What did you do to your FJR today?

[FJRoss]

I have run a Bridgestone (BT023) to the point where the white fabric cord was showing, but I have never run through it! You can almost see the air in that tire. Looks like you ran it pretty much to the edges, but I agree with @Toter about it being done about a thousand miles ago.
Which Bridgestone was it?

[wheatonFJR]

Again, those are only tire tread wear indicators.

[D-Eagle]

Looks like you got 5k miles, then risked your life for another 1k miles.

That was gold.
I want to pop that tire with my pinky.

[Bbbrowles]

Designflaw was nice enough at tech day to let them rip apart his bike to show me where to look for the dot on the cct. Of course he didnt have it but at least I knew exactly possibly maybe where the dot is. I figured I didnt have the newest so ordered one. Although I was going to delay it until the winter, I decided just to dive in and do it before the last couple rides. I studied yamafitters guide in the other forum. Took apart my baby. Of all things my long thin screwdriver when converting to metric (2.54 x inches x circumference of earth divided by distance to the moon) ended ip being too short in metric. All other tools seemed to be correct. Zip tie on chain. Dremmel ready to make cuts. Tool run tomorrow or Saturday or since I live in the middle of nowhere amazon delivery sunday. Hopefully not sunday…i wanted to ride then.

[SkooterG]

Pulled my Bridgestone Battlax rear off last night, and am having a new Road 6 GT installed today. I got about 6k miles out of it, hoping the Michelin gives me a bit more but we'll see.



Will be lubing driveshaft splines while I have it apart this weekend, and flushing brake/clutch fluids and cleaning up levers. Also I think I'm finally ready to get the Ivan tune, so I'll be pulling the ECU for that work, with hopes of having it back by the end of Oct so I can hopefully do a bit more late-season riding.

Looks like you got 5k miles, then risked your life for another 1k miles.

Pfffft!

He's got another 1,000 miles on that tire, easy!

[wheatonFJR]

Zactly.

I am guessing that he only rode 100 miles on the shiny stuff. That's why Skooterbuddy is a cheap bastard and puts an ugly ass obscenity of a goddawful car tire on the back of his bikes. He hates changing tars.

[gixxerjasen]

Still got most of his wear indicator threads there, was still good, but was time.

[raYzerman]

A 2015 ES visited yesterday..... full clutch and brake fluid flush that obviously hadn't been done fer a long time. Also did a valve check, we had done this ~70k kms. ago and reshimmed back then. Only a couple clearances had moved, and very little. Good data point as I suspected we actually didn't need to do it.......

[fontanaman]

Removed the Dunlop RS4 and replaced it with a PR4 GT take off I had laying around. The take off is in pretty good shape and I expect there are 1000 miles left on it. The Dunlop had 7700 smiles on it. I left the Dunlop RS4 on the front as there is a few miles left in it and I will watch it closely. Just day riding now and I expect bike riding season will end by in early November. With the price of tires these days I am compelled to use them up as much as possible.

[Bbbrowles]

Wife was tired on my whining about the screwdriver length so had one shipped via amazon. I whine about not having a pole barn yet dont get that. I guess price point for her tolerance is somewhere between screwdriver and pole barn.

Took the cct off. Put new one on. Fired it up. No issues. I just picked up my manual from getting bound (can’t remember who mentioned that at tech day but thanks). I will ride it this weekend.

[bill lumberg]

After talking with natehawk, I tested my hippo hands handguards.

I previously tried their largest offering (the Alcan), and while the protection was great, the guards walked around a lot at fjr-nominal speeds, to an unacceptable extent.

For context, I broke a bone in one hand, years back, and since that event, both hands have been susceptible to cold in cooler months, so even with heated grips and gloves, I’m always exploring options.

So I tried the next smaller size hippo hands offering, the rogue.


41F temp. Triple digit speeds. Summer mesh gloves. Zero issues. Rogue handguards didn’t move at all. Recommend.

[SkooterG]

After talking with natehawk, I tested my hippo hands handguards.

I previously tried their largest offering (the Alcan), and while the protection was great, the guards walked around a lot at fjr-nominal speeds, to an unacceptable extent.

For context, I broke a bone in one hand, years back, and since that event, both hands have been susceptible to cold in cooler months, so even with heated grips and gloves, I’m always exploring options.

So I tried the next smaller size hippo hands offering, the rogue.


41F temp. Triple digit speeds. Summer mesh gloves. Zero issues. Rogue handguards didn’t move at all. Recommend.

After your above post I went to their website. They say to mount over already existing handguards. Did you do that?

