BentAero

I disagree. Obviously I didn't slide in these but these gloves appear designed for workers slinging tools all day and appear of much better construction than 95% of the MC gloves I've purchased in 40 years. The fingertips on these gloves are double stitched durable synthetic that works very well with your smartphone. I doubt there are any daily mc gloves that will perform better in a slide. There's one way to find out...

Hate to be the wet blanket, but if you slide down the road wearing these gloves, they'll shred like you're wearing no gloves at all. Would you touch a spinning disc grinder or belt sander wearing these? The nerve endings in your palms and fingertips are irreplaceable...

A hair too loose is far better than a hair too tight...

Not true. *If* the master cylinder one-way valve is sticking, (which would block the bleed hole that allows fluid to return to the master cyl reservoir) the caliper pistons will still squeeze the rotor/wood, but won't release, as the fluid can't travel back up the line. The pedal will still move/feel normal. If the caliper pistons are stuck in the 'squeezed' position, try tapping on the master cylinder with a hammer handle. If the mc piston pops loose, it will relieve the pressure from the caliper pistons allowing the rear wheel to rotate. You've got nothing to lose...

I had the exact experience you describe a few years ago on a Honda. It was actually the master cylinder sticking, not the caliper. The master cylinder piston would push fluid down the line applying the caliper piston, but the MC piston was sticking in the 'on' position, which blocks the relief hole that allows the fluid to return to the MC once released. MC needed a rebuild kit, problem solved. YMMV.

Plastic or aluminum screws are on purpose; just in case you decide to exit the seat at a high velocity directly over the gauge cluster, the windscreen will sheer off easily...

That's a great deal, I tried to get one but all they have is the xs size left which is kinda typical for Revzilla closeouts.The Schuberth distributor was blowing these out super cheap at the Barber Vintage Festival last year. I wanted one bad, but walked away empty handed as they have a round head shape and just don't fit my long-oval head.

So inquiring minds wonder... where does one get these $6 rim stickers? @Brick Send me $12 and I'll get you a set.

Yep, mine too. It may be a Yamaha thing; my FJR did it bad even after 60k miles. Never could figure out why. With the FJ I've ust come to expect it.

It's oh so tempting, but oh so dangerous. On a hot summer night a few years ago I was riding down the freeway with my visor up. I had a great big barn-door windscreen, so why worry? A giant June-Bug beetle hit me just above the eye brow, below the helmet edge. It felt like I was hit by a golf ball at 70mph. It hurt so bad I had to stop. If it had hit 1" lower... I'll ride with my visor 'open' now, but I'm always looking through it, never under it.

I'm dating myself here, but as a teen I watched Roger DeCoster, Brad Lackey, Chuck Sun, Jimmy Wienert, and a host of other greats race at Red Bud. -And a couple young punks in the support class named Bob Hannah and Marty Smith. Back when men were men and women were glad of it.

Of all the brands I've ever used, and I've used them all, Dunlops have been the worst. I tend to lean (pun intended) towards brands with 0 degree belt construction, providing a linear turn in vs. tires with a more triangular shape that fall into turns. But mostly, Dunlops don't hit the price/performance marker for me to buy them. I'd probably pick up a set of Q3s for a track day, but that's about it. Could Dunlop sport-touring tires be any worse if they tried? If there are 10 S-T tires are the market, Dunlops would rank a comfortable 9th, only barely beating out Shinko. Yep, I've tried them too.

Gotta love that 0-60 time of 2.9 sec. That is 0.2 sec quicker than a Tesla P85D that costs about $100K. The 1/4-mile time will drop quite a bit without a speed limiter. Hmmm... not really. A low E.T. comes predominately from a good 60' time. That in turn comes from light weight and brute power; getting the mass moving from a dead stop. The MPH would likely go up noticeably without the USA 'speed limiter' as MPH is measured in the last 66' of a 1/4 mile drag strip. Rule of thumb: The first 1/8 mile will be an indicator of the E.T., the last 1/8 mile will be an indicator of MPH. You can make a perfect pass, get completely off the throttle in the last couple hundred feet (coasting) and it will have very little impact on the E.T., but MPH will plummet.

@jjm In what way are the tubes misaligned? An easy test for axle/fork bottom alignment is to install the axle into the fork bottoms without the wheel. If it's a little off in length you can adjust one of the upper tubes in the triple clamp so the fork bottoms are the same 'height'. It makes us feel better, and installs go easier, but in reality, a small differential in length is no big deal as the longer of the two fork tubes just gets a hair more preload than the other. As piotrek pointed out, the right side fork bottom can move left/right. The no-wheel axle install test should highlight any tendency for bind.

@pattonme You may want to update Ohlins pricing on the top post; all retail prices for Ohlins shocks, forks, and cartridges sold in the USA have dropped in price. New price for YA335 is $575. New price for YA535 is $1100.

What's the general concensus on riding tubeless tires with a plug? I've personally picked up screws/nails on 2 fresh-ish tires, plugged them and then rode 3-4k miles until replacement.I've done it, but was never comfortable with it. It was a stress-inducer that I didn't need. Many are perfectly fine with it.

