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It's pretty even.

Yeah, they're great!

I've ridden the shit out of the 009 rear. 5 of em in all. I average about 4500 miles each. That's a lot for me.

I think that's pretty legit! Except for the part where the wife won't ride with you and stuff.

I put a 5 inch light bar right there instead of a beak.

Couple comments, purely intended to help ...... Forget looking at tire wear to set the suspension. Tire wear WILL give you some guide about tire pressures, but not sag, rebound or compression damping. Adjusting preload has ZERO affect on stiffening or softening the spring. All it does is raise or lower that end of the motorcycle. It's important to get preload/sag correct as having the bike ride in the correct part of the suspension (roughly 1/3 of available travel), as well as having the correct front to rear height relationship is very important to handling. However it doesn't make the springs 'stiffer', not one little bit. Set the front and rear sag correctly, by static measurement in the workshop. How to do it is well documented in numerous articles you'll find on the internet. Once measured and set, don't touch it again. So to your question "how does rebound and pre-load interact? Simple answer, they don't interact at all. As previously explained the sole purpose of preload is to set the static position of the motorcycle in the suspension travel. Rebound is to control the rate of return of the compressed spring after it encounters a bump (or anything else that causes the spring to compress e.g. rear squat, front braking, cornering forces). So in practical terms, set sag by measuring and adjusting it in the workshop. Set rebound damping on the road to get an appropriate balance between firming it up to remove any wallow in the corners on smooth roads, yet at the same time be fast enough to give an acceptable and compliant ride over rough roads. It will always be a balance between these two competing objectives that only the individual rider can determine. Good luck, and if anything needs clarification don't hesitate. P.S. and if your're scratching your head trying to figure why screwing up the preload doesn't stiffen the spring, consider your humble bathroom scale. Does sticking a block of wood under the scale increase what the scale says you weigh (determined by how much the spring inside the scales compresses) or just increase your height when you're standing on the scales??? The preload adjuster is in principal no more than that block of wood. Screwing up the preload adjuster just pushes against one end of the spring, bike just goes up, amount spring compressed remains unaffected (solely determined by the weight of motorcycle and rider it is supporting). I disagree with nearly everything you said. Ps - preload does not change the ride height. It simply preloads the spring (which most are progressive springs these days, this affecting how stiff it will be in its initial stroke).

Um...the fj doesn't have a rebound adjuster on the shock...only compression. Dave Moss is a good friend of mine. He's been tuning all my bikes for the last 13 years.

well....i smashed another oil pan the other day. i'm getting a skid plate now. there's a group buy for the higdonion skid plates if anyone else is interested. i should have learned my lesson after the first oil pan. https://www.groupbuyparts.com/hgd_sv/higdonion-upper-cage-add-on-or-full-crash-cage.html

i don't have any pics of it stand alone...haha! only on my head. i got solid matte black so i can have my sponsor wrap it in my own graphics.

i just got the new Bell Star Pro for the track... freggin LOVE it! i still use my 2014 Bell Star for the street though.

takes 43 seconds to take off the ABS sensor. takes 12 seconds to just put it on the rear stand then use a jack on the catalytic converter. i've done both, many times. i'm on my 8th or 9th rear tire, and 6th front.

same boat.

did you have an "uh-oh"?

yeah, recall. they did it a while back....around 8,000 miles ago. when i bought the bike with 0 miles on it, the clutch basket never made any noise.

any of you guys experiencing louder and louder clutch baskets? it reminds me of the old v-strom, where it sounded like the clutch basket was going to consume itself, possibly opening up a wormhole into another dimension. and i don't have buckaroo bonzai's phone number anymore. sitting at idle with the clutch released, it sounds like there's a ton of hamsters eating croutons in my clutch basket. as soon as i pull the clutch in, it goes away completely. same with slow speed, low rpms...between 2-3k, it makes the entire chasis feel like it's got an angle grinder being taken to it.

...asking your dealer not an option? If your VIN is on the hit list.... could be as simple as that, no? why would i weanna ask my dealer when i have all of you awesome people to consult from the comfort of my own home? <3

any updates? should i be taking in my 15 FJ?

My gasket came off perfectly so I reused it. Dry.

them blue wheels are gorgeous.

just wrap it in bubble wrap.

in my experience, sliders/crashbars/etc can really go either way. i've seen easy low-sides where the bike just slid along gently and barely had an damage at all...and i've seen easy low sides where the slider hooked on something and cartwheeled the bike into oblivion. or chunked the frame. it's really all a roll of the dice. i broad-sided that car the other week at low speed. around 10mph. i just lucked out, i guess, that the damage wasn't worse and i could ride away. ps - i'm at the racetrack ~100 days a year, give or take. i shoot motorcycles for a living. i've seen a WHOLE. LOT. OF. CRASHES. haha! literally over a thousand.

I wrote this the other day... Maybe you guys can help spread the word? http://4theriders.com/blog/an-open-letter-to-yamaha/

Yeah, center stand works. My old gasket came off in mint condition. I reused it.

Yeah. See my other thread "fj paper weight" ...Haha

Kinda. They did a lousy job of protecting your engine case. lemme be more specific, i guess: they work! better than not having them. zero damage to plastics. blinker took a tiny bit of rash...first time i've ever seen a blinker survive a bike being on it's side. saddle bags and handguards got dinged as well.