AZrider
Well-known member
I had a meeting in North Hollywood and Mojave Airport (Scaled Composites). Anyhow I rode the FJR there on Thursday talked to the peeps at Global Effects in North Hollywood, then rode out to Mojave Airport for a meeting with Scaled Comp folks.
Here's some pics: https://www.flickr.com/photos/azrider/sets/72157600334189007/
The ride out on Thursday was cool in the mid 80's. The only thing that bothered me was my butt. I had to stop about every 100 miles to rest it even though the bike could go 200 miles. I stopped in Tucson and bought a "Camelback" for water. Overall the ride out was great in spite of having to rest my backside. The Vista throttle lock worked really well and I can't imagine riding any distance without some way to rest my throttle hand. The ride through L.A. was like "death race 2000" and if you don't like wrapping the throttle don't ride the freeways there. Cars sit off you rear fender and just want to watch your "6" or maybe pace you in the next lane at 85mph as your "wingman". I was born and raised in SoCal and it's not the city I knew years back; fast, fast culture with no fear. :angry2:
I arrived in Burbank and faced some future shock. There were 6 black and whites (red/blue lights flashing) with perps handcuffed and sitting on the curb. When I checked into my hotel one of the employees told me "welcome to Burbank, there was a shooting here last night." and then grinned. I guess he must have seen the look on my face when I walked from my bike into the lobby. Burbank sure as hell has changed. There used to be numerous small machine shops and electronics companies that supported Lockheed Aircraft when it was in Burbank. Now all those have been replaced by zapaterias and body shops; L.A. is like "Blade Runner" on burritos.
The next day I rode over to Global Effects and met Chris, an extremely talented artist that makes special effects for the movies. If you saw "Apollo 13" then you saw the space suits and other props. These guys had room after room of Greek armor, Japanese Samurai swords and costumes. The ones for "The Last Shogun" were all there. It was a really neat place to visit and was my first stop.
After GE I got on the FJ and rode out to the Mojave airport to talk to Scaled Composites and Xcore. The sign reads "Mojave Airport/Spaceport". The ride out on Hwy 14 was the best yet. There was almost no traffic at noon on a Friday (the "get out of L.A." wave starts at about 3:00PM) and I held the FJR to about 90-95 in the HOV lane almost all the way out. The curves at that speed were amazing and the bike loved it. I never saw one LEO. After looking at the engine test area we had dinner and then I headed for my son's house in Crestline. I made the mistake of taking Hwy 138 in Palmdale and fighting traffic all the way over to the Cajon Pass, there's a lot of contruction and so it was slow going. I took the twisty back road up to Crestline in the dark and really could have used some daylight to help me in the curves in the dark. It also dropped from 85F in Mojave to 55F in Crestline and here's where the mysterious fuel injection problem started. The PC-III or the FJR fuel injection system just didn't like the fact that I had gone from near sea level to 4500 feet and a temperature differential of 30 degrees. The bike just stalled coming out of the turns and then all of a sudden the engine would "catch" and I found myself wondering if I was going to spend a cold night on the backside of the San Bernardino mountains, not a comforting thought. I made it to my son's house and spent the night.
The next morning after breakfast I headed down the mountain on the Rim of the World highway and about half way down the mountain the temp had dropped from 70F to 55F and by gosh the bike started getting those flat spots in the throttle again. I remember reading on this site about a woman having the same problem riding East and climbing in altitude, but here I was losing altitude and the temperature falling (inversion layer) and I was having throttle problems. If I hadn't read about her problems I would have guessed at a bad tank of gas. After getting off the mountain the bike ran pretty good until I was near Palm Springs (lower altitude again) and the bike did a one time only hesitation and then I never had any more events with the bike.
Crossing back into Arizona the temperature kept climbing until it got to 107F in Phoenix, wow!. The bike itself was a cool ride but the outside temperature had me drinking water continually out of my Camelback and stopping to rest my sore butt about every 100 miles.
After climbing up outside of Tucson it was great to be back up in the cool mountain air and home. I am thinking about WFO-6 but need to look into a better seat, maybe the Yamaha comfort seat or something. It was a great decision to take the bike in spite of everyone telling me that I was crazy to ride the bike instead of taking my truck with A/C and cruise control not to mention a soft seat.
