Category: Motorcycling

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Indiana Ride

grouppic

Saturday C and I took our first all day ride on the FJR. A little late in the season but there was an organized ride over in Indiana to “Beat the Gawkers” on a great route through Brown County. The plan was to enjoy the day riding and check out the beautiful scenery before the leaves turned fully and the roads were clogged up with old folks gawking at the trees.

The biggest issue was the temperature. It was a lovely 37 degrees when we left at 6 am. The day before I tried to prepare Claudine for just how cold that was going to be and gave her an out but she wouldn’t take it. It was supposed to be a couple’s ride, but a number of the wives opted out because of the temperatures. The cold doesn’t bother me because I have heated gear.

She said she would just layer up. OK.

I lost count of how many shirts and layers she put on but she did have two jackets. One of the biggest issues was gloves. But we worked it out.

The other excitement was installing a new intercom on the motorcycle which would allow us to be able to have conversations as well as allow us to listen to music. This didn’t work out as well as planned as we didn’t have enough time for testing and tuning.

We met a friend at 6:30am about 10 minutes down the road at McDonalds. At that point Claudine said it’s not that cold. I told her you haven’t spend 15 minutes at 65 or 70 miles an hour yet, hang tight.

We left there to meet up with other folks in Columbus Indiana. It took us about an hour and a half to get there. We hit some fog, which only made it chillier. But it was pretty sweet riding through the sunrise with a full moon in sight.

We hooked up at the Columbus, IN Denny’s and had to thaw out. Neither Claudine nor Kyle had heated gear and with a low of 37 on the way, perhaps lower at times, that’s down right cold.

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At Denny’s we met up with others from the FJR Forum including the ride organizers and had breakfast.

From there we took some pretty tasty roads around Brown County and ended up in Nashville, Indiana where we had Pizza and some stuffed breadsticks at a pretty decent Italian restaurant.

After lunch we all split up and wandered our way home. 12 hours and 350 miles later we were whipped. 350 miles isn’t very many for only 12 hours but we ran a nice pace and enjoyed the surroundings. It was a long day but well worth it.

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FJR Maintenance Day & Barbarian Modification

Well at just over 6400 Miles and a weekend of hard riding last weekend it was time to look things over and do a little maintenance.

At the very least we needed an oil change though 3,000 miles is pretty short for today’s oils. The Yamalube was a little dirty but not bad at all when I drained it. I opted for 10w-40 Castrol this time. It was one of the few oils I could find without the friction modifiers so I thought I’d give it a go.

Also figured out that a FRAM PH7317 will fit my bike as well. That too will save me some dough, all though I do think the Yamaha/Denso filters are probably a little better filters overall, the FRAM should be just fine.

On tap for changes this time was the Barbarian modification.

For the 06 model it’s pretty simple. You peel off some plastic on the left side of the bike, expose the main wiring harness.

Unplug the big connector, push the plug out of pin location 25, remove the wire from 23 and move it over into 25, insert the plug into 23 and put everything back together.

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This is all sounds pretty simple and it was until you break that orange/yellow wire. Grrrrrr….

Anyway we’re fixed and we’re good to go.

What this is supposed to do, is expose the CO level adjustment interface in the diagnostic menu. Then you can adjust the CO levels for each of the cylinders, giving you smoother (richer) off idle throttle response, and potentially, perhaps a cooler running bike too.

I haven’t taken it for a ride yet, but did adjust the levels +7 across the board as recommended. (Remember all manufacturers set everything lean as can be from the factory to appease the EPA).

My values were:

INITIAL Change to +7:

C:01 5 C:01 12
C:02 18 C:02 25
C:03 18 C:03 25
C:04 21 C:04 28

I wanted to resync the throttle bodies today as well but ran out of daylight. Will do that maybe tomorrow or on an upcoming weekend.

Total cost of today’s maintenance? Oil: $12 (on sale) Filter: $4.50 (already had the crush washer) Barbarian Mod, FREE.

For more information on the Barbarian Mod check out this resource.

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FJR Eastern Owners Meet Boone, NC

Wow, what fun.

Boone 01

There’s little better in life than spending a weekend doing what you really enjoy with a bunch of other people doing the same.

Boone 02

Last weekend was a medium to large (depending on how you want to look at it) get together of owners of the same bike that I have. The Yamaha FJR 1300, sport-touring motorcycle or “super sport-touring??? as Yamaha marketing would have you believe.

The get together was in Boone, N.C. simply a wonderful place for riding. The roads were delicious.

For those that don’t understand what sport-touring is and think we all ride one of those dang crotch rockets, you’re only half right. You see those dang crotch rockets do a couple things really well. The go fast in a straight line, and they corner very, very well. The problem is, you can’t ride them very long. The slumped over the tank riding position isn’t conducive to ride from say Cincinnati to oh, Boone, N.C. and be able to walk when you get there.

A true touring bike like oh, say a GoldWing is much more comfortable. It has all the creature comforts of your lazy boy at home. In fact it’s a lot like riding a lazy boy, and they handle about as well too. (OK, so there are some guys out there than can flop those things around pretty good, but for the most part, that’s the reality).

Sport-touring is the in-between; it’s some sport-with some comfort too. We typically ride to where we’re going. So when we get there we want to be able to walk. But we want to enjoy the roads and have fun too.

The FJR is pretty good at this.

Boone 03

My trip started Thursday morning, though not as early as the guy I was meeting. Kevin’s day started at 5:00am CST. Coming from Birmingham Alabama, Kevin was aiming to do an Iron Butt, Saddle Sore ride. (1000 miles in 24 hours.) Since Birmingham isn’t 1000 miles away from Boone, that led to a rather interesting route.

I met Kevin in Frankfort, KY, about ½ way through is adventure and we slabbed it on down to Boone, N.C. from there.

I was supposed to meet him at noon, even though I knew he wouldn’t be there until 1pm, and he wasn’t there until almost 2pm. Fact: Streets and Trips doesn’t lie.

We arrived in Boone, N.C. at 1am EST. It was a long ride of boring interstate, except for I-40, that’s not boring interstate, and the evening really livened up when the fog rolled in. (Yippee).

The next 2 and days were spent surrounded by great folks, great food, and outstanding roads.

There were folks from all over, as far north as Canada eh?, as far west as Texas, and as far south as Florida.

All in all I added a little over 2000 miles to the FJR this weekend and except for the initial 600 miles the rest were in twisties or secondary highways. It was all good, even the ride home.

Photos in the gallery:

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2006 FJR Steering Head Service (Check and Tightening)

OK, so I’ve had my 06 FJR for almost a month. About 2400 miles or so into ownership I noticed a little thunk up front every time I hit something hard.

I checked the front end as part of the 600 mile service, but while in Vermont, when I checked I felt a little play in the steering head.

Not to worry, it just needed a little TLC and tightening.

To do this on an 06A really couldn’t be easier. Put the bike on the center stand and support the front end. (Get it off the ground). I do need/want to build one of those front end stands that straddle the bike and support it with straps but I haven’t had time to do that yet. For today I just stuck my floor jack under it with a board on the headers and gave it a couple easy pumps.

The tools for this are really simple.

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