adjuster

Fill your handle bars with lead shot. It will dampen the vibes really well. I used to ride "thumpers" and many KTM's actually, and to fight numb hands and vibes much worse than the FJ09 has. Some guys use lead shot, some use BB's some have special lead inbeded in a stretch rope you pull thin through the bar, then let it retract, and cut off the long ends. (Fills the bar that way with silicone and lead.) But I've found the cheapest is BB's. (The lead is about 30.00 USD for a bag used by guys who reload shot gun shells locally.) But you could fill 10 bars with a bag I suppose. BB's were 8.00 at WalMart, and have a nifty pointed cap that you can use to fill up the bars. (Just remove one side, I suggest the right, put the bike on the side stand, so the right side is "up" and turn the bars to help put the end up even more. Pour in BB's and put the end back on. Take for a ride, and notice that your bars full of dead weight will kill vibes very well. Add Grip Puppies or Doggies? I have had a few pairs on various bikes, really like them, and put them OVER the heated pads, around your stock grips, and they kill vibes well, and work perfect for cold days too. (Just make sure you get ATV ones, not Motorcycle ones, or your side to side heat will be different this way.) But I digress. Try some dead weight in the bars to kill the vibes. Much cheaper than fancy bar end weights, and it works better too.

Danner mid hiking boots. Tuck in the laces or double tie them till there is no loop that can catch on anything. Wear them every day, for the past 6 pairs of boots, about 10 years now. (Same model, color etc.) I have a brand new pair in a box, waiting for me to need them, bought 5 pairs back when the model changed, and they no longer offered the color and style I wanted, so I bought all I could find, from multiple locations while traveling over 14 states for work. Great boots, Gore Tex, Full leather uppers, and they are tennis shoe comfortable, business casual under slacks/khaki pants, handle snow, rain and mud as well as look nice presenting power point's to guys in penny loafers who don't notice you are wearing nice sturdy boots. The only complaint I have is the soles wear out, and can't be replaced like a true welt boot, but 5 pairs in 10 years is not bad, and I have that brand new pair just waiting for this pair to finally bite the dust. Well, holy smokes, it appears Danner still makes my boots. :)Good to know, when in a few years, the pair exactly like this is finally worn out. http://www.danner.com/catalog/product/view/id/326/s/453-5-5-brown/category/3/

I like the ABS. It's saved my butt two times already. Loose dirty debris on a new paved side, and wet cross strips while braking have me upright, and thinking about the crash that would have just happened on most of my previous bikes. Same with the traction control. It's not a problem, this bike likes to push the limit too easy, or it's a rider thing..

Two things Yamaha should step up and fix on this bike/engine. The oil pan, and they have for the new bikes, wit the side/forward drain bolt. And the Cam Chain Tensioner design. (At least the ones that first came out were seriously flawed, or not made right, and failed on nearly all the bikes at some point or another. Some were/are just noise. Others, like mine nearly killed me. (Sort of like this oil dump at any speed would create.) Even if all Yamaha did was offer to put a low profile plug, and file down the fin, that would be better than nothing. And same goes for the CCT, an offer from Yamaha to replace the defective ones with revised ones is nice, but many folks are out of warranty, or just plain do not trust many techs to do the job right. So the aftermarket manual set and forget units sell briskly. (And for much less than the gizmatic-failure-prone stock design.)

The fix to the low speed surging due to EPA laws, is to fool the ECU by changing what the O2 sensor reads v/s the ECU reads. There is a very cool unit from a guy in AU who builds these to allow you to run slightly rich all the time. You get better fuel economy too, since it takes less throttle to maintain the same speed/power. (The engine makes more power.) 14.7:1 is great for the EPA, but the bike makes more power at a richer setting, about 13.2:1 from what I remember. I have this, and it solved the problem on the FZ09 and now on the FJ09, smooth power while in parking lots and other low speeds, and at a constant 25 to 35mph as well, it no longer surges at all. Guys name is Kevtex. Look him up.

