FJRiders.com

More proof that there's 150 miles when the metal shows......

No sipes and wet are a bad combination......

raYzerman wrote: ↑Sun May 29, 2022 8:44 am More proof that there's 150 miles when the metal shows......

No sipes and wet are a bad combination......

I found out that shallow wipes and round marble-like sand the same color as the road surface can be less than optimal.

raYzerman wrote: ↑Sun May 29, 2022 8:44 am More proof that there's 150 miles when the metal shows......

No sipes and wet are a bad combination......

Agreed! In my case, I was coming from BC. I noticed (to my surprise) that the rear tire was looking a bit sketchy around Winnipeg MB after some highway mountain roads in BC and the run across the prairies - it started out at about three quarters. A small gradual decline between Winnipeg and Marquete MI. Got to Ottawa the next night and it didn't look much worse (no belts showing) so I decided to attempt the 1000+ km (600 mi) run to home. Not sure when the metal "appeared". Not much in the way of curvy roads from Ottawa to Fredericton so I wasn't too concerned as long as the air stayed on the inside. I don't think I will cut it that close again!

Note: Tire is wet because I hosed the bugs off the bike, not because I was riding in the rain.

wheatonFJR wrote: ↑Sun May 29, 2022 8:48 am

raYzerman wrote: ↑Sun May 29, 2022 8:44 am More proof that there's 150 miles when the metal shows......

No sipes and wet are a bad combination......

I found out that shallow wipes and round marble-like sand the same color as the road surface can be less than optimal.

The trouble with sand is it doesn't matter if your tires are brang new.

raYzerman wrote: ↑Sun May 29, 2022 12:08 pm The trouble with sand is it doesn't matter if your tires are brang new.

Yes. Even the "brang" new tire still has to slide to wipe the sand into the siping to get grip on clean road.

I have been pleasantly surprised at how well a bald motorcycle tire performs on wet roads. Our contact patch isn't but about 2" wide which seems to work pretty good at shedding the water aside.

N4HHE wrote: ↑Sun May 29, 2022 12:22 pm

raYzerman wrote: ↑Sun May 29, 2022 12:08 pm The trouble with sand is it doesn't matter if your tires are brang new.

Yes. Even the "brang" new tire still has to slide to wipe the sand into the siping to get grip on clean road.

I have been pleasantly surprised at how well a bald motorcycle tire performs on wet roads. Our contact patch isn't but about 2" wide which seems to work pretty good at shedding the water aside.

Words of wisdom that shall apply.

Put my GPS power and other suppert stuff back on the fjr in preperation for a June 10 march to Georgia.

About 320 miles today up to Roanoke, VA for lunch with Ken the HD Guy. Discovered a few new roads on the way back, picked at random from Base Camp. The other thing new to me is this bluetooth doohickey -> https://www.taotronics.com/products/tt- ... h-receiver. I'm usually just an earbuds with mp3 person and use the gps with visual only. But with this and a Garmin XT I can listen to music from the SD card and get turn instructions too. Neat little thing to drop in a shirt pocket instead of the mp3 at times.

pulled the seats off again. Yep, mice are back. Filled up the little space under the passenger seat with seeds from the bird feeder.
So the task at hand is to do a throttle body clean and inspection. Then a throttle body sync and oil change.
Change to summer blend.
Sync went good. all is well. New oil 15w/50. Ready for summer riding.

977.8 kms
Home to Wawa Ont
On my way to BC

Hack wrote: ↑Mon May 30, 2022 7:03 pm 977.8 kms
Home to Wawa Ont
On my way to BC

Beautiful day for it today.

bungie4 wrote: ↑Mon May 30, 2022 7:56 pm

Hack wrote: ↑Mon May 30, 2022 7:03 pm 977.8 kms
Home to Wawa Ont
On my way to BC

Beautiful day for it today.

Yes...
Left the house in the morning and it was 15 deg.
'Got up to 28 later in the PM... Looks like we may encounter a little rain tomorrow...

I didn't do a darn thing to my FJR today but this photo popped up on my cell phone. It was from SWFog in 2014.

Hubba hubba hubba!

As beemerdon would say.

I rode my FJR about 220 miles today in the mountains north of Spokane Washington. With places named, Deer Park, Deer Creek, Deer Lake, and Elk you know the ride could get interesting quick. I got lucky today seeing only one deer on the side of a hill well ahead. The only near miss was a juvenile bald eagle decided to fly across my direction of travel then turned to parallel my path about 6' above my head. Dumb bird had not learned vehicles are faster than it.

Here are a few photos.

Davis Lake.





A photo of the Flowery Trail Road and here is a write up on MotorcycleRoads.com about how nice a twisty it is. And it is a very nice and remote road.



