FJRiders.com

fontanaman wrote: ↑Tue Jul 02, 2024 8:41 pm Rode the FJR from Sun Valley Idaho to Stanley Idaho, McCall Idaho, Hells Canyon, landing in Enterprise Oregon. At Lowman Idaho I rode south on Hwy 21 for 11 miles then back as it is a twist fest with unblemished asphalt. Oh la la. Most excellent.

This photo of the Sawtooth Mountains and my FJR was taken just outside of Stanley.

Damnit man!

That's one sweet route.

We did 21 back in 2010. Wasn't it called trail of the pine or some such?

My ole '14 came to visit Sunday, emergency fork seal replacement on the right side...... no pics but found a good nick in the fork tube right at the seal level. No explanation for that, but it was a good ding and had raised sharp edges.... filed it down carefully and shined it up, put it back together. I can only figure the fork tube got damaged somewhere along the way, as we've had these apart before for rebuild/spring upgrades... I'm pretty sure I know the mofo mechanic who did it.....

The fork had not been leaking, seal was not nicked that I could see, so the story is apparently he hit a big pothole and blew out some oil.... I say it was lucky it was not leaking prior to this.......

Left work at 3:00 to meet my brother and take him on a short ride on his new bike. Ran up the interstate to the Blue Ridge Parkway. I think we managed to get in almost 250 miles. I didn't think we'd get to ride this week because of the weather, but it was 85 at home, 75 on the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was delightful to ride the parkway at 75. I had planned to get off the parkway and come home a different route but mentioned we could turn around and ride it the other direction and he said "Let's do that", so we rode the Parkway again.

As you can see, a bunch of Harley's had been in that same parking lot before us

We saw VERY few motorcycles. 75 degrees on the BRP and no motorcycles in sight? Crazy.

No matter how you play, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, you'll likely have most of it to yourself.

Retirement is awesome.

My '17 ES came with PIAA LP270 running lights mounted on the fender bracket. After my trip to Yellowstone I noticed the right lamp was not working. Inspection revealed the wire was pinched by a wire tie, and over time vibration partly severed the wire. Three wire ties on each side were all tightly cinched around 18 gauge wire without protection so I removed all of them.

After cutting the wire at the break point, the insulation was stripped, I soldered the wire, and slid on shrink tubing.

To secure the wires I put on wire tie around wire connector/brake line on each side to hold the wires in place.

Yesterday, oil and filter, final drive, and air cleaner changed. This morning at 630am started washing the grime off from the wastern trip. Temps in PA today are hitting 98, feeling like 104. I was still dripping with sweat 1.5 hrs later when the bike was done. Good to have the FJR clean again.

Pulled it in the driveway after the long Spearfish and beyond trip. It was fabulous!

New shoes for the FJR. Road Smart 4s this time, sorry to report that those F-ers are just as stiff as the RS3s. My take offs still have a couple thousand miles, but I'm getting ready to leave and I want fresh rubber.

Stay thirsty, my friends...

Hppants wrote: ↑Sat Jul 06, 2024 1:36 pm New shoes for the FJR. Road Smart 4s this time, sorry to report that those F-ers are just as stiff as the RS3s. My take offs still have a couple thousand miles, but I'm getting ready to leave and I want fresh rubber.

Stay thirsty, my friends...

I think you will like the tires. The RS4 on FJR were abused on my ride to California and to Yellowstone. They have 5200 miles on them and are starting show their age. Hoping to get 2000 more miles out of them. We shall see.

If I get 7,000 out of a rear, that will make the RS4 more valuable than the RS3. Like you, we shall see.

I'm at over 6,000 miles on my first set, with at least 3,000 miles left in them. By far the longest lasting tire I've used. That doesn't mean much because I only used the Angle GT's

I'd like to think I'm reasonably hard on them. I know I've ridden them to the edge of the tire, as posted up above somewhere. I'll take 9,000 miles out of a set of tires. Plus they handle like a dream, in my opinion.

