Long thread. Some great suggestions, but the answers you give always imply that the problem is not the machine. You mentioned your tire pressure - and you run lower than factory recommendations . . . I make it a point on all my vehicles to use the factory settings rather than hearsay settings. It's always worked for me.
Now YOU are doing the complaining. But what do others who ride your bike say?
Dealers are full of crap, so if one told me he felt the vibes I'd suggest he was lying. I'm not saying, but gently suggesting that perhaps the bike might not be all that off, but the (heaven help me) rider may be too demanding? My bike has 'vibrations'. The wheels aren't quite true (through they are well balanced) after 30,000 miles on my 'A'.
That the suspension is too soft won't impact you riding a flat freeway when there's no wind - - - and the suspension is normally perfectly fine when it comes from the factory. Perhaps you have ONE fork that is binding?
The first (and most obvious) question I'd ask going in is whether the bike had ever been accidented . . . regular wobble can ONLY be tied to spinning parts - so that means an out of true wheel, a bad bearing, bad alignment (though alignment ought to only result in pulling and affect handling in turns - if wouldn't cause a wobble) and so on.
The SECOND and even MORE obvious question is why you didn't spend the $400 to extend the factory warranty? That would have connected you to Yamaha for 4 more years and now they can blow you off (and apparently are) with the 'beyond warranty' argument.
I can go on, but what *we* here need is a second, less subjective opinion as to the nature of your symptoms - if the racers could take the bike to the rims and only said the suspension is soft, then that could be your hint. You certainly aren't overloading the machine given your weight.
Will the lemon law help if the machine's been run for 18 months and the factory warranty has expired? What's the statute of limitations on a lemon law claim in your state?
I don't think you need to pay a lawyer for this, though. The local courts generally have a clerk that can walk you though the paperwork - you sound well documented. That Yamaha wouldn't support you when the dealer confirmed the problem and threw his hands up in defeat is extremely strange.
Great feed back for sure - thank you !
Of course there's a lot of information getting lost here - I could sit here all day writing page up and down on the problems with the bike but you have some very good questions, so, I'll try to answer them - but it's going to be a looooooooong one:
I changed the manufactures settings a bit on the tires because they wear out on me really fast riding where I ride and I had problems in the canyons. The change didn't affect the handling (wobble, head shakes) of the bike but I seem to get a better road grip especially in the canyons. I don't know if it changed anything on my wear; if it did it's very little.
I know; I am bitching a bunch because it's painful seeing your loved one not doing well :dribble:
A couple of guys I know rode the bike; gave it back to me and they all said something like: "please don't ever let me ride that thing again; I have kids and a wife". They all felt the wobble and shake. Once I was pulled over by a dude on a ST1300 asking me if I was OK because he noticed, riding behind me, that it wobbled in the corners we were going through.
Having this kind of bike I'm demanding. It's not like back in the days riding my 2 stroke 2 cylinder Jawa TS350 in rain and snow with my 170 Lbs girlfriend on the back. But I also didn't pay for the Jawa what I did for the FJR. I think I'm reasonable when I over the course of 1.5 year continuously ask Yamaha to help me find the problem and I get a little disappointed knowing the haven't bothered looking at forks, alignments etc but instead just pushed me away with things like; "here's a new tire try that or here's a steering head bearing try that - oh, it didn't work, well, then we don't know what to do".
The fork; could be ! - I told Yamaha the same when the bike was about 2-3 months old. They said no and didn't bother checking it out.
It hasn't been in accident - well,,,, I admit I dropped it from it's side stand about a month ago (OK, so what; I'm a bit embarrassed) but the problem was from new. At first I thought it was just me but after asking other FJR owners; well...
I'm an *****... Seriously I am. I came out here from Europe and had never heard about an extended warranty before. Nobody said a word when I bought the bike - I honestly thought all bikes came with a one-year warranty only: I guess I learned a lesson when I found out. That said; the last new bike I bought was back in 1996; there was not such a thing at that time. At least not where I come from. When I finally found out: too late.
On Race Tech, they also felt the shake and wobble. The guys are semi-pro racers (I believe?) and they told me directly: "don't try to take this bike to the rim unless you really know what you are doing - leave that to us".
The last dealer was a friend of a friend. The dealer was awesome and really tried to help me but couldn't determine the cause although he could feel and see the head shake and wobble. I think, but don't know, that Yamaha had him shut up hoping I would live with it. Although it seems silly to me; the attorney I retained mentioned that Yamaha has done that before - and that was before I told the attorney about that experience.
Well, I'm in California and I have been reading page up on down about the lemon aw here. Because Yamaha
(this might be good to know for everybody running into problems) decided to keep looking at the problem at their partial cost beyond the warranty period and also because the issue never got resolved; the warranty is still standing on that particular issue. So, by law Yamaha has failed their obligation to resolve the problem. Also, if a vehicle has a condition that is considered un-safe (like brake problems, steering issues etc) then 3 times to the shop is considered a reasonable attempt of getting it fixed. The big question is if my bike is considered un-safe. A pro rider might think my bike handles like **** but will be able to drive it without loosing control. A regular driver (which I consider my self after 22 years) might not.
Here's the thing: proving a MC Lemon Law case is for some reason more difficult than a car lemon law case. I believe it's based on that there are so many more cars out there with pro drivers that can validate a car's flaws. Whereas guess who's going to drive the MC for a test to give a professional opinion: "Yamaha".
