keithu

Nicely done @2linby I haven't done a BBG on this bike but I feel confident that I could. The Mr. Ed's saddle is the key. 😎 I'd like to see more detailed photos of your Rtic setup. I put mine in a Yeti rambler holder attached to the right passenger peg but it has been a little troublesome. Or let me know the next time you're at LBCC for a class and I'll come check it out.

That looks stock. I wonder if a previous owner modified it somehow. If you can find another local Tracer or FJ owner with stock exhaust you could arrange to meet up and compare sound levels.

Having spent time in Miami recently, I'd say the traffic there is no worse than Portland or Seattle.

Yes, and they've done some repair work on the Mary's Peak road in the last year so the condition is much better than it used to be.

I haven't had one. I generally avoid fast food burgers these days, but Whataburger is on my list to try next time I'm in Texas. Is it better than Five Guys?

If you removed every beggar and drug addict from Las Vegas it would still suck. Also - and this may get me banned - "superior burger compared to In-N-Out" is a low bar. Most overrated burger ever, and their fries suck too. Great write up and photos BTW!

The sandwich was excessively huge. I ended up eating some of it for breakfast the next day.

Yes, I think they were referring to the style of bike. A lot of those folks can't conceive of the idea of traveling on anything smaller than a Road Glide or Wingabago. There's this belief that if you're not on a 900 pound parade float a gust of wind will carry you off to the land of Oz or something. They were pretty incredulous when I told them I'd already ridden 800 miles that day. Regarding smoke: conditions change all the time. Tripcheck.com has road cams around Oregon where you can see current conditions.

Last weekend I looped out through eastern Oregon and down to Ely, Nevada to meet up with some old friends. My track: It's 800 miles from my home to Ely, so I rolled out of the garage just after 2:00am. I chose gear based on 90-100F temps in the desert, not considering I'd hit freezing temps over Willamette Pass. Why would I? I've only been over this pass dozens of times and frozen my ass off every single time. It warmed up quickly once the sun started to rise. I saw the ambient temp gauge on my FJ go from 32F to 82F in just a little over an hour. OR-31 was beautiful at sunrise. I expected a lot of smoke from the nearby Bootleg fire, but there just a few high whisps. I arrived in Ely around 2:45pm as planned. While topping up at a gas station some pirates came over to check out my aux fuel tank. "Looks like you're set up for long distance." "Yep," I replied. "It's no good for the highway though." 🤨 On Saturday a small group of us rode up to Wheeler Peak in Great Basin NP. We started on what I thought would be a short hike, but ended up being three miles at 10,000' ASL. An Aerostich and Sidi boots aren't the ideal gear for such a thing, but it was a beautiful hike. Sunday morning I was on the road a bit after 5:00am for the 750 mile route home. I routed up through Fields, Oregon to enjoy a famous milkshake at Fields Station.

The OEM cases should work on an FJR1300 too. So if you're looking to sell them, maybe there's an FJR owner out there who wants narrower bags for some reason.

Yeah I bought some extenders a while back. Now my arms only block about half the rear view rather than all of it.

I've ridden in temps like that a couple of times. The first time was in 1990 riding across the Mojave Desert in 110-112F heat on my Katana 600. I was young and dumb, and stripped off my jean jacket and just rode in a t-shirt. I was getting dehydrated and stopped in every single town to drink a bunch of Gatorade. Not smart. In June 2005 during the Cal24 Rally I went through Death Valley in the late afternoon and it was about 115F. This time I was wearing my Aerostich Roadcrafter classic and kept it on. I dumped water down my shirt and opened the vents. The evaporative cooling was like air conditioning, though in that heat it didn't last long. 🔥

I have plenty of nice things to say about Florida. There is abundant natural beauty, and I even encountered nice weather one day: Florida seems to be way ahead of their neighbors in the southeast in the craft beer department. I had no trouble finding excellent local brews. Standouts were Dangerous Minds in Pompano Beach and Barrel of Monks in Boca Raton. The people I worked with are friendly. And Florida drivers aren't as bad as Oregonians. But then, who is? Maybe New Jersey. But yeah... as a motorcyclist I have to say I'm glad I live in Oregon. 😎