...this was bugging me, so I checked... The right fork leg will float on the axle head with the pinch bolt loosened (photos below show gently forced range...fork forced outward, and then inward... I'd say delta of ~3mm). The ABS bracket, not the fork leg, is the fastening point of contact for the axle head. This tells me that there is merit to trying to get the fork legs to self-align prior to tightening the pinch bolt...to reduce stiction. The fender assembly must be fastened to the forks last... otherwise it will act as a brace. Only realized that last part now while checking this.... another Homer moment. I stand corrected. You are right in that the right fork leg *can* be moved laterally. But why would it 'want' to? If the axle head moves smoothly thru the right fork bottom as it should, it ought to find it's natural, centered position, especially if nothing else was done other than the removal of the front wheel. (Outer fork tubes not disturbed) I like Matt's idea of riding a short distance then tightening the pinch bolt, but that's probably not a good choice for most of us. A couple of stoppies ought to do it. I've done the 'bounce & tighten', and I've done just the 'tighten' on several bikes and have never noticed a difference either way. Maybe I've just been lucky. Re: the ABS sensor, I don't understand why or how there would be an issue with it binding or getting pinched. It either is seated in place or it's not. There's certainly no harm in the 'bounce & tighten' method, I guess I should have kept my keyboard/mouth shut. Sigh.

The FJ abs bracket is just a glorified spacer; we don't get a choice on its position. It's either correctly seated or its not. Yes, we might be getting stiction, be we can't adjust it away with this axle design.

That is the part that I am confused about. When I do this procedure, I don't remove or even loosen the axle, therefore it would be impossible to alter the wheel/ABS sensor alignment. All I am doing is effectively extending or compressing each fork leg by a few millimeters. Now, if I remove the wheel for any reason, I always use the procedure that Bruce described. But... (and it's a big but) loosening the axle, pinch bolt, etc has NO effect on fork alignment on a fork of this design. There, I said it. This whole 'bouncing thing' is from the days of 'conventional' forks with twin pinch bolts on each fork bottom, (such as an FJR or Honda ST1300) not upside-down forks with the type of axle that the FJ has. Look at the axle closely; it's a shouldered bolt with an integral nut that has no option of position -it's either tight or it's not. It's so idiot proof, even I can do it. You can leave it loose, bounce the front end, but as soon as you tighten the axle, the fork tubes are going to move (or not) to their 'installed' position -there's nothing you can do to change that. The single pinch bolt on the right leg is merely a safety-pin to keep the axle from turning out "just in case". If it makes you feel better to bounce the front end with all the bolts and the axle loose, by all means, enjoy. But your efforts will be for naught as soon as you tighten the axle.

Me, too. For my own comfort, I put a short 2x4 on a jack under the headers, too, just in case the milk crate failed. I made the 'milk crate' mistake many years ago during hot weather; I had a Honda ST1300 on the centerstand and took the front wheel off. I placed a plastic milk crate under the forks. When I returned the next day to put the front wheel back on I was mortified to see the milk crate had collapsed under the (massive) weight. Miraculously, the bike was still upright even though the crate had lost about half it's height. I don't trust plastic anymore. Now I just use a stack of 2x4's, etc under the pipes, anything that can't collapse.

Well, that's just silly. That is just too funny!!! Only problem is, I have way too much hair in the above photo. That does sorta look like Brick, though.

Sounds like a great idea to me! ?Would that make us the Three Stooges?

Yeah, I'm not a big fan how a top box looks, but simply can't argue with the utilitarian aspects of it. I've got the Yamaha 39L with the FJR1300 hard bags. It looks so much better without it. Ahhh, those pictures look like... home! (or at least someplace real close by) Clint, what did you coat the FJR bags with? Paint? Peel-coat?

...I guess we all enjoy riding equally, but for different reasons. I can only imagine what one has to do to the bike to be able to rip their tires clean at 4,500 miles...., but it can't be just commuting. I am assuming the OP meant urban commute, busy freeway etc.. Frankly, of all the bikes out there, the FJ doesn't strike me as a road carving machine any more than the Versys ( )... but of course, it is much better at it. Aren't you building your trailer to save tires on your bike?... why else woul you cart it about? Yes, I believe the OP wrote that it was commuting miles. I suppose if you're doing nothing but the urban/freeway commute you'll get a lot of miles out of a tire. I never commute on a bike. I loath the thought of it. I won't ride without ATGATT, and I despise suiting up for a boring high-traffic, high-risk, short ride to work. Cost-per-mile in my sedan is cheaper, as well as obviously safer. I try to make 100% of my miles purely for enjoyment, and I live in the middle of a riding paradise, so why commute? Speaking of that, that's exactly why I'm going to start using a trailer to haul the bike to events, especially during the heat of summer. If it's more than 10 hours or so away, I'll consider using the trailer. Of course it depends on where the destination is and what the roads are like getting there. If it's all twisties, I'll ride. But if I'm headed for example, to north Arkansas for an MSTA event, I'd rather trailer down I-40 and burn up the sides of the tires when I get there, than burn up the center of the tire getting there-and-back in 100+ degree heat. My next Colorado trip will definitely be via trailer. I've rode to CO/NM/WY several times, always in June or July, and it's been 105-108 degrees F every freakin' time, making it miserable. I used to be totally anti-trailer, but I'm 'over that' ego issue.

13,000 miles out of a set of motorcycle tires is just fundamentally wrong. Isn't the purpose of riding a motorcycle to wear the sides of the tires off as quickly as possible? Do you ever take the engine past 4,000 RPM? 13,000 miles on one set of tires on anything with more performance than a Harley is inconceivable to me. If I get 4,500 miles out of a set of tires, I'm pleased. If I get 5,500 miles I'm ecstatic. Congratulations. I think.