xlxr

Let me correct myself and change air/fuel ratio with the term "combustion efficiency". Spark plugs can change "combustion efficiency", but there are other considerations that also affect combustion efficiency, air fuel ratio, compression, timing, temperature, etc. There have been a few other reports from some guys who have the same problems with Irridium plugs, and other guys report no problems at all. I have never read a detailed, and correct, explanation of all the different factors involved, what the problem actually is, or what to change to fix it.

Most guys do not report the same problems you have, so I doubt the plugs are the only problem. I suspect your air/fuel mixture is too lean, and the Irridium plugs push it over the edge. You may have other problems such as air intake leak, or air injection system not working properly. I have tried Irridiums on another bike, but not on my FJ 09 because I had 2WDW reflash when new and my original plugs looked very clean at 6,000 miles, so I stayed with stock plugs.

Perhaps you need an engine tune, APS adjustment and/or ECU reflash. My engine doesn't care what RPM or tranny gear it's in, pulls great from idle to redline in any of the gears. ( I never ride over 100 mph in any gear)

You are talking about when there is sag. I am talking about when the shock is fully extended and there is no sag, which can happen under riding conditions as the shock tops out to full extension. Two different situations.

You are assuming everyone has the correct spring rate and preload/rider sag. That certainly is not true in the real world, especially for us 250 lb guys who bought a bike with stock springs for 160 lb rider.

Increasing shock preload increases the height of the bike ...... only until the shock is fully extended. Once the shock is fully extended, the bike cannot go up any higher. From that point, increasing preload starts to compress the spring. Usually, there is a spec how much the spring should be compressed with preload before you even put the shock on the bike. If you crank in more preload after the shock is in full extension, the ride will feel harsher. It is not the spring rate making it feel harsher, it is the extra weight needed to get the spring to start compressing when the shock is fully extended, topped out. If you have a 100 lb/in straight rate spring with 4 inches of travel in the shock/spring, it will take 100 lbs of force to compress the spring the first inch. However, if you crank in 3" of preload, (an exaggeration for illustration purposes) it will take over 300 lbs of force to start the spring compression from a position of full shock extension. Guess which situation will feel stiffer. A different situation where adding preload may make the ride feel stiffer; If the shock spring has a dual rate, and the softer, initial spring rate is too low for the rider weight, or the amount of travel the spring has in the initial softer rate is too short, adding preload may coil bind the softer, initial rate coils, causing the shock to ride on the harder final rate coils. The key problem in both situations is the spring rates are too light for rider/bike weight, and increasing preload cannot compensate for too weak a spring rate.

These days nothing is intuitive any more. What sense does it make to have a 2 amp auxiliary power connector? 10 Amps would require just a $1 more wiring and fuse.

Could the issue of the bracket breaking be more of a problem with it's (the bracket) design, not so much if a specific larger windshield is being used? The stock brackets were designed for smaller stock windshield, therefore, any larger windshield may cause them to crack over time. Time will tell if this is a one time problem, or starts showing up more often.

I didn't think the stock brackets were strong enough for a tall windshield.

I weigh 270 lbs in gear, an additional 10 lbs in a small gear bag. I went with Ohlins 535 shock and fork inserts. Shock spring is 625 lb, brain fart, I can't remember the brand of spring. Some guys go with 700 lb spring, but I never ride two up or saddle bags, or loaded up for multiple day rides. Fork springs are 1 kg. Shock and compression leg of the forks were revalved by Norwest suspension. You MUST do forks and shocks at the same time. I tried Race Tech first, not even close. But I do not have any experience with Nitron shocks.

Google how to drill out a rivet head. You stop drilling before you get to the hole the pin is in. Then use a punch and hammer to push the pin all the way out.

