What did you do to your FJR today?

[wheatonFJR]

Put on new snakeskin fairing accents, and, yes I waxed my...

...FJR.

Yes I did. She is looking downright purty.

Man I love this FJR!

 

[NightShine]

Added a pair of Garauld's sliders to my Canyon Cages. Maybe on my next drop I won't have to lift it as high!

I was curious why his instructions suggested putting a drop of oil or thread sealant on the bold threads before tightening to 44 lb-ft. Aren't torque values spec'd to dry threads?

But after a little searching on the net I stumbled on one bolt manufacturer's table showing a recommended torque value for an M12 x 1.25 bolt to be 44 lb-ft wet, but 64 lb-ft dry!

Who knew?

 

[Cav47]

Boy do I miss u guys and gals on the forum.

*Disclaimer, this is not about their (lack of)gear or skills, but just a "thank you" for all of you on the forum that ride "right"!!

Let me explain. Since I have been on a little riding hiatus due to my last masters class, I agreed to go on a ride with some folks from church. Good people. Not the typical hypocrites that think church is only for the good people. Not sure why I included that part, but it seems fitting for some reason. Anyway, we had a route over to West Lafayette Indiana. About 80 miles over to Nine Brothers Irish pub. We took off at 8:30 central time and started the journey. We took the long way back and to hit an ice cream shop down in Rockville another 100 miles before we made it home. (0face would be proud)

6 total bikes. 9 people. Mix of bikes varied wildly. No 2 bikes the same. My FJR, a Goldwing trike, new 111 cubic inch Indian Dresser, 1100ish Vulcan, 5 year old Harley Street Glide, and an 80s Honda Magna ridden by our preacher. The Magna is in on its last leg for sure. Everyone but the trike wears a good helmet, no half lids and I am thinking everyone of them was pretty new. All but one of them in boots, T-shirts for everyone but me. The point of this is not about the gear, all of them are aware of the risks. This group calls themselves the "Wild Piglets". Clearly making fun of themselves and their motley style.

These folks are good people, but seriously MOST of them can't ride. I started all the way in the back as I have never ridden with 4 of them. The Harley and Magna folks I have ridden with before and they are reasonably skilled. The other ones are awful. They never did anything overtly dangerous, but they clearly are not you all. Riding not staggered, poor lane positions, and struggling in corners. Add that to the 5 UNDER the limit behavior, many cars were either riding up our butt or passing us.

Food was great, roads were decent, fellowship was fun(like I said, these are good people). All of these people like motorcycles and actually riding. The similarities between you all and them are evident, with one exception.......skills and technique.

Really looking forward to Red Lodge and enjoying the Food, roads, and fellowship. I won't miss the constant fear today that someone was gonna fall over cause they lack basic skills.

* Remember, this was not about them, but it is a Thank You to you!! See u soon

 

[Spork]

• 2 new PR4s (holy cow the difference is no joke from the Batteax) 39/42 (F/R)

FOBOs front and rear
Removed the front reflectors and added retroreflective tape on the front forks instead.

 

[thewrenchbender]

Rode it. Mid 90's is hot w/gear for this NW Ohio boy.

 

[creg-ny-baa]

^^^^^

Can't quote, on my phone.

Cav47-Feel your pain, bro. You're always among brethren here.

 

[eflyguy]

Same here.. mid-90's, but went out anyway to remind myself that it's not all that bad when you're moving..

 

[FJRPittsburgh]

Same here.. mid-90's, but went out anyway to remind myself that it's not all that bad when you're moving..

Yeah, for us Northerners, don't stop moving in 90 degree weather. I love the cooler weather for riding so much more. Of course, riding in hot weather is better than not riding at all.

 

[HotRodZilla]

Today, I took my brakes apart and put them back together. You may remember I just had the suspension done, which including rebuilding my leaking front forks, adding a proper spring to my Wilbers and rebuilding it. All that and then reinstalling it. The price wasn't phenomenal, but it wasn't terrible either. Rode the bike home yesterday and it felt great, except, I could pull the front as hard as possible, and no ABS.

When I got home, I ran my finger over my right disk and it came up covered in oil. Seruously, that sort of pisses me off. There's no way the clown who put my bike back together didn't notice the oil. So, he just reassembled it?? Jeeze.

So, I almost bought new pads this morning, but realized by the time they got here, I'd be cramming to get ready to leave for Red Lodge. So, I took the calipers off and cleaned everything up. I used a heat gun to heat up the pads, and they never leached anything, which was promising. I cleaned the disks and the bonnets and ran some 600 sand paper over the disks, just cleaning them up. After both sides were done, I took her for a ride.

I was concerned at first. The brakes were still weird. Then I remembered I moved all the pads around because I mixed them up. After a few stops, they settled in, and she is back to her old self. Problem solved, thankfully.

What irritated me was the guy that was too stupid to notice the oil must have King Kongs grip. EVERYTHING was stupid tight. I'm thinking this will be the last time these guys see my FJR. I will take my shock to them for a refresh, but my bike will get worked on by me. That's not 100% true; I'll let my Yamaha guy do my forks from now on.

