FJRiders.com

(yesterday)

360 miles railing the FJR with Lumberg and a long time non-FJR moto friend. Wolfpen, Traclock, Fairview, Wayah, Bell Mtn, Richard Russel, Blood Mtn, Hwy 60....

We left some rubber on the tarmac.

Ride report to follow.

Stay thirsty, my friends....

Charged the battery a couple days ago, changed the oils today, wiped the Colorado trip bugs off so it wasn't so fuzzy on the front. Wiped spiders and spider webs off. Aired up the tires.

Hppants wrote: ↑Sat Sep 09, 2023 10:11 am (yesterday)

Bell Mtn,

Stay thirsty, my friends....

Yea,

Bill Lumberg stopped in the road and told me.

"Put it in first gear and don't stop."

Glad I listened and followed.

Cool place!

Yeah........little pucker factor at Bell Mountain on the way up! Got the t-shirt.

Got new Bridgestones BT-023 front and rear installed. When removing the rear wheel I could see the rear brake pads were at the end of their life. The bike shop that did the tire swap also had a set of pads on the shelf. New tires and new rear brakes. Should be good to go.
T-minus 6 days and counting.

Took it out to fill the tank, for my Saturday morning departure...taking the long way to EOM. Also started staging things to pack.

Routine maintenance stuff. Replaced engine oil & filter, final drive oil, front & rear brake fluids, and clutch brake fluid.

Also tried the sealmate thing again on my right fork. It helped a little last time, maybe it'll help a little more. And I was collecting some goop in the radiator from the right fork oozing so I sprayed some foaming air conditioner coil cleaner & gently rinsed out. Mucho gooder!

Got too hot to do more but I feel good about what I accomplished .

Took it on a 50 mile ride to exercise the cooling system. I just tightened up a hose clamp and wanted to be sure that coolant was no longer leaking. No leaks. Now I'm waiting to see what issue the 2013 will throw at me next. I love this bike. I won't let it bring me down. Love conquers all.

FJRPittsburgh wrote: ↑Tue Sep 12, 2023 6:57 am Took it on a 50 mile ride to exercise the cooling system. I just tightened up a hose clamp and wanted to be sure that coolant was no longer leaking. No leaks. Now I'm waiting to see what issue the 2013 will throw at me next. I love this bike. I won't let it bring me down. Love conquers all.

I had that hose leak once - didn't get it on far enough after doing a valve check. Not a lot of working room in there. Those hoses seem to be very resilient with respect to cracking or splitting, but it is worth examining anytime you have it apart to check for deformation (and cracking). I have snugged (not too tight) various radiator and water pump hoses on the FJR - not because they were leaking but because (after a few years) they had loosened up a bit. I suppose the rubber compressed under the clamp.

Skooter showed up last night, he had a new tire shipped here and we changed it before supper last night,
Before


After

RIKEN RAPTOR ZR A/S 205/50 ZR17 89W $103 at Tire rack. He test rode today and he says it is the best handling Darkside Tire he has ever run. From behind it looks like a lot more of the tire remains in contact with the pavement while cornering than any Darkside equipped motorcycle I've ever followed. He was running 32#.

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.js ... lsrc=aw.ds

Dammit - there's real money to be saved on the dark side. I just can't do it - ironic, considering how cheap, errr.... frugal I am.

Hppants wrote: ↑Fri Sep 15, 2023 8:41 am Dammit - there's real money to be saved on the dark side. I just can't do it - ironic, considering how cheap, errr.... frugal I am.

I keep saying I'm going to do it but then a tire sale comes along, or I need something right NOW and don't have the time to do the brake stuff that needs doing. Maybe soon.

I could swear we had an MTB trail workday today but I'll be darned if I could find the post with the meetup time. So that finally left me free to hit up the 3rd Saturday Breakfast at Carolines in Midlothian, so I decided that the FJR would get some attention. I had a nice back roads way to go, but ended up leaving late so took the interstates. Good thing the FJR eats those up so well. Good breakfast with a bunch of other motorcyclists, weather was nice, just cloudy, but the rain from this week has started to move out. My buddy Doug, who I've owned a few of his old bikes, showed up, so was good catching up with him. Rode home, took a few familiar back roads and parked her in the garage. Need to figure out why the Fobo2 isn't working, they had new batteries a few months ago so that's a mystery.

Blew the cobwebs off the bike. Two-up.

wheatonFJR wrote: ↑Sat Sep 16, 2023 1:47 pm Blew the cobwebs off the bike. Two-up.

That's awesome, I didn't think Lumberg would ride bitch with you, but kudos to him, Pants is right, he really is a heck of a guy.

250 miles today with two friends I met over here. One Gen 2 FJR and the other a K1600GT. We had a good time.

This summer, I've ridden the FJR almost 3,000 miles through North Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee. That's a LOT of curves, man.

Stay thirsty, my friends.....

Also, funny story from breakfast. A guy had parked next to my FJR with his CB500X Rally. As I was suiting up he commented that he almost rode his FJR, but didn't want to mess with the cover he had over it. Then he says "You know, gotta protect that pretty paint, right?" I squinted at him, then said "You must be one of those 2007 poopy brown owners." Nailed it, button pushed. Only 07A owners talk about their "Pretty" paint.

Must be colour blind. Officially it's Black Cherry, not poopy at all, best FJR colour ever. The day I brought mine home, night shot too....... beooootiful.

gixxerjasen wrote: ↑Sat Sep 16, 2023 6:34 pm Also, funny story from breakfast. A guy had parked next to my FJR with his CB500X Rally. As I was suiting up he commented that he almost rode his FJR, but didn't want to mess with the cover he had over it. Then he says "You know, gotta protect that pretty paint, right?" I squinted at him, then said "You must be one of those 2007 poopy brown owners." Nailed it, button pushed. Only 07A owners talk about their "Pretty" paint.

I feel attacked.

And if your poop is the color of that black cherry, you may want to talk with your doctor.

I started checking the bike over for my Wednesday departure for EOM. Checked for loose fasteners, cleaned the dead bugs off the windshield, and aired up the tires. I uploaded all the routes from the forum to my GPS and created several to give me options for traveling down and back. I also grabbed a bottle of bourbon for medicinal purposes. Now I need to start pulling my gear together for the trip.