[bill lumberg]

Yes. Their products are designed to fit over barkbuster storm or other similar handguards. Otherwise they can impinge upon levers at speed.

From their site:
Hand/brush guards are required for proper fitment and for safety reasons. Hippo Hands go on and off in seconds and never require tools or hardware.

[Hppants]

Over the past 4 days, I trailered my FJR 1,977 miles from New Hampshire to Lafayette, LA. I had some trailer issues OTW home which necessitated an "on the side of the road" temporary repair, followed by a better temporary repair. One of the boards rotted through and gave way. It was the board that was holding the left fork tie down for the FJR, and the right fork tie down for the DR650. The DR650 leaned toward the outside of the trailer, and lucily was supported by the left foot peg jammed against the trailer rail. Despite having its left fork strap essentially flapping, the FJR never moved. The "bracket" I made for the rear wheel held the bike upright.



On the shoulder of Interstate 95, I made a simple repair by moving the eyebolts over to the new board I replaced before we left. I didn't have the correct size drill bit, but instead drilled seveveral small holes and eventually used the bolt and a hammer to run it through. I bring a few scraps of wood for just an occasion, and screwed a couple of pieces across the rotton board to hold it in place.

That lasted about 25 miles to the next city. As I was making a right hand turn, I noticed the DR starting to swing toward the rail again. I brought up my tailgate camera and quickly discovered the problem. When he was visiting last Fall, I asked my brother to change that trailer board. Apparently, he didnt get the front of the board tucked in enough into the trailer "C-channel" piece. Perhaps the board shrank over the months and when the bike straps started pulling on it, it pulled out of the frame work! Now I'm in a bind but as luck would have it, a found a Home Depot only about 1 mile away. I put a 2nd strap on both bikes tied to the trailer frame rail and drove slowly to the H/D.

Two c-clamps to the rescue.



For context, the "C-channel" on the trailer measures 1" on the top, 2" on the bottom. So - it's not a Perfect "C". I used the C-clamps to secure the board to the bottom of the C-section. I grabbed a couple of fender washers to distribute the clamp load a bit better. I tie-wrapped them together and tied wrapped them to an eye bolt just as a safety tether. If they loosened, I didn't want them to fall onto the roadway and cause an accident.

It worked beautifully - those clamps stayed in place for 1,500 miles home.

So now - I'm gonna change ALL of the trailer boards and re-install the new board correctly.

I was glad that I loaded my "tools box" in the back of the bed, and actually had all of the tools I needed on the top of the box for easy access. Eisenhower was a genius: Plans are useless, but planning is invaluable.

Stay thirsty, my friends...

[Full House]

Good old AMERICAN ingenuity! I like it!

[fontanaman]

This morning I checked the tire pressure before the ride I had in mind for today. The rear tire, I installed yesterday, had 20 some pounds of air in it. Grrrrr...

I put 60 psi in it to assure the bead was set, then removed the excess air, and did the valve stem spit test. No leakage. Hoping the tire seated I let it set an hour and checked the pressure, down 2 psi.

Next I removed the wheel and I am pissed off now. Fill the utility sink with water and in the wheel/tire go. The wheel/tire is 1/4 covered with water so it is 4 rotations to check for bubbles. At the last rotation I see bubbles coming from top of the tire, not the bead/sidewall.

Take the tire to the garage and use a soap solution in a squirt bottle to find the damage. There is a piece of glass in the tire. What are the odds of removing a tire in preparation for a trip and it is punctured and ya don't know about it? I must have picked up the glass on that tire's last ride. Moral to the story is check the tire pressure before removing a tire that can be used again.

So it is off with the tire and I install another PR4 GT take off I had laying around. I will check the pressure tomorrow.

[N4HHE]

Plug it from the inside while you have it off.

[Hppants]

I've never tried those patch plugs. I know they work just fine, but I've never tried it. Might pick up a couple to have with my tire supplies.

[raYzerman]

Depending on the severity of the puncture (and it doesn't sound severe if it's a slow leak), a patch on the inside might be the best repair. Plugging requires reaming out the hole even bigger......

[N4HHE]

Depending on the severity of the puncture (and it doesn't sound severe if it's a slow leak), a patch on the inside might be the best repair. Plugging requires reaming out the hole even bigger......

The modern thing to do is use a patch-plug, a t-patch, combination patch and plug.

The plug is important for keeping crud out of the puncture in the tread. To keep stuff away from the cords.

Many don't understand the only rubber in the tire formulated to hold air is the thin layer on the inside. This is where the sticky string from the outside must make contact for a successful repair. This is why Stop-n-go and others have a big head to push through the puncture then pull back against the inside of the tire.