Mid-Life Rider

One of the great joys of being all 24/7 about motorcycles is getting to offer my opinion to friends and acquaintances about what bike to buy. In fact, that was the original motivation behind writing up this comparo of sport touring bikes.

The other day someone found this blog and sent me a note asking me about my experiences with my FJR. Here is what I wrote back . . .

The FJR is something of a cult bike. If you check out the FJR Forum, you’ll find tons of information and a bunch of geeked out FJR fans. For a compromise bike, it’s a hell of a beast. I have toured it, run it on the track, taught the Lee Parks program on it (lots of round and round on a 40 foot circle) and ridden it all around the town. People on the forum commute on it, rack serious miles, and go apex clipping on weekends. There are plenty of people who put well over 10,000 miles on it a year. Some of them are very large, some aren’t. There are several women on the forum who ride an FJR daily.

Other than off roading and racing, there isn’t a lot that it doesn’t do very well (though not as well as a bike built specifically for that purpose). So it’s not as comfortable as a Gold Wing, but it will run away from it in the twisties. It will keep up with a poorly ridden sport bike on public roads up to about 7/10s; but have fun touring that Gixxer. I couldn’t say if it’s better or worse in this way than the new Kawi or a BWM . . . that’s all a matter of taste, and anyone who says that the one of those bikes is better than the other is wrong. Not wrong to have an opinion, but wrong to assert something as a universal truth. All three are enormously capable bikes.

The FJR is not small and at walking speeds is a pig: tippy and a bit top heavy. Nearly everyone I know with one has dropped theirs at walking or standing speeds. But once you’re rolling, it’s completely different: Freight train-like stability at speed. Fabulous power throughout the rev range. No vibration. Decent mileage (I got 40 mpg unless I’m flogging it). Runs on regular. Goes like hell. Stops well.

Depending on the brand of tire, the bike can be either quick or slow steering. For example, you can put on Avon Storms and it will definitely tip in quicker than it does on the stock Metzlers.  It holds a line extremely well. The cornering limits are defined mostly by lowish pegs. Some of that you can deal with through good body position (by that I mean hanging off the bike), but at some point, you will drag hard parts. If you find yourself doing that often on an FJR, I would humbly submit you should slow down.

Most people change out the windshield to get it just right. I went a bit taller and a bit wider. It’s a $150 thing to do . . . not a big thing. But make no mistake, the bike offers a very high level of wind protection. To the point where the real hot weather guys do things to create more airflow. It is a very easy bike to ride 10 - 14 hour days: combination of low vibration, tremendous stability, and low wind buffeting. Again, it’s not like a Gold Wing, but the difference between a standard bike and the FJR is considerable. At normal touring speeds, it’s a walk in the park.

Common mods to the bike are a wind screen, change out the throttle tube, and depending on your size, bar risers.  After that, there are endless things you can do to the bike. I’m one of those guys, so I have a Rich’s custom seat, Hyperpro front and rear suspension, Power Commander, fork brace, Motorcycle Larry triple clamp . . . you get the idea. The only parts that were really necessary were the bar risers.

Not everyone that owns the bike loves it. I would say there are one or two people a year on the forum that buy it and just can’t make it work for them. That’s probably pretty low. Generally the people who buy them love them and keep them for a long time. So that tells you something.

If you can’t tell by now, I’m a huge fan of the bike. I’ve got a bunch of long trips cooked up to take it on this year. I never get bored riding it. The euro crowd who claim that bikes like the FJR have no character have never ridden one. If character means lots of fiddly things to fix all the time, they’re right. If character means a distinctive sounding motor, again, guilty as charged. But if character means a bike you can talk to and a bike that will talk back in a useful way, then I bet to differ. I don’t fall into the “you can have it when you pry it from my cold dead hands” level of affection, but I can tell you that I smile every time I think about riding it, and I smile again every time I get off, whether it’s after ten minutes or ten hours.

Tags: YamahaFJR 1300, Sport Touring, Yammy, Kawi, BMW, Avon Storms, Metzler, Gold Wing, Hyperpro. midlife rider