New to forum and to FJR

[jkelley82]

Good morning everyone. I picked up my first FJR yesterday. 2003, 72k on the clock and has some road rash but she runs beautifully. The guy who had it did some excellent servicing on her before I got down there. Once we changed the brake pad, tires and battery, I rode her 263 miles to the house and fell in love on the way. Im looking forward to getting her all fixed up cosmeticly and putting some more miles on her.

[Cav47]

Good morning everyone. I picked up my first FJR yesterday. 2003, 72k on the clock and has some road rash but she runs beautifully. The guy who had it did some excellent servicing on her before I got down there. Once we changed the brake pad, tires and battery, I rode her 263 miles to the house and fell in love on the way. Im looking forward to getting her all fixed up cosmeticly and putting some more miles on her.

That's great. Amazing what an 18yr old bike can still do right? Post some pictures and tell us where about you are. Now that the border is open, we can send the Canadian Welcome Committee for a visit. Don't worry, they are not nefarious, they might drink all your whiskey, but they are good peeps.

[El Toro Joe]

Welcome from the north coast of Ohio

[CollingsBob]

Good morning everyone. I picked up my first FJR yesterday. 2003, 72k on the clock and has some road rash but she runs beautifully. The guy who had it did some excellent servicing on her before I got down there. Once we changed the brake pad, tires and battery, I rode her 263 miles to the house and fell in love on the way. Im looking forward to getting her all fixed up cosmeticly and putting some more miles on her.

That's great. Amazing what an 18yr old bike can still do right? Post some pictures and tell us where about you are. Now that the border is open, we can send the Canadian Welcome Committee for a visit. Don't worry, they are not nefarious, they might drink all your whiskey, but they are good peeps.

“Might”??

[Red]

Good morning everyone. I picked up my first FJR yesterday. 2003, 72k on the clock and has some road rash but she runs beautifully. . . . Im looking forward to getting her all fixed up cosmeticly and putting some more miles on her.

jkelley82,

Welcome to the FJR sandbox! Pull up a seat, relax, and be among friends.

If the damaged plastics are too expensive to replace, look into a primer, sandpaper, and vinyl-wrap fix. When you will use sandpaper finishing anyway, primer does not need to be sprayed; you can brush it on, in thin coats. Vinyl wraps now come in almost any color, from wood-grain to chrome. If you can't match your colors, just vinyl wrap the same panel on the other side, also. YouTube has vinyl wrap videos, to show you how to do the job.

[jkelley82]

Thank you all and the vinyl wrap is a great idea. I didn't consider doing that.

I'm still trying to figure out how to use this forum and will get pictures posted as soon as I figure it out. I live in Northeast Texas around Gilmer. Currently have an 07 suzuki bandit with 38k and an 03 suzuki vstrom 1000 with 78k.

[raYzerman]

You have to have a third party photo hosting service, then insert the url in the [img] url [img] brackets from the picture icon in the full editor mode.

If you're wrapping yourself, some good quality wrap material is available from metrorestyling.com in Michigan.... there are many other sources as well, maybe you want it professionally wrapped.
PS, update your location in your profile....

[Cav47]

Thank you all and the vinyl wrap is a great idea. I didn't consider doing that.

I'm still trying to figure out how to use this forum and will get pictures posted as soon as I figure it out. I live in Northeast Texas around Gilmer. Currently have an 07 suzuki bandit with 36k and an 02 suzuki vstrom 1000 with 78k.

You live in a decent place with really good riding just to your North East or South East. Arkansas is one of the best and Sabine NF is also decent from a few reports.

I need to ride those NF roads.

[Hppants]

welcome from Southern Louisiana (Lafayette). First, we are within 1/2 day's ride of each other, so ... when time permits, let's get together. Lunch at Martin's Corner store in Milam, TX is about halfway for us both - the catfish plate on Fridays is hard to beat!!