I don't think I'm Iron Butt material because after the 600 mile one way ride my backside was too sore to think of 1000 miles! But I enjoyed meeting other riders and talking to people at rest stops. It's amazing how people will come up to you and ask you questions, where are you going or where are you from?
AZ
Here's some pics: https://www.flickr.com/photos/azrider/sets/72157600334189007/
The ride out on Thursday was cool in the mid 80's. The only thing that bothered me was my butt. I had to stop about every 100 miles to rest it even though the bike could go 200 miles. I stopped in Tucson and bought a "Camelback" for water. Overall the ride out was great in spite of having to rest my backside. The Vista throttle lock worked really well and I can't imagine riding any distance without some way to rest my throttle hand. The ride through L.A. was like "death race 2000" and if you don't like wrapping the throttle don't ride the freeways there. Cars sit off you rear fender and just want to watch your "6" or maybe pace you in the next lane at 85mph as your "wingman". I was born and raised in SoCal and it's not the city I knew years back; fast, fast culture with no fear. :angry2:
I arrived in Burbank and faced some future shock. There were 6 black and whites (red/blue lights flashing) with perps handcuffed and sitting on the curb. When I checked into my hotel one of the employees told me "welcome to Burbank, there was a shooting here last night." and then grinned. I guess he must have seen the look on my face when I walked from my bike into the lobby. Burbank sure as hell has changed. There used to be numerous small machine shops and electronics companies that supported Lockheed Aircraft when it was in Burbank. Now all those have been replaced by zapaterias and body shops; L.A. is like "Blade Runner" on burritos.
The next day I rode over to Global Effects and met Chris, an extremely talented artist that makes special effects for the movies. If you saw "Apollo 13" then you saw the space suits and other props. These guys had room after room of Greek armor, Japanese Samurai swords and costumes. The ones for "The Last Shogun" were all there. It was a really neat place to visit and was my first stop.
After GE I got on the FJ and rode out to the Mojave airport to talk to Scaled Composites and Xcore. The sign reads "Mojave Airport/Spaceport". The ride out on Hwy 14 was the best yet. There was almost no traffic at noon on a Friday (the "get out of L.A." wave starts at about 3:00PM) and I held the FJR to about 90-95 in the HOV lane almost all the way out. The curves at that speed were amazing and the bike loved it. I never saw one LEO. After looking at the engine test area we had dinner and then I headed for my son's house in Crestline. I made the mistake of taking Hwy 138 in Palmdale and fighting traffic all the way over to the Cajon Pass, there's a lot of contruction and so it was slow going. I took the twisty back road up to Crestline in the dark and really could have used some daylight to help me in the curves in the dark. It also dropped from 85F in Mojave to 55F in Crestline and here's where the mysterious fuel injection problem started. The PC-III or the FJR fuel injection system just didn't like the fact that I had gone from near sea level to 4500 feet and a temperature differential of 30 degrees. The bike just stalled coming out of the turns and then all of a sudden the engine would "catch" and I found myself wondering if I was going to spend a cold night on the backside of the San Bernardino mountains, not a comforting thought. I made it to my son's house and spent the night.
The next morning after breakfast I headed down the mountain on the Rim of the World highway and about half way down the mountain the temp had dropped from 70F to 55F and by gosh the bike started getting those flat spots in the throttle again. I remember reading on this site about a woman having the same problem riding East and climbing in altitude, but here I was losing altitude and the temperature falling (inversion layer) and I was having throttle problems. If I hadn't read about her problems I would have guessed at a bad tank of gas. After getting off the mountain the bike ran pretty good until I was near Palm Springs (lower altitude again) and the bike did a one time only hesitation and then I never had any more events with the bike.
Crossing back into Arizona the temperature kept climbing until it got to 107F in Phoenix, wow!. The bike itself was a cool ride but the outside temperature had me drinking water continually out of my Camelback and stopping to rest my sore butt about every 100 miles.
After climbing up outside of Tucson it was great to be back up in the cool mountain air and home. I am thinking about WFO-6 but need to look into a better seat, maybe the Yamaha comfort seat or something. It was a great decision to take the bike in spite of everyone telling me that I was crazy to ride the bike instead of taking my truck with A/C and cruise control not to mention a soft seat.
I don't think I'm Iron Butt material because after the 600 mile one way ride my backside was too sore to think of 1000 miles! But I enjoyed meeting other riders and talking to people at rest stops. It's amazing how people will come up to you and ask you questions, where are you going or where are you from?
AZ
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