sk8nsanta

I thought about buying one for my jacket, but found that wearing a tech/running tshirt and getting it damp under a sink right before riding has worked quite well for me. Guess it really depends on what jacket you're wearing and how long you'll be riding between stops. I'm sure a quick water bottle squirt down the front and back of the jacket would work just as well.

Took off the Barkbuster Blizzard hand guards and threw on some Sato Racing bar ends now that the warmer weather is here. I went with the black/short version.

Took off the stock hand guards and fitted some Barkbusters Blizzard guards for winter time riding. I had these on my CB500X last year and they are amazing. When paired with heated grips I can wear my summer gloves into the lower 40's, middleweight gloves into the lower 30's, and then I'll just pull out my heated gloves for anything under freezing. If you do a lot of winter/cold weather riding, I highly recommend them. No issues at all with fitment or turning the bars lock to lock. Takes about 10 minutes to remove the stock guards and get these completely on.

Yea, one of the reasons I chose it, although that EvoTech one looks pretty good as well. As for the zip ties on the bottom, they're really there just to keep the bottom half secured against the edges of the radiator itself. The mounting brackets near the top utilize the stock mounting point for the radiator and that's what really hold everything together. The Givi kit comes with everything you need.

Pretty much, here's a link to the thread where I talked about it. Basically loosened everything up and re-tightened the bolts more evenly.

Installed the Givi radiator guard and fixed my heated grip issue with the sticking throttle side. I'm really happy with this radiator guard, seems solidly built and while it was a little tricky getting it installed (would've been way easier with an extra set of hands), it's firmly in place and not going anywhere. It'll give a little extra piece of mind from getting a rock to the radiator and ruining a ride/day/week. Helps make the bike look far more complete as well, like it should've been there all along. http://www.revzilla.com/motorcycle/givi-pr2122-radiator-guard-yamaha-fj-09-2015-2016

Whoa whoa whoa, I ride, every single day! Only thing that ever stops me is snow or ice!

Installed a small tank bag to carry small items on my trip up to Montreal for the Canadian Grand Prix. http://www.revzilla.com/motorcycle/cortech-micro-20-tank-bag Gear to be packed

^^^ Let me know when you guys want to try and do the TB sync and I'll ride down and we can have a maintenance day.

Dianese TRQ-Tour Gore-Tex boots, best I've ever had. Got about 10,000 miles on them and rapidly climbing.

Not legal in VA either, but this is my general take on it: I've commuted almost every day for the past year to work on my bike, and my opinions have certainly changed a bit. For reference, I'm generally a very conservative rider, I don't go crazy, and I am fairly respectful of other vehicles sharing the road with me. Personally, I wouldn't ever run from the police, but I also don't ride in a way that would attract any unwanted attention. Perhaps I've watched too many moto-vlogger youtube videos of people in Europe constantly weaving their way through terrible traffic, but I've started to split lanes or "skip" ahead of big lines when traffic gets really bad. First time I ever split was maybe 5 months ago, when an accident on a highway here took out 2-3 lanes. I was sitting there in the HOV lane either in a standstill or inching along at 1mph. Eventually this trucker on my right yelled down from his cab and said "Hey dude, why don't you just go on through?!" I yelled back that I had been thinking about it, but it's against the law, etc etc. Then I thought for another second and said "F it, I'm going" so I took off down the middle of lanes #1 and #2 and safely made my way all the way through the massive traffic jam. When the lanes opened, I simply merged back in to an open space with ease and was on my way. No harm, no foul in my book. Maybe 2 weeks after that incident there was another big accident on another highway that had traffic in a standstill. Same scenario, I sat for maybe 7-10 minutes before those thoughts in my head said "just go on through, you can easily do it". I flipped on the radio in my helmet to catch the traffic report and the accident was further down than I initially thought, well after where I'd be exiting anyways, so I went for it again. A few people honked at me, I assume because they're mad that I'm able to get through and they couldn't, but a very surprising number of vehicles tried to give me room by moving either to the left or right. My guess is they understood that I wasn't riding like a jackass, but simply making the best of my circumstances, and they couldn't fault me for that. So for me, I do it purely based on how bad traffic is, and the surroundings (is there enough space for me to actually do this safely), do I see any law enforcement nearby. I've been riding along at 45-50 mph before and had bikes fly past me, splitting lanes. To me, that's just stupid, unnecessary, and excessively dangerous. Traffic is moving decently well, no need to split. It's hard not to justify it though in heavy traffic, legal or not. As others have mentioned there are plenty of studies showing it to be safe and effective (when done in the proper manner), and when I split, I'm not taking up any space that a car/truck could otherwise occupy. What drivers fail to realize is that by me splitting, I'm making their commute a micro fraction better, because it's one less vehicle sitting, taking up space. If more people commuted by bike, traffic would be greatly reduced. My $.02

I'm in Nova, I commute every single day on the FJ between Centreville and Tysons. I'll be the 2016 Black FJ on 66 and the hot lanes.

^^^ I would go with a simple dual pack of bluetooth communicators, something like this: http://www.revzilla.com/motorcycle/sena-10s-bluetooth-headset-dual-pack

Old Shoei RF-1000 on the left (retired), newer RF-1200 on the right.

Installed my Ram ball mount and phone holder, perfect placement for (preferred by me at least) portrait orientation!