Have been busy this winter, and have not had time to mess with the bike, or even try and put the GPR exhaust on the FJ09 that was designed for the FZ09. And I have not had time obviously to try the "Easy" minimal cut and weld mod to the stock pipe, but the more I run this around in my head, the less I'm worried about weight, and the more I want a skid plate that's rugged, cheap and easy to install. Even the new oil pan with the forward facing oil drain plug needs a skid plate if the FJ is to be used in any sort of way off road, and folks have hit high speed bumps in parking lots and curbs just using the bike around town. *Resulting in cracked oil pans.* Low profile oil plug from Mazda, file down the "fin" and a simple stainless skid plate that bolts to the stock exhaust "scrotum" or can part would be nice looking, low profile, and for anyone with a stock bike, pretty easy to install too either with self tapping button head screws or if you can weld, drill a few holes, and weld in a few nuts and use button head bolts. I used to fabricate all sorts of farm equipment, and belting transfer boom systems, so if I can get this right, it would be a great product or upgrade and the price would be pretty reasonable. The skid plate could be made from either stainless or aluminum. The aluminum might radiate heat away from the exhaust pretty well too, not that there is a heating or overheating problem with the stock exhaust, but on hot days, anything to reduce the amount of heat coming up from the bike at stoplights would be nice. There is no fix for the stock cat, it's just hot, and that's there if you keep the stock exhust, but it's in a can that radiates the heat away, and the more you can remove while moving, the less you have to deal with when stopped. (All the non-cat aftermarket systems don't have this issue, thus run cooler all the time, moving or stopped.) One thing about aluminum is the mounting holes can be countersunk, so the bolts would be flush when tight, making the skid plate less likely to catch should you scrape over something. Ok, back to the mod ideas: Here is what I'm going to do with the stock exhaust. Cut off at the larger weld of the "bulb" that the stock tail pipe exits out of. The S pipe is attached to the exhaust tip inside as pointed out, and when cut, releases the S pipe. The entire bulb, and end tip will then come off, leaving the S pipe end sticking out of a larger hole into the rear chamber. There should be room around the sides of the S pipe and case opening cut at the bulb to use a die grinder and pineapple to further remove the "case upper and lower" that makes the "hole" for the exhaust to get out. When that's done, there should be room to see down to the "X" stamped into the wall that the Cat dumps against, and that the transfer pipes pass through from chamber to chamber. using an extension and 1/2" drill bit, drill a series of holes along the "X" in a sideways "V" facing the drill bit, so they should be easy to drill. Figure about 10 holes total, in a line going up one side of the "X" and then up the other arm. In theory, this would flow about as much as a 2.5 inch ID hole, but in reality, not so much, since they don't have pipes, are just holes, and fluids tend to not like sharp edges like this, but hey, it's just a test. Put it back on the bike like this, no tip yet, and check for sound, and power via butt dyno. LOL If I like it, weld the new exhaust tip up to the existing lower bracket, add the one upper bolt for the stock trim piece. (If you do this first, and then cut the pipe to fit against the case seam, and leave the lowers loose at this point, it's going to make locating the upper bolt easy, and perfect with no need to measure, you use the trim part to get the tip fitted to the case, not the other way around.) Tack check for fit, and sound again now with the tip in place. The final result will have the "S" pipe intact, and the larger exhaust tip around it with gas flowing out, should scavenge the middle and front chambers for the lowest flow restriction possible, but still maintain the harmonic design of the stock setup. It will be louder, and will flow more, but the "tune" of the wave damping might not be disturbed as much this way. Resonance, tone and flow were all things Yamaha clearly spent some time on with the exhaust, the open systems are only worth a few HP on top, and as noted, often lose the lower torque that this engine is so fun with. Even Akrapovic revised their design, with the longer looped carbon can system to try and get the most out of an aftermarket system, as their version is either too loud, or really does not give that much of an improvement in performance to justify the cost for those of us with limited funds. (Or are limited funds, and a cheap bastard like me. So, to recap, this results in only one large weld, around the "bulge to upper and lower scrotum" point, a new larger tip, perhaps as much as 3" in ID. I will have to trim the outer end cap, to fit the larger ID tip, but that's pretty easy with a die grinder on that thin material. Of course crush the tip to oval it out, and slash cut the tip for style. One more thing: The rider who made this possible, and helped us all out so very much, RIP. You are missed.

Pads and master cylinder bore have way more to do with "feel" on this system than the line being "braided" or stock type that's rubber over a braided line. (Perhaps without a Teflon core like the "braided" ones, but still not going to expand much that we will notice it, and especially not if you have a larger bore pushing more fluid, and thus giving you more feedback at the lever.) On the FZ09, some are putting radial masters on, there was a thread on a larger bore setup like the stock one, with the built in fluid box, but either way, the larger the bore, the better the feel, and harder you can brake with less or similar effort when you apply the brakes. (And the pads will bite more cold, so feel better too.) A quick search of Kevin's FZ09 in AU will result in the radial master cylinder upgrade thread. He also makes a nice fuel mod that you plug in to fool the O2 sensor so your bike will ride much smoother at low speeds, and stop surging while at constant throttle and lower speeds too. (And you get better fuel economy, even though it's a richer setting...)

I am going to put the same ones I had on my FZ09 on the FJ09. They are from T-Rex, have an upper aluminum bar that spans between the two engine bolts, and have a large slider puck on both sides, and then also case protectors made from delrin or some other type of plastic that bolt on over the cases to protect them. Also have bobbins and axle sliders front and rear. Mine say FZ09 on them, but I see T-Rex is now selling them with the FJ09 logo cut into the side pucks.

