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!

@tktplz, glad you're happy with your FJ-09! Welcome to the family.

My experience-- I hated the stock windscreen from day 0. Like Warren Buffett and Jimmy Buffett all wrapped up in one. I replaced it with a tall Madstad, and I'm 80% satisfied. I bought another brand of screen used but haven't yet installed it. I removed the absurd stock handguards and got some KTMs instead. Big plus, especially for lane splitting; also probably for anyone who parks in tight quarters. I have bought but not yet installed adjustable passenger pegs, at the request of my occasional passenger, who says that more legroom is needed in the back. As far as long-distance touring, it can be done. The stock seat works fine for me, but I've never had an actual touring bike so I don't know better. Some vibration comes through the bars and pedals--it's totally tolerable, but I've never had an actual touring bike... Etc. MPG in mixed use with my heavy throttle hand is 38mpg (US). Much better on a long trip, closer to 48. Tank is 5ish gallons, so range is adequate. If most of your riding is long freeway segments, or even boring straight country roads, the FJ-09 can certainly do it, but a Versys 650 might be more to the point. What the FJ-09 is best at...is being really good at almost everything. It's a pretty much perfect commuter, great for bombing around the city, great for twisties, fine for an occasional passenger, great for a solo on-pavement "adventure", luxurious legroom, just-enough tech assist via ABS and TC... And a motor that is so much fun that you want to use full throttle at all times, but you can't because it is too powerful; wheelies in three gears just cause you feel like it, and when you're done, you can get on with your business, and the cops won't even notice you because you're on a grown-up bike rather than a sporty... If that last bit about the motor doesn't intrigue you, then skip it and get something less mischievous!

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.

IMO the Shads match the style of the bike better than the OEM cases!

So I've installed the KTM guards. (See pics.) It took me a bit of wrangling to slide the zip-ties on the cable bundles as far inboard as possible, so that I could get the inboard ends of the guards clamped around the bars, outside of the zip-ties. Questions: Q1. Does it seem like a bad idea to have the wrapped bundles of wires/cables resting against the screws/nuts of the clamps? Will vibration, time, etc. eventually wear through the wrapping? Should I add extra wrapping, or cover up the screws with electrical tape so that they aren't sharp, or something like that? Q2. Any preference for having the screwhead face the rider vs having the screwhead facing away from the driver? What are the pros and cons? Or does it not really matter? Q3. @rodan, I see from your picture that you slid the zipties inboard of the clamps, whereas @wessie I see that you slid the zipties outboard. Was this arbitrary, or is there some reason I might prefer one or the other? (Or maybe I'm overthinking this?) Thanks Alej

One of the first things I did to my FJ was removing the hand guards. Too wide for splitting. Now that it's "cold" in SF (dipping below 50) I'm thinking it might be nice to have something. So I just ordered some KTM hand guards via Amazon. Amazon cost a few dollars more, but I din't have to get out my credit card. :-) Will mount them and report back once I get them.

I have an SH-48. It holds the usual junk (rain coat, disc lock, tire gauge, ...) plus during the week my work backpack with 15 inch laptop. Now that I'm used to it, I wouldn't want anything smaller. I also have SH-36 side cases, but I don't use them most of the time, because where I'm living, lane splitting is allowed. (I also took the hand guards off...)

Dainese full-length boots with ankle and shin protectors. I have two pairs--one more "racy" with a hinge, and one more "tourey". I was wearing the latter pair when I dropped a bike on my ankle several years ago, and they may have saved me from a broken ankle. I'm usually ATG, but even when I'm not, I wear boots. I hate the idea of not having full use of my legs for six weeks or however long it would be.

@bgigharbor : Let me understand--you currently have an FJ-09 and an older RT. You are thinking of replacing the FJ with an S1000XR, and replacing your older RT with a new R1200RT. And you're looking for a playbike. At the end of the day, the Street Triple isn't ALL that different from the FJ. They are both midweight naked-ish triples. The Street Triple would undoubtedly be better on a track, and could be faster on very well-paved high-speed twisties (which there aren't many of in my parts). Beyond that, I'll take the FJ. So if I were in your shoes... How about an RC390? Or a Daytona or other 600cc-class supersport? Or an electric?

I'm not sure why this is an interesting thing to test. What is the point of figuring out the stopping distance when using the rear brake only? That's like saying, "How fast can you run on one foot?" It may be measurable, but I don't think it's relevant to the real world. In the real world, if you are max braking from 40 mph on an FJ in a straight line on dry pavement, you are hard on the front brake, and there is approximately zero weight on the rear wheel, so rear wheel braking performance matters little. And with approximately zero weight on the rear wheel, it becomes very easy to lock up the rear, with no benefit and a fair amount of potential downside. So for threshold braking, rear ABS is pure win AFAIC. Front ABS is an entirely different question, but I'm happy to have front ABS too...

(Shad bags hold full faces. Givis might too, not sure. FWIW.)