on O'ahu... it's a small island. Cruised about 85-90.... nice ride.... There were ten of us ladies... guess that's why the radar cop sittin out in the middle of nowhere didn't bother to stop us....

Ran from Vegas over the Hoover Dam to Cloride for breakfast in a cool little bar, over Rt 66 to Oatman, with the obligatory tourist pics and shopping and back to Vegas. And a slight detour just over the border in Cali just to say we'd been there.

I'd sure like to do the Rt 66 bit from Kingman to Oatman again on something like the FJR... pretty fun!

Mary

 

[heretic]

The FJR can cruise. While experimenting with altitude surging in the mountains today, I had several occasions to ride through snow showers and on slick roads. When the surging is not present, throttle control is very smooth and it is possible to make very fine adjustments in acceleration. The problem is that it does not take much change in altitude to cause some degree of surging, giving that on or off feeling like a pipey 2 stroke.

Today's ride was eye opening. There doesn't appear to be any altitude threshold where surging starts. It just creeps up on you slowly, until, at some point, the surging becomes a PITA. It wasn't until I learned how to make it stop, that I realized:

a) The surging is almost always there on mountain roads, to some extent, even if there is only a few hundred feet of altitude change.

B) It is preventing smooth, fine, throttle response long before you notice it. The surging was so mild at some times, I didn't really notice it until I forced an ECM reset. The subsequent change to much smoother response was definitely noticeable.

c) My fingers are still frozen. I'm asking Santa for heated grips.