Fly and Ride 17 FJR

[escapefjrtist]

Glad you're home safe and sound Fontanaman!

~G

[Niehart]

+1

[bigjohnsd]

Now I've got a reason to head West to Portland again, despite my son living out there for 5 years and many visits on the bikes and in the Mini we never found that there Rowena Curve/Crest.

Nice report Jim. Glad you made it home safely.

[fontanaman]

Now I've got a reason to head West to Portland again, despite my son living out there for 5 years and many visits on the bikes and in the Mini we never found that there Rowena Curve/Crest.

Nice report Jim. Glad you made it home safely.

Thanks John. I learned about the Historic US 30 route by attending Rally in the Gorge many years ago. It are two sections of the Historic Road open to automobiles. In this report I skipped the Vista House at Crown Point.

Here is a
link to plan your visit.

[fontanaman]

Daily Ditty

March 22, 2020

The Epilogue

In total I road about 4650 miles. From Lafayette to Spokane, a 9 day ride, I road 3400 miles for an average of about 375 per day.

The tires on the bike when I bought it made it home. The were are a set of Pirelli Angel GTs and I believe there were new are nearly new.

At 16,850 miles the front tire measures 5/32" in of tread while the rear had 8/23" in. Now at 21,500 miles the front tire measure 3/3/2" in of tread while the rear had 5/23" in. The measurements were taken adjacent to the wear bars at the near the top of the tire.

The front tire is a starting to square off just a bit while the rear is has a nice radius. I won't make any other comparisons because my 09 is GP front suspension and a Penske at the rear while the 17 has ES suspenders so it is hard to tell how the tires performs with much different suspension systems. In addition most of the miles I traveled were on the flat roads.

Front tire.



Rear tire.



When I left on this trip, our home, recently flooded due to a plumber's error installing a water conditioner, was waiting for repair. My wife needed foot surgery to remove a bony growth on her toe and needs a dental implant.

When I returned home nothing had changed except my wife has a mild case of bronchitis. No work was done on the house. The work starts tomorrow. Due to COVID-19 Linda's medical and dental work is postponed until things return to normal. [Rant] And I don't want to hear the cliché "This is the new normal." In my lifetime there is nothing normal about the coronavirus spreading around the world and it will eventually run its course. [/EndRant]

I had enough going on at the beginning of this trip to tilt the stress meter. Then while on the trip the coronavirus epidemic explodes nationwide and the unplanned events impact the trip. As a result I started to suffer from anxiety. My blood pressure was up during the trip and to be safe I went to a hospital where I was diagnosed with higher than normal blood pressure and an EKG test was normal a big Silver Lining! Yesterday my wife Linda, a former Nurse Practitioner, checked my BP with an old school tool and found it 134/80. I am still not settled but I am trying to avoid stressors such as the news. I have started to re-appropriate farkles from the 09 to the 17 and this has a calming effect. Silver lining is my situation is much better than many others in the country and I have a bit of anxiety medication at home.

Hopefully you can find silver linings in your life today. Thanks for following along.

The End.

[escapefjrtist]

Those tires are good enough for a three or four day "box" ride Fontanaman! Once the current travel situation clears up might have to look into that.

~G

[Blueridgerider]

Highway pegs removed immediately and I have it on good authority the lowered pegs lasted all of one ride.

Looking good Fontanaman!

~G

Yeah those pegs make me nervous just looking at them. One thing I love about the FJR is that I can lean it over endlessly without scraping anything. One thing I hated about the Goldwing I sold was that it always scrapped pegs. In my opinion they are dangerous to have so low like that.

The fix for that was putting real springs in the forks, 70 series tire on the back (Valkyrie size) and not having the shock preload set too low.... no scrapie. Turned it into the 900 lb. sport tourer. Sold mine, just too heavy but OK nonetheless!

Great pics, Jim. I think the PCH is best down that way..... keep it coming!

My Wing was fully Traxxionized ie Mega Monty. There was nothing you could buy or do to a Wing other than remove the pegs to keep it from scraping.
If you did not scrape a Goldwing's pegs you were not riding it very aggressively in the twisties.

[raYzerman]

The Progressive rear shock was ride height adjustable and had a better spring, the Traxxion front cartridges changed damping, but the Hondapotamus needed real springs to increase the ride height. Series 70 tire and very rarely scraped pegs in the twisties...... basically, you had to increase it's ride height and you were good to go. Vast majority didn't do that, happy to have their Barcalounger.