koth442

@com3 to the white courtesy phone...

Western North Carolina is the gateway to some phenomenal riding. Riding season is decent. You're subject to spotty thunderstorms all summer long. Winters are too cold for riding, often lows are sub-freezing. I can't comment on snow though. 

That's a neat find (the Pan America). Hopefully the patron was okay.

While I avidly follow the series, I won't be attending. Have fun!

12 hours ago, betoney said:

Same on mine, I have very little slack on the lines to the ECU, I could maybe slide the ECU an inch.

I was able to noodle the airbox off without disconnecting the ECU on my '15. I would get the wire bundles out of their notch in the airbox, get everything on the airbox loose and off the throttle bodies. Then slide the ECU out the inch or inch and a half it allows, then slide the airbox in the opposite direction. 

Gas is sparse in the rural areas right now. I heard on a local Facebook group that Robbinsville is out.

Knoxville, at least my area (for now) is okay but I'm not sure how long that will last. If I were you OP, I would seriously consider postponing this one

Your writing style cracks up OP. If I still lived in Sac, I'd be buying you beer about now.

The CalSci TS definitely had noise, it wasn't super quiet by any means. But the air was smooth. If you're above 6 foot it may be a little quieter for you. When I would sit up a bit on the pegs, the noise dropped off a fair amount. I'm about 5'8" for reference. 

The fairing design may also be contributing to the noise. It might be coming up and around. Food for thought.

Sorry to hear you didn't like your Madstad. 

I'm just curious, have you ever tried the Tracer /FJ with no screen at all? It sounds counter intuitive, but honestly I preferred no screen to OEM screen. Never tried a deflector though. I ended up settling on a CalSci Tinted Shorty. 

I feel ya. I had my FJ for about 4 years. I enjoyed it, but I didn't really love it.

Loving the story OP, thank you for sharing. 

It's pretty awesome. 

I've had jackets in the past do that. Don't think I found a cause though... 

Ozarks is excellent riding, often overlooked and usually underrated. 

Enjoy & ride safe!

32 minutes ago, texscottyd said:

It's what we do best.  

Observation:  That Nighthawk S doesn't have a mysteriously dented exhaust header...  

Scott's right! No dented exhaust. 

2 minutes ago, maximo said:

Also, look a the APS thread as well. That'll help out with the herky jerky. 

Also this. @com3 has spent more time on a racetrack with his FJ than anybody else I know of. No ECU flash either... 

2WDW flashed my FJ and had them flash my GSXR later on. Both were quality and quick. 

2WDW does sales around holidays, I suggest waiting for one and collecting on the discount.  

Welcome!

7 minutes ago, betoney said:

Ride the hell out of it as intended and keep extra tires and oil on hand.

And brake pads...

Huh, that is a rat-fart situation. Bummer. 

I'm loving all this tasty suspension pictures. 

10 hours ago, tktplz said:

For me it got to $110.00 to have the front and rear tires off the bike, mounted and balanced. Started at 40 bucks a tire off the bike and at that point riding the ZRX1100 and using some super sticky Avons. I was getting about 1,800 miles out off a rear and 2 rears to a front. As the last 3-5 years has gone by I do a lot of counter steering. And now am lucky to get a rear and a half out of a front. Been just changing them both at the same time now. Did the best with the Angel GTs on the FJ. Got 3,200 on a rear. BUT, isn't there always a BUT? BUT, now that I have a tire changer I can put a new set of super stickies on for each trip and ride the remains off in between. I love the confidence the sticky tire give you. So I got a set of the Bridgestone S22s for my Eureka Springs, AR trip coming up. We'll see how they do. I'll be looking at Q3s and Q4s soon!

Depending on the track surface, I shred a sticky rear like Q4 or Q3+ in 1 - 3 trackdays. Fortunately, getting tires swapped at a racetrack is pretty cheap. It's when I have to get tires swapped from home it gets tricky. The NoMar really helps there... 

I get what you're saying though. It's nice to be able to swap tires at will with whatever preferred rubber you want! That freedom is nice... 

2 hours ago, metallion said:

I see you're in Knoxville. There is a Cycle Gear store there that mounts tires fairly reasonable from what i remember. Whenever i am down that way on vacation i usually stop in there for something. 

If you buy the tire from them, it's $25. If you don't, its $50. Therefore, I went on the "drive all over town" fiasco. 

12 hours ago, tktplz said:

They do have an attachment for the No-Mar that mounts it to the 2 inch receiver on the rear of the truck or car for that matter. Then put it away when done. Just a thought. 

That might be a thing for me. Getting a back tire mounted recently has been a fiasco of the driving all over town variety... 

Until the city shots, you could have told me you rode up to Alaska and were taking some mid-night shots. I would have believed you. Very cool!