vanion2 Posted April 20, 2017 Share Posted April 20, 2017 Hello. I am so glad I found this forum! I have an 2002 Honda VFR800A that I have pretty much farkled out to the max. I love riding and I love multiday road trips and while my trusty VFR has seen me through almost 40K miles of scenic mountain pass twisties, daily commuting, and weather of all kinds I have been contemplating a bike with a more standard position and better windshield protection. Even with a custom set of bar risers I still have to lean forward a touch and the touring shields are very slim pickings with little increase in actual performance. This got me thinking I wanted an FJR1300. What's not to love of a faster bike with all the amenities built in that I had to add to the VFR? So I test drove one. Twice. And after each ride I left under whelmed. I felt like I was driving my VFR only without the soul stirring excitement. In the end it was just too refined and adding 100 lbs of weight didn't appeal to me. In fact, it is the one thing I don't care for on the VFR either. So back to the internet I went and I started reading reviews on anything that resembled a touring bike that wasn't a cruiser. This isn't me trying to insult the cruiser crowd but every one I have driven instantly bored me to tears. My wife loves them and when she starts riding again (insert young child here) she is looking forward to getting another one. I need something that leans deep, doesn't vibrate my arse to sleep, and begs to be driven non stop. And thus I found myself reading more and more about the FJ-09. This lead me to fork over my contact information to the local Yamaha dealerships which resulted in a test drive yesterday morning. On some of the reviews I read there was mention of vibration in the handles and seat and heat issues while sitting in traffic. I noticed none of this on my test drive. The salesman gave me the keys and said "take as long as you like" and I did. I hit the highway, road through busy traffic, sprinted, hard braked, leaned it (carefully since the tires were still brand new), and other wise put it through the paces to see how it compared to my beloved VFR. Halfway through the drive I felt myself falling in love. I loved the throttle response. The lighter weight combined with the slightly more hp made it faster than my VFR. The suspension was fantastic (I only weigh 150 lbs) and easily handled city streets, man hole covers, and uneven surfaces with confident ease. I suffered no vibration issues with the stock handle bars but then my test mount had some beefy bar ends so maybe Yamaha addressed that issue? The stock seat was ok but I expected that since it is a stock seat. A visit to a custom shop for some gel packing will quickly fix that issue. It was 85 F and sunny and even sitting at traffic lights I wasn't feeling a heat soak from the engine and I was only wearing a pair of khaki pants. Compared to my VFR it was down right cool. Now that is a bike that will roast your crotch when standing still. So what didn't I like about the FJ-09? The stock mirrors are useless. I don't even think extenders will make those mirrors useful. Such a limited field of view, and the odd shape left me feeling blind to anything behind me. I always check my blind spot before changing lanes anyway but in all my years of riding and all the bikes I have driven these instantly rated the worst I have ever had to use. The other issue I had was how tall the FJ is. I am 5'7" with a 32" inseam which means I can flat foot the FJ with one leg down but I would be hard pressed to tip toe both feet. Maybe the stock seat was at the higher setting? I didn't check but I like to back my bike into the motorcycle parking where I work and this means I would have to dismount the bike to perform this with the FJ. Of course, being almost a hundred pounds lighter than the VFR this still makes the FJ a dream come true for me. The last thing I wasn't impressed with was the stock wind screen. It was at its highest setting and on the highway I was taking it right in the visor on my helmet. That meant a lot of noisy buffeting that I didn't suffer from even on my VFR. A quick search of the after market though revealed a selection of much better options available so not a big deal. In fact, there are quite a few after market farkles for the FJ ready to go and most reasonably priced (damn you revzilla.com Lol). So why haven't I pulled the trigger on one yet? Price is reasonable, I can buy the Givi racks to mount all my hard cases on it, looks and rides great, but the one question I really haven't found an answer too is how many miles can I expect from the bike? My VFR is 62K miles which means I just crossed over the half life. 100K on the V4 is not a problem. The FJ-09 is an I3 though and my 2002 R6 I put 20K miles on was at 45K and was starting to get tired (oil leaks, CCT's, etc). Granted 