alejandro

I'm nearby. PM me and let's say hi or have coffee!

For pickup at my house in Oakland CA: - One set of original factory hand guards with all the bits (I think, but not guaranteed): FREE (would consider shipping for cost of shipping + $20) - One factory windscreen: FREE - One first-gen Madstad 24" with brackets, well-used but not abused (SRP: $259.95): $100 - One set (2pc) Shad SH36, "carbon" color, well-used but not abused (SRP: $524.99), including 2 keys and extra lock mechanism (for topcase), including fitted internal bags (SRP: ??), not including FJ-09–specific mountings: $262 - GIVI Monolock topcase 30 (?) ltr (ask me if you're interested and I'll figure out the specifics) -- I'm getting rid of the factory handguards and windscreen because I have replaced them. I'm getting rid of the Madstad because I found another one that works better for me. I'm getting rid of the Shad sidecases because I got some narrower Shad SH23s. If I were doing more long trips, I would definitely keep the SH36s. I'm getting rid of the GIVI because I sold the bike that it had been attached to. -- Please PM me if you are interested! Pickup is optimal--I'd rather not ship stuff if I can avoid it! Will post photos if there is demand. Alejandro

No worries @bbb ! I think I just have to get them, and then return them if they don't work for me. Thanks again for looking into it...

Thanks @piotrek!

Can anyone here tell me if the sh23 will accommodate a 15" Macbook? Thank you!

Interesting. I'm in California, the only state in the US where lane splitting is legal (San Francisco in particular). And people do lane split, pretty aggressively! (Mostly bikers--the odd car tries to do it too.) And some large percentage of the vehicles on the road are full-sized SUVs and pickups. The good news is that there is a high correlation in California between (people who drive pickup trucks) and (people who rode dirt bikes when they were kids). So generally they go out of their way to be helpful if they see me coming. The weekend and nighttime drivers are not great, but a great majority of the rush-hour drivers are skilled and polite, something that cannot be said of anywhere else I've driven in the US...

@BBB thanks for the helpful info. For greater lane splitting flexibility, you might consider removing the OEM handguards, and maybe replacing with the KTMs. This shaves off more than a few inches of width overall!

My passenger said that she would like more leg room. Does anyone have experience with lower passenger pegs? Which ones etc.? Thank you!

As far as commuting vs. joyriding: I live in the SF Bay Area, where there are two very good reasons to commute via bike rather than car: "carpool lane" and "lane splitting". For me day to day, it's a choice between public transportation and motorcycle. Either way, it's 30 minutes each way give or take. If I have somewhere I need to go afterwards, I'll take the bike. If there's some drinking that needs to be seen to, I'll take the train. If I tried to do the commute by car, it would take an hour or more, and I would be a sad, sad panda by the end of it. Oh, and my gf and I share one car (and a motorcycle and a scooter and a bunch of bicycles). During the week, she has more use for the car than I do. So I have a very good justification for owning and riding a motorcycle. And I also need one that is reliable, which is part of why the FJ ultimately won out over a *Strada of some sort.

AGV K5, white. It's my favorite helmet yet. White goes with anything and is visible. The helmet is light (carbon), is pretty quiet, and has a flip-down sun shade. The sun shade is a huge win--no more struggling with poking sunglass arms over my ears. Quieter, lighter, and better fit than Shoei Qwest. Better fit than old K3 (which was a size larger). Better than the CycleGear house-brand modular helmet that I got as a backup a while ago, which is heavy and loud...

Today I went for my first real ride post-ECU flash (@2wheeldynoworks). (I'm not counting my ride home on Thursday.) It performed just as expected, and as everyone else has said... 95% of the coughing/sputtering/throat-clearing lean-sounding stuff is gone. The roads today were a bit moist, so I wasn't able to really wring it out, but the real differences come at part-throttle anyway, so this may have been good conditions after all to discern some of the differences. I almost miss the sputteriness from before. It's so smooth now, with just the faintest sputter under very light partial throttle. I realize that I was doing a fair amount of compensating before, giving it more gas than it needed sometimes to get past the sputter. I'll need to unlearn that. And the throttle response is now more immediate, so I'll need to undo some of the compensating I was doing before. In summary, if the coughing/sputtering really bothers you, then this is your ticket. If you view the coughing as "character", and you don't "need" to get rid of the speed limiter, then keep the stock setup. Haven't had a chance to drive aggressively, or (needless to say) to test the lack of speed limiter. I would imagine the greater smoothness will be very helpful when that time comes.

Speed in gears here: http://fj-09.org/thread/4780/rev-limit-top-speed-gear Almost certainly wind resistance etc. would prevent you from hitting redline in 6th. (Speed on dyno doesn't reflect wind resistance...)

I will be doing something similar in a little over 2 weeks! I hope you are happy with the results.I'll report back for sure.

Thank you for sharing your story. <3 I went through something similar but different a couple of years ago. You took me right back there. It's still present for me. Maybe always will be.

Bike is in shop...ECU is on its way to Washington...front end will be lowered 5mm in triple fork for less woolies, rear preload will be reduced accordingly...should feel kinda different by the time I get it back! Existing mods include Madstad 24" windscreen, KTM handguards, Shad 36L sides and 48L top, and T-Rex slider assortment.