This Freakin' bike....

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13 large children. Hey, Burns1.... Wanna know what's better than riding the FJR? Getting together with other FJR riders for a weekend. Or a week. And yeah. This freakin' bike....

 
Mine is a Gen 1 and it is a blast! I have put 14000 miles on her this since I picked her up the end of Feb. I love the sound of the jet engine winding up and feeling the wind rush by. Yesterday I finally went WOT at 15mph and it pulled the front wheel up off the pavement.

I ride with some people in a meet up group on weekends. One guy has a 1800cc Honda cruiser who kept eyeing my bike. At the end of the day he asked me to run against him so I said why not. I let him take off and get 30 feet in front before I took off. Caught up in 2 seconds, backed off and ran beside him, then looked at him and waved bye bye and all he saw was tail lights. Two weeks later he is bitching that there is no way my bike should beat him 0-50 because he has more low end torque......

When I am feeling bad about my wife leaving me I can get on Rachel and those feeling fade as I hit 3 gear, lol.

 
Burns, Compared to your 'other bikes', this is a MAJOR step toward the future.

I had a Honda 550, and the Connie .... but both were carbs, and heavy, and slow enough to keep me out of trouble (mostly).

I got the '03 FJR and NEVER stopped grinning! Now the '13 FJR is smoother and more polished, but Gen 1, 2, and 3 are ALL ACES!
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Not sure if the Gen I or III have the same sweet spot (gearing differences?) but I know, and have had others say also, that the bike really has a sweet spot at about 88-90, where it just wants to be there. It will creep up there when you don't expect it and runs very smooth at that point. So, yeah, it's really easy to speed on the FJR. Glad you're enjoying the bike!
That's how Pants and I ended up running 90-ish for miles and miles during our recent trip. Both our bikes are Gen3s and that spot at the start of the real power band seemed to be where they "naturally" settled into their stride. I'm convinced that we could have stayed at that speed until sunset and the bikes would have been happy.

 
Yea, I've learned to uncheck the "Show current speed" when laying tracks. I was testing Glympse once while taking my son to the balloon festival. I got a text from my wife thanking me for "Slowing down for the fun curve" that we hit on the interstate on the way in. I was like WTF? Went back and sure enough, there was my speed data. No more, I hide that stuff...not necessary anyway.
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I took my 2013 out for the first time and wasn't familiar yet with all the instrumentation. I'd just passed a car and was scooting along at a fun pace and looked down and there was a big "117" on the dash. My first though was what's that? Then Crap! That's the speedometer!
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I must have gotten the extra special limited edition FJR.

Check out my GPS indicated speed on a closed course Gravel road with MX tires...
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...oh and YMMV...hehe!

Cheers

Rod

 
...about that "sweet spot"... Yes, It seems every bike has one. My '03 FJRs have seemed to really settle in and smooth out - just effortless running - at 85-90, which makes sense given its lower gearing than Gen II or III. My XX Blackbird hit the zone around 95 + or - just everything perfectly calibrated at that speed - engine, trans, diveline, suspension, aerodynamics... I found many opportunities to cruise in that sweet spot, one of the advantages of living in the west.

 
Just passed the first year with my brand new -12. A bit over 9K miles. The VFR I had before this was the best bike I had ever owned. Not any more. Once I got used to the weight and changed the tires, this bike handles almost as well and is way more comfortable and faster too. The only little thing left that bugged me was the sticky clutch and last oil change I fixed that. I read the reviews and wonder how spoiled you must be to find anything to complain about. I sat on one of the big touring oriented ADV bikes before I bought this. No way. Those guys at Cycle World that thought a Ducati Multistrada was the best touring bike of the year probably never rode one day after day in all kinds of weather. Those things are too tall for their real mission and have seriously skimpy wind protection. My touring buddy rides a Triumph Tiger 1050 and it is fun to ride but on a cold and/or rainy day, no way I would swap bikes with him.

 
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The FJR is made to make crossing west Texas much less painful...so that you can find that the FJR was made for Colorado.
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Thanks for posting! I couldn't agree with you more! Got my 07 a year ago with 5k on it from the original owner and just turned 20k today! The riding season here is almost over but I got in a great one today. Only thing to complain about is all the leaf peeping traffic on The Kancamangus Highway this afternoon. I get the feeling I am invisible on this bike though because I have only been stopped once at 20+ over and was let go w/o a ticket. Yesterday I passed a trooper at 75 in a 50 and... nothing. This bike is way too much fun and inspires so much confidence at speed. Ten minute oil changes are really nice too!

So why was I on cycletrader the other night into the wee hours looking at 2014 &2015's?

 
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