I spent three of the last four weeks in south Florida for work, where the biggest elevation change I experienced was riding an elevator to the fourth floor. And it rained, ALL THE DAMNED TIME. I never even took my sunglasses out of their case last week. No offense meant to Floridians, but your "Sunshine State" moniker is questionable. 😁 Now that I'm back home in Oregon, I felt the need to get out and experience some actual sunshine and get up above sea level. I did a quick little 200 mile Sunday morning loop out to some local high points. My first stop was Mary's Peak: At 4098 feet above sea level, Mary's Peak is the highest point in the Oregon coast range. Someone was kind enough to install a deliciously twisty ribbon of asphalt nearly to the top. Corvallis and Albany are in the background, down at around 200' ASL. On a clear day you can see across the Willamette Valley to the Cascade mountains in the east. Mt. Jefferson (10,495') is 87 miles away and just barely visible: Looking west from the same parking lot, the Pacific Ocean is just barely visible about 30 miles away. From Mary's Peak I followed OR-34 out to the coast, and then went south on US-101 to Cape Perpetua. Here I rode up to the cape overlook, one of the highest viewpoints on the Oregon coast at 800' ASL. From Cape Perpetua I decided to loop back up to Newport and then come inland on US-20. That was a bit of a mistake as traffic was heavy in Newport and on US-20. By the time I arrived home in Albany I needed to relieve some stress with something green and leafy: My garden. Lily didn't want a pickle. She'd rather ride a motorsickle.

Not sure, but I'm sure this information is out there. 180/55-17 is just about the most common rear tire size for motorcycles so it's a good bet someone has already done it.

The nicest stretch of the coast IMO is between Yachats and Florence. At Cape Perpetua, take the short side trip up to the scenic overlook. It only takes a few minutes and the view at the top is stunning. The Strawberry Hill wayside is a good place to check out tidepools. In North Bend, take the road out through Charleston to Cape Arago. Shore Acres has a nice botanical garden, and Cape Arago has some more excellent coastal views. After Cape Arago backtrack to Charleston and take Seven Devils Road down towards Bandon. For the run north, seriously consider US-97 instead of I-5. They both have the same speed limit most of the way. US-97 goes through some towns but I-5 can be a parking lot any day of the week. US-97 will probably take about the same amount of time to Portland but be more scenic.

I am 6' 3" with a long torso. I tried both the V-Stream sport touring (medium) and touring (large). They were a little better than stock, but still pretty noisy. Earplugs were mandatory. Now I have a 26" Madstad and it's far better IMO. I usually ride without earplugs now, airflow is pretty smooth and quiet. The Madstad is expensive but worth it.

Is that true in every province? In the USA the V Power is E0 in some states and E10 in others.

I'm a black coffee person. I wonder if there's a Ram mount for a French press?

I typically see fuel economy in the 40-44mpg (US) range, less if I average 75+mph. It probably doesn't help that I weigh 250lbs (naked), run a 26" Madstad barn door, and always have my 40L Hepco-Becker side cases mounted. I think my FJ-09 is about as aerodynamic as the '02 Jeep TJ I used to have. I have never seen 50+mpg. I think I got 48mpg once while puttering around at 50-55mph at high elevations.

Discussions about fuel can be confusing because octane rating methods are different in various countries, and ethanol content also varies by locale. The term "premium" fuel is ambiguous and means different things in different places. In some parts of the USA "premium" means no ethanol, while in other parts of the country everything has 10% ethanol, even "premium." I run 91-92 octane E10 every day because that's the only thing readily available here on the west coast. Ethanol-free fuel is $5+ per gallon and very hard to find.

Canada and USA use the AKI octane method, so 94 octane is above what this bike requires. Yamaha recommends 91 or higher (AKI). Octane is not a measure of energy, it's a measure of resistance to pre-ignition, aka knock. Stock, this engine does not have the ability to take advantage of the higher octane rating so the only difference you would notice is less money in your wallet. Sometimes when places sell a higher octane fuel like that it's also free of ethanol, whereas their 91-92 octane might have 10% ethanol (E10). If that's the case, then yes you might feel a slight difference in power or see better fuel economy because the E0 has a higher energy content than E10. But even then the difference is going to be pretty subtle.

Congrats! I'm a little late to the party, but to answer your original question... Likes: The motor! This is easily my favorite motor out of all the motorcycles I've owned and ridden over the last 30+ years. What a gem. Light weight. The bike is easy to handle at any speed, and I can ride twisties all day without getting tired. Riding position. The upright riding position is supremely comfortable to me. Reliability. My 2015 FJ-09 has over 40k miles now with not one single issue. I'm even still on the original battery. Throttle by wire. The 2018+ GT models come with cruise control, but if you have a 2015-17 or a later non-GT model it's pretty easy to add digital cruise control with MCCruise. I have it on mine and it works flawlessly. Dislikes: Maintenance access. Oil changes are easy but everything else is a pain. The bodywork puzzle pisses me off. Wind management. It's pretty obvious the designers had no wind tunnel budget. Either run a gigantic barn door or remove the windshield completely; anything in between requires earplugs.

If you get the Barkbuster guards I strongly recommend the single point mount. They are a lot easier to mount than the two point guard, and they are plenty strong. I have the single point mount and there is zero vibration or flex in the guard, it's like part of the handlebar. The two point is just completely unnecessary IMO.

Basically I temporarily bolted the guard in place, and then used a sharpie to roughly mark where the drain plug was.