For many years, year round, I wear a Vanson summer "shirt" that's mesh with leather at the armor points. Has elbow/shoulder and back pads. Custom made for me. Under it, I wear a sweat shirt, or windbreaker depending on the weather/temp. In really cold weather I wear a large leather jacket with no pads/armor. Pants are either jeans, or shorts, depending on the temps. (I wear shorts nearly year round, I know, it's not armor, but It's what I wear.) Always a helmet, Danner boots and gloves. Day job is at a call center where I can wear shorts, so I wear shorts, and it's hot in Boise in the summer.

Once the rings are set, the rest is wear you don't want, so I'd think going to a full synthetic sooner, rather than later is a good idea. And many have pointed out that when the engine is built, and tested at the factory, it's fully broken in the rings by that point. So, going with synthetic from that point on is all you need. No deposits, better heat resistance and only benefits in my view. I've run Rotella T Synthetic, Red Line and some others, but the Rotella is the cheapest, and since I'm going to change it about every 3k, might as well be cheap. The Red Line did shift like nothing else, and there for awhile, I did one quart of Redline, and the rest Rotella for good blend of cost v/s benefit on the shift issue for my FZ1. (The FZ09 and FJ09 shift slightly less notchy than the FZ1 did, but the FJ09 does not like to downshift, especially when cold, so I'm looking forward to seeing if that improves with the oil change.) Brand new bike. Going to change the oil with less than 200 on the odometer. No good reason to wait for 600 miles as Yamaha calls for, just more wear and tear on parts you really don't want to wear, the rings have been set since I bought the bike.

When I've had mine apart, they tend to use very little grease on them at Yamaha when they assemble the bike. On my FZ01, I pulled it apart, and lubed up the all the needle bearings, and it helped with operation. Did not get a chance to do this on the FZ09, and plan on doing it when I change the shock on the FJ09. I use a high moly marine rated grease. It's very water resistant to washout, and the moly on the slow moving joints is perfect for lubrication over years of use.

Looking at the GPR, and what GPR did to it's header and muffler to move it out next to the swing arm, and not keep it under the bike like the stock location is interesting. The center stand rubber bump stop and mount is possibly in the way of a muffler, but can be modded to clear I suppose. I do really think that a skid plate using the stock muffler is a good idea, and one that with some careful design, could be done for a stock muffler, just by using self tapping screws to attach the skid plate to the stock muffler. (Drill pilot holes, and let the self tapping bolts enlarge them while they thread the holes, and attach the skid plate. Not the most elegant fix, but it's practical, and let's face it, the underside of the bike is not looked at much, and a skid plate would be a seller for both the FZ and FJ versions of this bike worldwide.)

The Akra has a chamber that's dead ended next to a pipe that feeds to the rear chamber and the exit. With the dB killer removed, the Akra is basically an open pipe. With the dB killer in place, it forces the exhaust to flow out the smaller pipes, and that allows it time to resonate more into the "Dead end" chamber that's next to the straight pipe. Think of it like a this: IJ, With the I being the dead pipe. The J being the straight pipe, with the header at the top of the J, and the comma is the tip. With the tip in place, the sound can't just go out, it has to go around out the smaller 3 pipes, and that allows it to bounce up and into the I that runs fore and aft of the chamber. If you look into the open Akra tip, you can see the cut outs that allow it to flow straight out when the "tip" is removed, but how it forces the exhaust to use the smaller 3 pipes when it's in place.