At the east end of the Flowery Trail Road is the town of Usk where a Newsprint Paper closed due to the collapse of newsprint business. Today the new owners are working on opening a Crypocurrency plant. The reason for locating the plant in Usk is low cost of electricity and water from the Pend Oreille River to cool the server farm. Hard to imaging the paper mill workers finding work at the server farm.

Springdale Hunters Road



Nice clouds.



Columbia River a bit low now but it is filling fast.





FJR and some spring flowers.



FJR with Canola crop.



Remove the FJR. More nice clouds.



It was a nice day to be on the FJR.

Nice area roads to spend time on!

Rode from Brandon MB to Grenfell Sask stopping to tour the Royal Cdn. Artillery Museum at CFB Shilo.
The wind blowing across the the Trans Canada was awful... We detoured south to the Redcoat trail thinking it may be less windy... It wasn't.
'Met a fellow on a Goldwing who told us he saw a rider blown right off the road and into the ditch...

Not a very enjoyable day at all... Oh... And the weather looks like shit for our ride day through the mountains on the Crowsnest Hwy... Yay!

Hack wrote: ↑Thu Jun 02, 2022 7:28 pm Rode from Brandon MB to Grenfell Sask stopping to tour the Royal Cdn. Artillery Museum at CFB Shilo.
The wind blowing across the the Trans Canada was awful... We detoured south to the Redcoat trail thinking it may be less windy... It wasn't.
'Met a fellow on a Goldwing who told us he saw a rider blown right off the road and into the ditch...

Not a very enjoyable day at all... Oh... And the weather looks like shit for our ride day through the mountains on the Crowsnest Hwy... Yay!

Many years ago, same thing, there. It felt like I was riding straight but 45* to the road. No fun that day.

Rode it to the Triumph dealer in Spokane Washington to look at a 2020 900 Pro GT. Not ready to pull the trigger yet but it is intriguing.

The Triumph 900 Pro GT checks many of the boxes, something lighter than the FJR, better suspension, more room for my aging hips and knees and more cockpit space. The Triumph weighs a meager 435 pounds. I road it about 20 miles on a test ride today. Fun to try something different. The seat is not for me but it is not awful. The rear brake pedal has a lot of trave before it engages. After market windscreen did an admirable job but a little wider would be better. No head buffeting though. It would be a great bike for back roads like I ride on around Spokane.

One negative thing is maintenance messages have to be cleared by the shop. Grrrrr. The rear shock preload has four settings just the like the FJR ES another grrrrrr. I measured the sag at one inch for the lowest preload setting and it is about right so maybe the Marzocchi rear spring is up to the task, need to investigate.

Unfortunately the Yamaha Tracer 9 GT is still in the unobtainium category.

Well today it is raining here in Spokane and will continue to do so for a day or two. So today I will check the valves on my FJR.

After some research last night I will let the idea of owning the Triumph go. A new Triumph Pro GT is only $16,600 MSRP - the used one is 15,500, not enough discount for a two year old lightly used bike. I'd rather have a Triumph GT version for $14,000 and give up the bells and whistle and spend the extra cash on making my own instead of Triumph's idea of my own. I don't want an electrically adjustable rear shock preload with a meager 4 preload adjustments, give me a rebuildable quality shock with manual external adjustment thank you.

The sales person wasn't up on the bike and was telling me things that weren't true about the bike's options such as it didn't include tire pressure sensor when it should have one. At least be honest what the bike is supposed have included.

After market parts for the Triumph 900 are sold out or are simply not supported. For instance National Cycle doesn't make a windscreen. Most of the stuff at Twisted Throttle is currently not available for order. Hard to find stuff for the bike.

Valve adjustments are 12,000 miles less then half of an FJR. The long travel of the rear brake pedal is unwanted. Either the system needs bleeding or it has two to three inches of travel before engagement. Not safe. The bike was noisier than the FJR too and over the long haul it might become annoying. The phone app to connect a phone to the TFT got a 1.9 rating at the Google Store and was roundly criticized on the store front and forums - it is one of the options with the Pro version of the bike, no thanks.

The TFT display, while clearly visible in the sun, looked as if it was designed by a gaming enthusiasts, not a motorcyclist. It seems to have a high learning curve, not intuitive. RPMs are displayed by flowing wave like lines, just put the blasted RPM number up there and be done with it. During my test ride it took me 10 minutes to figure out I was looking at the RPMs and it was hard to read. There is a lot going on with that TFT and it all controlled by a couple of buttons and a joy stick on the handle bars. A TFT is great if it is designed well and easy to read in the sun.

Out to the garage. Have a nice day.