New FJ-09 owner in central Ohio

[cameron12x]

This is a bike that I've been clamoring for!  
 
I picked mine up at the dealership on Saturday and was lucky enough to get a brief ride home on it before the weather turned north (and cold).   Here are my initial impressions:
 
The Good
 
The engine. It makes gobs of torque everywhere, and while it's not broken in yet I can already tell it will offer all the power I'll need and a rush at the top end. (Once the engine is broken in, one will definitely need to be careful keeping the front wheel down during hard acceleration in the first three gears.)
 
It has 3 riding modes, but I just kept it in STD during the ride home (A=sport, B=rain). This is my first ride-by-wire bike, so the throttle response felt just a TINY bit disconnected from inputs. I'll have to check out A mode next to see how that changes my feedback. I didn't detect any of the low speed fueling issues that were noted in the first year for this engine. That was one thing that Yamaha HAD to fix, and I believe that they did. I'll be checking for it again (especially in A-mode) during my next few rides. The gearbox is fine (no missed shifts), but understandably a little tight too, since the engine is so new. Clutch action is good. Instrumentation and controls are well laid out. Rear mirrors are usable.
 
The bike is light! Easily flickable. The suspension seems fine, but I haven't logged enough miles or pushed it to really tell. (This is another area which Yamaha worked to improve from the FZ model from last year.) Had to be careful since there is still a lot of grit on the roads and the tires aren't scrubbed in yet, but I can already tell this bike will like the twisties.
 
The Bad
 
The hand guards seem to provide little wind protection. Will need to evaluate further, as it looks like they might be able to be swapped out for aftermarket ones. I intend to add heated grips later. The windscreen is fine for around town, but not very effective on the highway. I intend to add an aftermarket windscreen.
 
The Indifferent
 
I'm 5'11" and my legs felt just a little bit cramped (not much). I may raise the seat the 0.9" that it allows, to 33.9". We'll see how that affects my ability to flat-foot the bike. The seat seemed a bit hard when I first sat on one at a dealership, but no complaints with leathers on during my ride. Will need to evaluate on longer rides. Like most new bikes, the rear tail looks busy. Since Photoshop doesn't work on the street, I was intending to purchase a tail tidy at some point to clean up its appearance. The exhaust sounds good, but is very quiet. But then again, I didn't really open it up much during the ride home. I got an indicated 43.7 mpg during my short 31 mile ride (combination highway and city) home. That's about what I expected from a new engine with that type of riding.
 
Summary
 
My first-ever Yamaha motorcycle. I have to get more seat time, but I think I'll really like this bike. I'll need to add a few things to make it exactly how I want it, but don't we have to do that with just about every bike? Now I just have to pray to the weather Gods and hope that we get a few days of decent riding weather for the rest of the Winter. Bring on the Spring!
 
 

 
Cheers to everyone who already owns a FJ-09 or who wants to own one!
 

[Guest eatpasta]

Coooooool. great mini-review too

[cameron12x]

Update (1/20/15):
 
Just got about an hour more seat time in. Did 37 miles on mostly back roads. Averaged 44 mpg. Have 68 miles on the bike now, but it looks like I won't be able to ride for at least 10 days, based on what I'm seeing in the long-term weather forecast here in central Ohio. We are probably entering the coldest period of the year here.
 
I selected "A" riding mode today and opened her up a bit more. Throttle response is definitely faster in this mode than with STD mode. This thing is a rocket. Short-shifting still brings you to 80mph in a heartbeat. The throttle is a little happy just off idle in this mode, though, so I felt myself pulling in the clutch on very slow turns. When operating in STD mode this is not needed. I haven't tried "B" riding mode (for rain) yet. Brakes are starting to bead in and the tires are starting to give me a little more confidence as they scrub in.
 
Can't wait for Spring!