Festus wrote: ↑Sat Jul 06, 2024 6:02 pm I'm at over 6,000 miles on my first set, with at least 3,000 miles left in them. By far the longest lasting tire I've used. That doesn't mean much because I only used the Angle GT's

I'd like to think I'm reasonably hard on them. I know I've ridden them to the edge of the tire, as posted up above somewhere. I'll take 9,000 miles out of a set of tires. Plus they handle like a dream, in my opinion.

That's amazing mileage for an FJR. I've not ever had a tire on the FJR last 5,000 miles.

Rebalanced my front tire/wheel. I realized the wheel weights installed quite a while back had come loose. I noticed on the way back from Toter’s that the front was a little buzzy at higher speeds.

I tested yesterday at FJR nominal speed and the front wheel felt unsettled.

I had picked up some flat black weights from a local tire shop. They are 1/4 oz each and I needed 7 of them to get the wheel right.

That seems like a lot. What has been you guys experience? I have the yellow dot right on the valve stem. Did I do something wrong?

Yesterday, had a new PR4GT put on. Was losing air by the time I got home.

Nail. Plugged this morning. Today, flushed clutch and brake fluid. Clutch was smoky, front brake circuit looked new, rear was smoky. Used test harness to cycle the abs pump twice.

I need to service pegs and the rear brake pedal assembly, and I’ll be caught up.

Cav47 wrote: ↑Sun Jul 07, 2024 5:31 pm Rebalanced my front tire/wheel. I realized the wheel weights installed quite a while back had come loose. I noticed on the way back from Toter’s that the front was a little buzzy at higher speeds.

I tested yesterday at FJR nominal speed and the front wheel felt unsettled.

I had picked up some flat black weights from a local tire shop. They are 1/4 oz each and I needed 7 of them to get the wheel right.

That seems like a lot. What has been you guys experience? I have the yellow dot right on the valve stem. Did I do something wrong?

For me it always varies how many weights are installed. I don't worry about the number of weights, rather I focus if the tire is balanced.

Toter wrote: ↑Sun Jul 07, 2024 12:19 pm That's amazing mileage for an FJR. I've not ever had a tire on the FJR last 5,000 miles.

Cav47 wrote: ↑Sun Jul 07, 2024 5:31 pm I had picked up some flat black weights from a local tire shop. They are 1/4 oz each and I needed 7 of them to get the wheel right.

That seems like a lot. What has been you guys experience? I have the yellow dot right on the valve stem. Did I do something wrong?

(7) 1/4 oz weights is not great but not bad. A friend asked me to mount a P.O.S. eBay Chinese tire which had no brand markings and a nonsense DOT number. I insisted when it took (19) 1/4 oz weights he return the tire, but he refused. A month or so latter I learned he was routinely locking the rear (this tire) when braking on barely damp roads. Did that in a turn, ran wide off the road so as not to fall, down a grassy hill, hit a ditch rejoining the road, thrown from bike, came to rest against a guard rail. Bike totaled. Broken leg, arm, ribs. Caught COVID before he got home. R.I.P. I was leading the group that day.

So in short I don't think your concern about the amount of weights is unfounded.

You have to put the dot on the tire stem else basement-armchair-know-it-alls who have never done anything will laugh at you. Unless you have balanced your wheel w/o tire to know the valve stem really is the heaviest point aligning the dot is only to mute the ignorant commentators.

The Traxxion Dynamics guy posted a video about the dot. On a Gold Wing, the dot is not on the valve stem. The factory puts a chalk mark on the heavy spot. It was up to 6” off the valve stem.

He showed the dots lined up with the chalk mark and checked it on multiple bikes and found it to be true.

Prebalance your wheel and permanently put weights on it, somehow marked so you know not to remove them. Then you'll find you need only a couple or three weights to balance the tire....
On my two FJR's the front wheels were out of balance so bad the factory had put 30 grams of clip-on weights on the wheel... One of them needed 50 grams to fix.....
Also be aware of the weight of TPMS sensors and metal valve stems.....