 

[hppants]

AJ - knowingly failing to address a serious safety issue like m/c brakes is negligence, IMO. Either they knew, or they most certainly should have known. I'd waste 5 minutes on a phone call to the business owner. Better yet, drop by in your unit and uniform (10-7 obviously). Hopefully, it would inspire the owner to talk to the employees about the seriousness of their misgivings.

Yesterday, my FJR served as a tool table. That's right - it sat in my shop (where is hasn't moved for 3 weeks now), and offered its seat as a work surface to hold my tools. Tools I was using to fix, rebuild, mend, repair, or otherwise destroy just about every fucking thing in this house. It's been a couple of weekends now - rebuild the deck in the back yard. Some touch up paint here. A little setup and install there. Preventative maintenance all over the place.

In case you haven't noticed, Pants is a little snippy. It's this miserable and utterly oppressive heat. Yesterday at 8:00 pm, after 14 hours of sawing, screwing (the other kind), hacking, stroking (the other kind), and every other manner of repair you can think of at my household and my neighbors (as soon as he see's me out with my tools, he walks over.... sigh), I thought I'd grab a beer and sit on the front porch. Maybe enjoy the breeze for just a minute. Bullshit. At 8 pm, it was 88 degrees and 75% humidity. It was like sitting in a running clothes dryer with a load of wet towels. The only thing enjoying the evening were roughly 500,000 mosquitos, each waiting patiently for a turn at my legs.

So this morning, as I sit at the desk with my chaffed arse and my dehydration headache. I'm reminded that it is only June 12. We have 4 more months of this wonderful weather to look forward to. Oh - don't be misled. This won't be one of those "it's hot for a few days and then you get a couple days break" kind of seasons. No friends, for the next 120 days, round the 24 hour clock, this entire region will be a miserable sauna.

And I fear the FJR will sit out most of it.

We are retiring out of State. I am not going to spend 1/4 of the year for the rest of my life in this heat.

Thanks for the vent.........

 

[rbentnail]

Rode about 2 hrs for lunch with a buddy up yonder. Man it was hot!

 

[eflyguy]

In case you haven't noticed, Pants is a little snippy. It's this miserable and utterly oppressive heat.

Glad it's not just me!

 

[cindritkfjr]

Yesterday... Rode ~ 100 miles round trip with my buddy from Seven Fields PA up to Amish country up through Volant PA.. Went early 9 - noon (w/Breakfast at Brown's Family Restaurant in Portersville PA) to avoid the 90 degree/70% humidity in the afternoon... The Annual Bantam Jeep festival is going on at Coopers lake so lots jeeps all over the road. Looks like today will be a much better 70s day...

 

[wheatonFJR]

Rode about 200 miles this morning up in the mtns on the BRP and other fine roads up to Bryson City and back. Comfortable temps.

Most of the tires are scrubbed in, but I played easy today, so George I left the edges for you when you go around to "charge up the battery".

Edit: Oh yeah...made a few more Harley friends today. Didn't get their names though as we passed them. Psycho white minivan driver evidently wanted to trade paint with me. Other than that, just a routine ride in the mtns.

 

[Wlfman]

Did some maintenance:

Oil/Filter change

Spark Plugs changed

TBs synved

Finally removed the PAIR system (I've had the stuff to do it for over a year now.)

Ordered a set of Dunlop Roadsmart 2s $238 shipped and I get a $40 rebate. Also ordered a new air filter and a replacement YAMAHA sticker for the one missing on my RH Saddlebag.

 

[LKLD]

Rode it, dodging thunderstorms.

 

[SacramentoMike]

It wasn't today, but a few weeks ago, but I got the newest Clearwater Lights installed on my still-pretty-new-to-me 2014, and had it done at their shop by their guys. I knew they'd do it right, and I was pretty sure I might not. I need to find somebody with better camera skills and a better camera so I can do justice to these lights with some nighttime pics, which is why I haven't posted anything yet, but I did take this pic last night and decided to share it. It's the new mounting bracket he had made for the little fork-mounted marker lights (the ones he calls the "Darlas") for Yamahas. Thought it was pretty cool.

 

[Wlfman]

It wasn't today, but a few weeks ago, but I got the newest Clearwater Lights installed on my still-pretty-new-to-me 2014, and had it done at their shop by their guys. I knew they'd do it right, and I was pretty sure I might not. I need to find somebody with better camera skills and a better camera so I can do justice to these lights with some nighttime pics, which is why I haven't posted anything yet, but I did take this pic last night and decided to share it. It's the new mounting bracket he had made for the little fork-mounted marker lights (the ones he calls the "Darlas") for Yamahas. Thought it was pretty cool.

Where did you get the brackets? I MUST HAVE A SET

Guess I should have read the entire post before asking

 

[Niehart]

Are the fenders different on ES and A's? That mount might only work on the ES's. I know the '06' to '12's are different and those cool brackets won't fit, dang it.

 

[creg-ny-baa]

Rode about 2 hrs for lunch with a buddy up yonder. Man it was hot!

Same view I had coming back from Hickory NC. Me and Missuz ny-baa rode up for breakfast. 79 at 9A when we loaded up. 10 minutes later it was 81, 15 after that it was 86; we saw 90 before we completed the 45 miles up there. Riding in that heat is just work.