milo

I went for a ride for the first time after having the ECM flashed by Two Wheel Dynoworks and installing Yamaha heated grips. As soon as I took off riding through the neighborhood I could feel the ECM flash made a nice improvement with a bit less abrupt throttle snatching. Then I saw it was in A mode which I never used so even better. Changing to Standard, where I normally leave it, made it smoother yet. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being horrible throttle and 10 perfect I would say stock it was a 5 and now it's an 8 which is pretty good and quite acceptable to me. It would probably be even smoother yet if I hadn't had TWD leave the "close throttle fuel shut off" enabled in the interest of fuel economy and maintaining full engine braking (they normally disable it). The audible stutter from slight missing at low throttle is gone, this flash really cleaned that up nicely. Heated grips are always nice in cool weather so I was glad to have them. A tip I learned on this forum was to wrap a couple layers of electrical tape around the left bar as insulation prior to sliding the grip on so it heats about the same as the throttle side which I did and both grips feel the same. The default settings for low, med, high, were 1, 5, 10. 5 was a bit too hot for riding today at maybe 50 degrees and 1 was barely noticeable so I reset them to 2, 4, 6 which seems just right for me.

Your oil pan was cracked going over a *speed bump*? Man I didn't realize these bikes were that low.

That's a good suggestion. I embarrassingly admit that I stuffed two $100 bills in my old Aerostich Roadcrafter front right sleeve compartment two years ago when I left on an extended trip for "just in case", lost wallet etc. Fast forward to two weeks ago I emptied all the pockets (I thought), washed it then sent it back to Aerostich for them to go over it, replacing zipper slides, some Velcro, etc. (wonderful service they offer BTW). A week later I received an Email from them saying they received the garment and went over it discovering there was $200 in a pocket which was more cash than than they felt comfortable sending back to me in the mail and did I wish they send me a check for $200 immediately or apply it to the repair cost and reconcile the difference, it might be 6 weeks? This is my testimonial to a great U.S. company putting out top class products with great product support and class employees! http://www.aerostich.com/suits

For scuffing and cleaning the surfaces then using epoxy and clamping the fender has to come off. If drilling and using screws I guess work with it on the bike but it's only a few screws to remove the fender. You're right though don't drill into the tire. :-)

I don't know why in the hell motorcycle manufacturers don't put real fenders on (most Harley's and a few other bikes excepted) and let the squids just cut them back where they want or for hipsters remove them all together? I have had to add an extender to almost every bike, both front and rear on the FJ-09. FWIW I don't drill and screw/bolt to the fenders. I simply scuff sand both surfaces and clean with alcohol then supplement the adhesive strips with epoxy made for plastic clamping overnight, and have never had one come loose in the slightest.

Installed the re-flashed ECM and ordered Yamaha heated grips from Bike Bandit ($235)

Oil

Jim, is this a local Yamaha dealer, or online? I just ordered a set on line and was told they would not be available again untol December 18 so I tried the local dealer which gave me the same 12-18 date. :-(