Well, dang it all. I have a GPR exhaust for the FZ09 sitting in my kitchen, but need to put it on the FJ09 now that I have this bike not the FJ.... And you guys have done what I was thinking about over on the FZ09 side of things.. A hole to let some exhaust out post cat, and into the final chamber, no S pipe etc. But, I like the gutted version too, but would consider this: Using the complete volume of the stock "Scrotum" housing, you could run three perforated pipes. One would go straight out of the header/collector pipe, where the stock Cat is located, and then go back to the rear. A middle pipe goes in the middle. The "exit" pipe is also perforated, and goes from the front to the rear, like the stock S' pipe, exits out at the tip. (And could be used stock this way if you wanted, just cut off the pipe where it meets the perforated pipe.) Bell end the right sides for flow. Build simple "walls" for the front and rear out of sheet metal, wrap the perforated pipes in the packing: 1. Stainless, wrapped with stainless wire to secure it. Followed by fiberglass, also wrapped by wire to retain it tight, and then stuff the rest full of stainless scrub brushes and whatever fiberglass/stainless packing material you have left. The tight wraps on the three pipes in the middle will make the difference on how long they work, and how effective they are at cutting down the noise level, while still flowing like there is nothing there. With this design, it's open on the ends, like the stock design. This allows sound to bounce around and cancel some waves out too. (Not that I'm going to even attempt the math and precision needed to make a harmonic design work, it's clear Yamaha did some fancy design work on the stock muffler, it's to complex for no other reason than to cancel out waves and freq's they did not want while perhaps even boosting low end power.) Using the "Bell" ends on the flow into pipe sides will give free gains in power. And having it all 2" from the stock colletor to the tip should flow plenty for top end power on this bike, while the large distance of the flow should also help maintain good low end power/tourqe delivery. Short of gutting the entire pipe, here is my take on the very easy way to mod the stock design. 1: I see there is a large hole in the case where the S pipe exits. This sharp edge can't help flow, creates turbulence etc. (Remove as much of this with a pineapple carbide cutter as possible after the "bulge" is cut open.) 2: The "X" over the cat is made of thin metal. 3: No need to add a nice fancy pipe to the wall there, but to just let more of the sound, and exhaust skip the entire trip around the inside, and escape out a short cut to the exhaust tip. 4: Why limit to just a 2" tail pipe, and oval shape? I'm thinking there is a radical tri-oval in there folks, just trim the stock bezel, and use a grinder to open it up just right, and it's going to be nice megaphone indeed. So, using a 3" or perhaps even larger ID stainless pipe, I'm thinking of cutting off the tip at the bulge and leaving as much of the "S" pipe as possible. Cut around the bulge at the case, and then chop the pipe off just inside of the weld where the "S" pipe is attached to the exhaust tip.. The tip will come off, leaving part of the "S" pipe sticking out, with a larger 3" or so hole in the bulge area that you just cut open. Trim the useless sharp edge of the case out of the way around the bulge weld attachment point. Leaving the "S" pipe still hanging there in space, attached to the rear wall. Now use a long air hammer with a cutting tip, and following the "X" marks the spot, use it to cut a nice "X" in the panel that the CAT dumps against. Now with some skill and luck, bend those "flaps" made by the "X" cut towards the back of the muffler, opening it up just enough to get the sound and flow you are looking for. (Have just the right custom bent screw drivers and pry bars for this I think...) No need to cut the entire case open. Put it on the bike, and take it for a ride, make some adjustments for noise and flow levels. Measure and tack your "Tri-Oval" tip in place, ride some more, and if you have to, remove the tip, open the flaps or close them to get the noise/flow levels you want, and then when good, remove the muffler, and finish weld the new 3" ID pipe onto the bulge/case as needed, fabricate the cover mounts etc. For the final fitment, you use a short section of metal, and secure the exit point of the "S" pipe in the middle of the new larger exhaust tip pipe. This should actually create a scavenging effect on the "S" pipe, as any exhaust going out either pipe is going to help draw out exhaust from the other depending on the pressure in either. If you don't want to, or if it's a PITA, just bend the "S" pipe over till it just touches the new "Tri-Oval" and drill a nice hole there. Position, clamp, and spot weld the "S" pipe into place by welding it through the hole, fill the hole, and file it smooth, and it's secure, and you did not have to try and weld inside the pipe.. No fun indeed, much more fun to weld on the outside.. LOL Now give it a nice coating of black paint, but leave the tip and cover stock, just hide the scrotum with flat black paint, and leave the headers nice looking too if you like. Might just be time to break out the MIG and tools, and have some fun. BTW, all you guys who had trouble filling the cut gaps, it's really easy to use welding rod, or any other material you might have to help fill the gap. Just take welding rod, tack it in the middle of the gap, laying down into the gap, and tacking it about every 4 inches or so, and use the heat of the tack to help bend it into the curves, a few taps of a hammer help here, but with a long welding rod, you have enough control of the metal to just "push it" into the gap, tack and push some more, easy peasy. Weld up between every other 4" tack, and you control the heat, don't risk warping the entire project, and it's going to be WAY less of a swear fest for blowing through the thin material, and it's dirty sound packing on the back side that's causing all sorts of havoc with your weld too. If you have a really wide gap, just run two passes of welding rod when you tack. The extra filler material will make the weld nice too, as it's generally nice and clean. So, there is one more question that nobody has done yet, and I'm itching to try: Why no mounts on the stock muffler for a nice skid plate? I'm thinking a nice stainless one, not too thick with some formed/rolled ridges for strength, attached to the stock muffler with 4 nuts welded to the case? It can extend forward over the stock oil pan, and with a low profile plug, and the "crack ridge point" removed with a file, you just leave a nice hole for the drain plug, so you don't have to remove the skid plate... Curve the front edge slightly, perhaps weld some thicker solid bar stock in a "U" shape that runs around the front, and then back to the rear where it's bolted to the pan mounts to keep the edge from curling up under impact.... There you go, modded muffler, and kickass skid plate in one smooth move.