Jeesss ---- the first thing the guy said was he doesn't understand much about electricity. https://fj-09.org/thread/986/accessory-fly-leads-instrument-cluster Check out this thread, there are two leads available for lights behind the windshield. These leads turn on the extra lights when the engine starts. Each of these leads is protected by a 2.5 amp fuse, so you cannot add lights with higher amp rating. An amp is a measurement of amount of electricity. You disconnect the connectors you see in the picture. Push a pin into the black plug to pull it out, there is a link to a company that provides new connectors to connect to your light wires, one hot, one ground. I seemed to get the wrong plastic connectors, but I was able to use the metal pins, solder to my wires and push the pins into the connectors you see in the picture, been working great. I just pointed the added lights down low enough to not have to turn them off when oncoming traffic is headed to me which is all I wanted or needed. The extra lights hit the road sort of in between low and high beam. If you are careful, you can strip the insulation off the wires to the new lights, and manually crimp the connector tabs with small needle nose pliers. Just order extra connectors and metal pins to practice a few times. No special crimping tool needed. I soldered mine, a little tricky because they are so small. But a bit off dielectric grease and shrink wrap insulation will be fine for a long time. Another possibility is to run a separate wire with fuse off the battery, to a switch on the handle bar to the lights and ground. But then you will have to hit two switches to turn off high beams and extra lights. I think there are other links how to tie your added lights to high beam switch, but I don't know for sure.

What Iridium NGK spark plug did you use?

The APS is just one component used in engine air fuel mixture and throttle management. From what I understand about FI, and I am no real expert, is that the ECU maps determine air fuel mixture, with oxygen sensor input in closed loop mode at low throttle settings and cold engine temps. The ECU maps apparently are not changed by the APS. My guess is that the APS simply changes the signal to the ECU, effectively slowing the rate at which the throttle butterfly valves open as you twist the throttle open. When the throttle valves open slower, the engine RPM/torque increase is slower, and snatchy throttle is smoothed out.

I always thought of holding light rear brake into the corner as trail braking, holding front brake into the first part of the corner as braking deep into the corner. That link explained it very well. In the Trail Braking diagram, the % numbers before 0 indicate keeping the forks compressed, the % numbers after 0 indicates letting off the brakes to let the fork extend, as the bike returns to up right, you can start getting on the throttle, slow and gentle. However, if the corner is a wide, long turn, and your speed is not near the limit of traction, this racing technique is not always needed.

The absolute worst situation for ABS is washboard road bumps that kick the tires off the ground by bouncing the tire up and down, or skidding the tire over the tops of the washboard bumps. It's like not having any brakes at all. In this case, you MUST let off the brake pressure enough to avoid ABS modulation. This is rare for street pavement, but common on dirt roads. Other than that situation, ABS prevents the wheel from sliding and does not cause it. Without or without ABS, you should never be on the front brake in a corner so hard to cause loss of traction. I have not been in that situation with ABS, so I don't know how the FJ 09 will react. If you are in a corner, too fast, and hit a slick spot like oil on the road, the bike is going to slide out, regardless of ABS or not. Bottom line, always practice braking and ABS in a straight line, especially for the front. More advanced riders can use rear brake lightly for trail braking or stabilizing the bike before hitting front brake hard. Another good reason is consistently practice use of rear brake is in case your front brake fails without warning. That has happened to me twice in 40 years, once in a car, another on a motorcycle. Not something I will ever forget.

If you are not using the rear brake, your braking skills cannot go beyond beginner skill level. With ABS, there is no reason to not practice and improve braking skills, especially with the rear brake, just be going in a perfectly straight line if you practice. I have locked up the front end at speeds from 30 to 60 mph and the ABS started to modulate. Pre-ABS, the only way to save yourself after locking up the front end was to let go of the front brake immediately. Kind of funny, no matter how hard I try, I simply cannot keep the front brake in ABS modulation, I just instinctively let off the front lever.

You are missing my point. ABS makes practicing hard braking, right up to the point of locking up the brakes, much easier and safer. I used ABS to improve my braking skills, if you don't practice at finding the limit, you cannot improve your braking skills. Locking up rear ABS is easy, NOT locking it up takes a lot more practice. I consider use of rear brake vital to maximize control and minimizing braking distance.

I now have 7,000 miles on my FJ 09 and a lot more practice with ABS. As an old dirt biker, I do miss the ability to lock rear brake and slide / steer with rear wheel. It took some time to de-program that from my riding reflexes and techniques. I started with practice on smooth dirt roads at slow speeds and deliberating locking up front and rear ABS independently until I learned how to feel which wheel is in ABS mode by feeling the hand lever or foot brake vibrate. It is still my opinion that ABS activation extends braking distance. The most effective use of ABS brakes to reduce stopping distance, is to release just enough pressure off the lever to stop ABS modulation, then reapply slight pressure as, or if, needed. This is a far more subtle modulation than the pre-ABS days of "pumping" the brakes. As a result of my practice of braking as hard as possible without activating ABS, my stopping distance has decreased so much that I really have to be careful of who or what is behind me in fear they will not be able to stop as quickly as I can. This is not to say I can out brake a pro racer on a pure sport bike. But I do have a lot more confidence in braking with ABS by NOT activating it, than when I first starting riding with it.

