keithu

I went with the stock sizes, 16T front and 45T rear. I can't remember the brand, it's whatever my local shop ordered for me. Chain is DID 525 in steel finish. I thought about a gold finish but it didn't seem worth the extra cost and work (steel was available with 110 links, gold had to be cut to length.

Oops, right. For some reason I was thinking you were in Oregon.

Piotrek, is the February show in Portland?

Didn't you guys have snow this week?

I finally replaced my chain and sprockets after 17,500 miles. I can't believe I waited this long. The old chain was unevenly worn and caused bad surging-like behavior while riding. The new chain is smooth like butter. Afterwards I rode under sunny Oregon skies over to Mr. Ed's Moto to return their loaner chain tool. Now I have a cheese steak fatty on the smoker. Thoughts and prayers for those of you in colder places like Michigan, New York, and Florida.

I wonder how much of the seat dissatisfaction is because of the upright riding position on the FJ. A lot of us came from traditional sport tourers with more leaned-forward riding positions. With the more upright FJ, suddenly there's more weight on our assets. My last bike was a Triumph TT600. I thought the stock seat on that bike was wonderful. But the lower bars and high pegs took a lot of weight off my backside.

Nice work nicksta43, thanks for sharing! I keep thinking that I'd like to build an auxiliary fuel cell to mount in place of the pillion seat, similar to what you've done.

Great points about the helmet and gear. We often think of riding gear as being about safety first, weather protection second, and oh yeah if it's comfortable that's a bonus. Good riding gear should enhance comfort first and foremost; it makes or breaks the ride. I think this is why so many in the Harley crowd hate helmets. If you only try the cheapest, most poorly designed helmet of course it will be uncomfortable. When I choose gear my priorities are: 1. Comfort 2. Control/freedom of movement 3. Weather protection 4. Convenience 5. Safety 6. Appearance

Maybe I'm cold blooded but I like level 10. My low-med-high settings are 2-5-10. Sometimes I use high (10) just to accelerate heating on a cold day, but I have run them at 10 during extended periods in sub-freezing temps.

I used to commute 140 miles per day (round trip) in the SF Bay Area. Doing it on a motorcycle kept me sane. Although some people have said it had the opposite effect.

Yes, I do ride in the rain. I have one word for you: Aerostich. But also, I am a few hours south of you. It doesn't seem like a great distance but the hills south of Salem block cold Arctic air in the winter. We're just warm enough that snow and ice are virtually non-existent.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the riding in Italy is probably about 1 million times more interesting than Florida.

SoCal? Should be closer to 365. I have 330-340 good riding days up here in Oregon.

The rub on the chicken also had some brown sugar and Slap Ya Mama. The ABTs (Atomic Buffalo Turds) are sweet peppers stuffed with Italian sausage, cream cheese, onion, and a few other things then wrapped in bacon. Normally they are done with jalapenos, yes, but unfortunately my gut decided a few years ago that it can't handle jalapenos. Other hot peppers? No problem. But jalapenos always turn out badly in the end, if you know what I mean.

I finally flushed the OEM brake fluid. I used the Harbor Freight pneumatic bleeder and it was a breeze. I still hate hydraulics maintenance. Afterwards I celebrated by putting a bunch of deliciousness on the smoker.

Nothing beats a custom seat. I had mine made by Mr. Ed's Moto in Albany, Oregon. Best money I've ever spent.

Le Duc's... Where is that? I lived in St. Louis as a teenager and fell in love with Ted Drewes frozen custard there.

I take it that's not recent. :-)

Camping in the North Cascades.

I have about 12,000 miles on my tall National Cycle screen and haven't had any issues. I did add washers to my right side height adjuster which stabilized the screen considerably. Search the forum and you'll see that people have done this mod for various windshields including the factory screen. I also added some rubber washers to where the plastic windshield mounts to the V-Stream bracket. It seems like the mounting bolts from National Cycle were too long. So I'm not saying the National Cycle product is perfect, I just don't think the design inevitably breaks the Yamaha bracket either.

I looked it up and you're right. The owners manual calls the upper line the "max" mark, not full.

Your oil level is clearly low. Not a lot, but still you should top it up so the oil reaches the full mark.

I have a couple of those old school milk crates from an actual dairy. Bomb proof.

To be clear, you got 13k miles out of the stock tires?! Miles, not kilometers? Wow. My OEM rear was done at 5500 miles. Not exactly toast, but almost to the wear bars. My front lasted to 7000.

I like the jackstand-under-the-axle trick. I just put a milk crate under the fork legs, with maybe a 2x4 shim if needed.