Now, more technically:

1. Make sure that your cam chain tensioner has been replaced with the updated part. The newer part is the one with the GREEN painted dot on top of it. If yours has the BLUE dot on it, you need to replace the CCT.

2. If you are not 100% sure that the previous owner has lubricated the relay arm on the rear suspension, that needs to be done. It's not overly difficult, but it is time consuming (the first time) and we can walk you through that. IF those bearings fail on the road, you are stuck at best, and may go down at worst.

There are a few other things to be aware of or check out on the Gen 1 bike. If interested, I can elaborate...

[CollingsBob]

Don’t lube the relay arm..get one that’s been modified with grease fittings added by Snowflake - contact him here.

[raYzerman]

My input on the CCT is, if it has no dot on it, it is the old design and should be replaced like yesterday... especially at 72k. If it has either a blue (2008 vintage) or green dot, it is the revised design and the previous owner has already replaced it. The green dot may have had a revision, and is the latest one being sold anyway and the smart play is to replace a blue dot one with a new one at your next convenience.

As for the suspension pivot, one can service all the pivot points/bearings except the very front upper one. That one requires centerstand removal involving two bolts you'll have to cut/sawzall off... new bolts go in the opposite way to make this easier in future. Once that front pivot is greased, it should be ok for a very long time, but that depends on how much you ride and in wet conditions. However, think about whether you want to replace the relay arm with the grease fittings before you put it back together.

The relay arm with the grease fittings, once on, makes any re-lube very convenient without centerstand removal for the front one and doesn't require disassembly of the middle one. You still have to disassemble and lube the lower shock pivot and the rearmost dogbone pivot on the swingarm at the service interval you choose/need. The Snowflake one is a very nice and well thought out product.

[jkelley82]

I will investigate the CCT sometime this week. As for the relay arm, I'm actually clueless as to where that is. I will have to investigate finding it first. lol.

[gixxerjasen]

Hey, look who showed up over here. I should warn you, put yer thick skin on when you come here from the other place. Good folks here, I'd hang out with almost all of them in a heartbeat, and I have done so for sure.

[Cav47]

Hey, look who showed up over here. I should warn you, put yer thick skin on when you come here from the other place. Good folks here, I'd hang out with almost all of them in a heartbeat, and I have done so for sure.

Wait, what, how, oh man........ JKelley knows you? My Condolences to JKelley.

There goes another one.

[jkelley82]

Looking forward to it. Thanks gixxer.

[N4HHE]

I will investigate the CCT sometime this week. As for the relay arm, I'm actually clueless as to where that is. I will have to investigate finding it first. lol.

They are talking about the suspension linkages on the swingarm. It attaches to the shock, swingarm, and the chassis buried among the centerstand.

The difficulty in servicing is that these parts hold your motorcycle up compounded by the fact the centerstand has to come off leaving you with need for other means of holding the motorcycle up when these are being serviced.

And for some reason during the entire production run of the FJR two bolts holding the centerstand bracket were inserted the opposite direction for easy disassembly. The exhaust is in the way. Some have pried the exhaust out just enough to get the bolt out. Yamaha says remove the entire exhaust just to make clearance for these 2 bolts. Most cut the bolts out with a sawzall. Then buy new bolts and insert from inside with nut on the outside.

[jkelley82]

Wow. Thank you for the incredible explanation.

[gixxerjasen]

Hey, look who showed up over here. I should warn you, put yer thick skin on when you come here from the other place. Good folks here, I'd hang out with almost all of them in a heartbeat, and I have done so for sure.

Wait, what, how, oh man........ JKelley knows you? My Condolences to JKelley.

There goes another one.

The bike was posted for sale on Two Wheeled Texans, so naturally I pointed JKelley over here. Didn't want someone to get steered to the wrong site ya know.

[fjrob]

Welcome. You now own the fastest year model FJR.

[FJRPittsburgh]

Welcome from Pittsburgh, PA. Enjoy that bike. Sorry for telling you what to do. LOL