Note that piotrek, betaney, and myself all have slightly different reports of the effect adjusting APS. Piotec, not much difference, Betoney where STD mode is "seamless", and my report where I can now ride in A mode in all street riding conditions, seamless and electric also are accurate descriptions. This supports my theory that you need to find the position that works best for you, and at lower numbers than when you started.

If I remember correctly, the value on the dash gauge for idle was 16 and would not go below that regardless how far I moved the APS. The values for full throttle were on the low side of the range in the chart and would not go any higher. I suspect that the 2015 and 2016 model years had defective APS sensors. Or maybe there was some other adjustment that affected the numbers, I don't know enough to know. But it is interesting how the complaints of snatchy throttle syndrome have gone down to almost nothing recently. At this time, my best guess set the idle numbers correctly, or at your preference, and then check to make sure you can get the upper ranges of numbers at full throttle. This may be to check you are getting full movement of throttle plate from idle to full throttle. But someone else with more knowledge of this FI system will have to verify that. I have completed several more rides, and my throttle feels like described above, softer throttle response at lower throttle settings, but seems to have same power at full throttle and higher RPMs. My throttle control has improved dramatically and I have no intention to make any more adjustments even if the numbers on the gauge are not correct. I did not hear any relay buzz, but maybe my hearing is not good enough to hear it.

"My test ride didn't reveal any miracles, likely because the stock figures weren't that much different." That's why I think there is a bit of guessing how far to adjust the APS, there are other factors involved making every bike a little different, maybe you need to adjust it more. The bottom line is adjust to suit your preferences, use numbers only as a guide. Good write up.

I forgot to mention that I have stock exhaust and no plans for any further modifications. I thought, because I read it on the internet, decal popping was due to TOO LEAN. But according to what you are saying, too much unburned fuel would be too rich. Or maybe too lean on non-cat engines, too rich on cat engines. Does this mean that if you want to dyno our bike with AIS, that you HAVE to block off the AIS system?

Has any one done any before and after measurements of A/F mixture, engine or header temps, or does the engine run noticeably better after doing this? My FJ09 runs so good after 2WDW reflash, I don't want to mess with anything. I suppose they shut off the AIS system, but I am not sure. My biggest concern is my spark plugs are really clean and look good, and I really would not want to make the A/F mixture any leaner by blocking off AIS system any further. If red Locktite is the permanent kind, those screws will never come out again. Non-permanent lock tite is plenty good enough.

How easy it will be to learn how to wheelie is highly dependent on your present skill as a rider. My guess would be that anyone who can do a big long wheelie, whether on street or dirt bike, has already had about a zillion crashes before they learn to wheelie consistently and safely. Setting your bike up like a stunt bike, sliders on wheel axles, crash bars etc, and wearing full leather gear with armor for knees, elbows, gloves, boots helmet etc and large parking lot with no other traffic is first things to get. Smooth out the snatchy throttle with ECU reflash, G2 throttle tamer, adjusting the accelerator position sensor (I think that is what it is called) can also ease the learning curve, also Protect the handle bar controls with stronger bar end thingies. Start with forward body position, squeeze knees, put weight of feet/foot pegs. Start by holding forward body position, foot on rear brake, and twist the throttle just enough to extend the forks, but don't lift the wheel off the ground. Release throttle early, practice that until you can do it comfortably and consistently. Practice hitting rear break to bring front end down. Trying in second gear will be easier, less sensitive than first gear. Traction control makes learning fairly easy. Without traction control, it becomes fairly easy to loop the bike over backwards. There are 3 basic things to do to start a wheelie. Roll the throttle on faster than normal, pull up on the hand bars and lean back, or pop the clutch and hang on. Bikes with plenty of power will wheelie by just rolling on the throttle, bikes with less power may need pulling up on bars and popping the clutch. Popping the clutch is the same thing a during a burn out with a car, gets a lot of power to the rear wheel real fast. As an old dirt biker, wheelie was a skill I had to learn. I never practice wheelie on street bikes. It really is not a useful skill for street riding. Instead, I try accelerate as hard as possible WITHOUT wheelie, and frequently out run guys who don't practice hard acceleration, especially when coming out of corners.