rain

I'm in the foreign country of California. As I said, all shields off. Cookies always removed. Strange, huh?

Dunno why, but I can't get to this Teespring site. Always 404. On VPN, or not, all shields down. Only get to the front page, (not the FJ menu) if I take out the 's' from 'https'. Don't have problems with the rest of the internetz, just this site. Not a good thing if it's a business trying to make a buck. Firefox, latest, nothing unusual about my build. Must just be me.

My only experience: 2017 with ~10k miles. Haven't ridden it for about 2 mos. due to colder weather, I have an RT better suited for these months. I periodically put it on a charger to keep the battery topped off. So we had an unusually warm day, I decided to take the FJ up the hill. Crank and crank, nothing. Again and again, not giving it any or much throttle cuz I generally never have to when starting the thing. So finally, I cranked it open about half and cranked. First one cyl, then VROOM! After that, easy starts as usual. All I can guess is that there was air in the lines and it had to get the gas to the cyls. rain

Except this one's about a hundred bucks cheaper... That was the point. Maybe I missed earlier references to others that weren't ~165 bucks. rain

Installed the beak, all went well. All hardware included. It's the "63 buck shipped from China one" on ebay. https://ibb.co/jbqy2f https://ibb.co/mcurNf https://ibb.co/izZ2TL rain

I tried to upload a couple of images, "No Images could be successfully uploaded". No explanation, dunno what to do. Maybe I can stick them somewhere else and post a link. edit: Another try: https://ibb.co/iDoG00 https://ibb.co/iQ4Of0 rain

Well, it's been 5 or 6 days since I ordered the thing from China, it arrived today. I'm in California, but that's still unusually fast. Usually ~22 days. It looks great, texture matches, and came with mounting hardware. I suspect it's the same exact one you can order from the US, just sold out of the back door of where it's actually made. If any of you have purchased the US one for ~160 bucks, it would be interesting to know what the molded-in maker info says on the bottom of the thing. Will let ya'll know how it goes on, but it looks fine. rain

I'm in the US, that never happens, in my experience. It just takes 3 weeks to arrive. Will let you know, WITH PHOTOS!

Well, I know many think beaking the FJ is an abomination, but I like it. What I don't like is the 165ish price tag. Found one on ebay for 63 bucks US shipped, and took the bait. Still too much for a 4" piece of abs, but I SAVED A HUNDRED DOLLARS!!! Anyways, it's on the slow boat from China, hopefully I can report back before next year. rain

Thanks, wordsmith, I left off the term 'folding' when searching and wasn't seeing these. I already bought another inexpensive set, and there are three annoyances: 1. The clutch lever bottoms out on the light switch housing, limiting it's travel. 2. The brake lever has no bushing, it's the bike's shoulder bolt against the anodized aluminum bore of the lever. 3. The brake lever is dimensioned such that it's a hair-trigger, no free travel at all before it's down to business. Have you noticed any of these type of design problems with your folding set? Thanks again, rain

Wordsmith: would it be possible for you to provide an actual link to the ebay folding levers? It would be appreciated! rain

I have a couple, they work great under non-humid conditions. Keep in mind, they hold a LOT of water, and are heavy. You have to use them with a mesh jacket or less. Mine weighs in about 3 or 4 lbs, that's all water! They dry out very slowly after use if they've haven't used up all the water during your ride. So, if you pack one, and use it on a multi day ride, then don't need it, you have to lash it to the outside of your junk to finish drying out. All in all, I like them. You can also get what used to be called a 'hoon cooler'. It's a platypus or bota like bag you lash under your arm, and it has tubing that leads to a collar you wear around your neck. You give it a squeeze, it soaks your T-shirt, and you have another 10 or 20 minutes of cool.

This might be a little off-track, but the most comfortable change to my ride is that I started riding my bicycle more. I grew muscles where I had scrawny bones and then everything was fine. Now it's winter, I'm not riding my bicycle much, and getting flabby, and the seat is 'getting harder'. Go figure.

Something rarely mentioned in the MPG thread is WHAT YEAR THE BIKE IS. 15-16's are one thing, the 17 supposedly has different mapping. I have an off the shelf 17, and have left the mpg register going since I got it new. It started around 52 in the beginning, and has steadily risen until presently at 7k miles it's at 55.2mpg. California e10 gas, mostly under 2k elevation, mostly Santa Cruz Mtns twisties. I don't beat it, but I do ride it in an, erm, 'spirited' manner. Sounds like most of the 45-50 mpg posts come from 15-16's. I suspect the thing is probably running too lean, (Californis emissions), and wouldn't mind giving up a few mpg's for engine health.

When I was messing with the encoder thing, I stated that spinning the rear didn't show up on the panel. (I have a 17 so just mph, no diagnostics.) I got schooled, so went out and spun the rear again, this time FASTER. Sure enough, the numbers didn't start to flicker till I got it above about 3mph. A slow spin showed nothing.