Didn’t mean for this to sound like a whine & cheese or a rant, just what it is, observations from *my* perspective after a long weekend trip. I've been riding for 40 odd years. I’m not a high mileage rider. I usually ride ~7500 miles a year, most of it local. My longer distance rides generally consist of a 600 mile weekend (last year on a hardtail chopper) and a ~2K weekend. I’ve owned this bike for ~ a year and it has become the hands down winner of the “which key” contest. The FJR has turned into the primary two wheeled vehicle of the fleet.
Maybe I’m a little obsessive compulsive, but things that don’t rate a second thought on short hops begin to dig in after 10-12 hours in the saddle. The turn signals are in that category because in my normal riding I seldom use them on this bike, my other bike, or any other vehicle. That’s just a perk of where I live and ride. I only signal when there’s someone to see it (I know, bad habit) and on this trip (to the Ohio Northeast Coast) there were plenty of folks that I wanted to see my signals. And being this is the first bike I’ve owned in the last ten years without some form of self cancel they got left on a bit more than I would like. Operator error? Sure. Engineering issues? A matter of opinion.
The bags have been a pain from the word go. That said, I knew that I wouldn’t like them before I bought the FJR, but I still bought it. I like the bike, but still don’t like the bags. Some people say I just like to ***** and accuse me of creating problems to ***** about. That argument may have some merit. I’ve had other bikes with side openers, didn’t care for those either. I use my bags a lot, they are both opened a minimum of twice a day for every day ridden to work and countless times on other longer rides. I realize there are work arounds. If I could find a small, sexy top box this would be a moot point. I have considered building a small box to my specs. As I’ve grown older, saddle bags/top boxes have become my MC man purse. I gotta have ‘em and they’re always full of little stuff ya can’t live without. Just a random thought along a similar line, I’ve never owned a retired cop bike, but bags you could open and access from the riders seat would really be cats ***.
Heat is well, hot. What ya gonna do? Yeah, call me a puss. Yeah, big engines make big heat. This is not my first large displacement bike. I’ve ridden/owned air cooled, air/oil cooled, and water cooled. It’s an issue with them all; it’s not an FJR exclusive. It doesn’t make much difference what you ride if you ride all day and it’s ~100 degrees F, you’re gonna get hot at some point. I think that due to the good frontal protection provided by the FJR there is a trade off of sorts, plus the adjustment of the windshield is a factor. Like 64Y80 said, the lower leg heat soak is noticeable on longer rides; I hadn’t experienced this up till now. Up till around noon I didn’t notice it, but later in the day it did become a comfort factor.
Something I didn’t mention that did please me was the level of rain protection. I went through a 10 mile or so shower at 70 mph and the only thing that got noticeably wet was the toe of my boots. That was a first.
I had a good trip on a good bike. I covered a lot of miles in a short time and was able to walk away in one piece. I’ve never ridden the perfect bike so I don’t think I’ll scrap out the FJR just yet.
Oh yeah, that crack about the Gold Wing was just plain mean. If it comes to that, I’d much rather have a Miata.