45K for a brand new bike is a lot of riding time but I am looking at something advertised as a touring bike and I don't like bike shopping. I like riding. A lot of riding. Every day kind of riding. Multiday trips through Colorado and New Mexico kind of riding. So it has to be bullet proof and reliable. I tried doing a search for a "Who has the highest mileage thread" but all I kept turning up was what mode gets the best gas mileage. And does the FJ-09 really require premium fuel? Funny how the reviews never mentioned that... Well, I am here awaiting any nuggets of wisdom you are willing to share and hopefully learn the FJ-09 is definitely ready to take me 100K or more because I just paid off my student loans and am seriously thinking this might be the next bike I park on my side of the garage. Thanks for reading my long winded post. 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nsmiller Posted April 20, 2017 Share Posted April 20, 2017 Hello and welcome to the forum! I own both an FJR1300 for myself and my wife rides a '15 FJ-09. Both are awesome machines. I will give you my personal opinion of the longevity of the bikes. I have two friends who ride VFR800's, and they are certainly great machines. Definitely well known for easily running 150K miles. You can find numerous examples of FJR1300's like mine running over 200K and even some as high as 300K miles before they finally kick the bucket. Why do these machines last so long? Because people service them regularly, ride them a lot (ie they don't sit idle in a garage), and they are popular choices for touring missions, and common in LD competition riding such as the iron butt rally. All that to say I've seen examples of Ninja 600's, FZ1's, and Honda CBR 600's running 100K miles or more. This proves these little sport bikes are just as capable as the heavy-weight sport touring class when it comes to longevity, but because of their ergos they are not nearly as popular to ride long distance. Therefore there are simply less examples of high mileage bikes out there. Here is a video of a guy who rode his CBR F4i over 300K miles [video src=https://youtu.be/gIHz-U_73BE] So what's my point? The point that I believe that almost any modern Japanese bike that is serviced regularly and ridden by a responsible rider on touring or sport touring type rides will easily go 100K miles or more. The FJ-09 is no exception. I believe the worst thing you can do to these bikes is not ride them. The problem with motorcycles in America is so many people buy them as toys and then they hardly ride them and they neglect basic service/maintenance. Buy an FJ-09, put 10 or 20 K miles on it in a year. Change the oil at regular intervals. Keep your chain lubed. Follow the service manual's recommendations for maintaining your machine. I've been building a collection of YouTube videos (search for Science_Biker) to show people how to service their FJ-09 as my wife's accumulate's mileage. Change fluids like your brake fluid/coolant proactively, instead of waiting until you have a problem. The bike will easily run as long as you ask it to. The one mechanical issue with these bikes that Yamaha keeps having a bit of trouble with is the automatic cam chain tensioner. There have been several versions of this part. You can have Yamaha replace yours with the most up to date version under recall or you can install a APE brand manual tensioner. If you're the kind of guy that likes to work on your own machines and you have basic tools the APE is probably your best bet. At the moment our's currently has a Yamaha tensioner, but if it ever starts making noise it will be getting an APE right away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crd Posted April 20, 2017 Share Posted April 20, 2017 nsmiller is spot on. If you want the bike to last as long as you're willing to ride it, then be diligent about maintaining it. Oil and all other fluids and don't forget to keep valve clearances in spec. I came from a fourth generation VFR. I'm 6'3" with a long torso. I couldn't be happier with my choice. Rather than replace the windscreen wholesale, I'm planning to try a laminar lip on the existing screen. I just want to spend a solid multiday tour with the stock setup to really have a feel for what else I might want to change. Welcome to the forum. We look forward to seeing more of you and your new favorite touring bike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member martyl Posted April 20, 2017 Premium Member Share Posted April 20, 2017 The mirror extenders sold through Adventure tech on this forum work great with the stock mirrors. Good luck with your choice. A Motorcyclist's Church is the open road.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Henchman Posted April 20, 2017 Premium Member Share Posted April 20, 2017 Welcome to the forum. As you pointed out, the available windscreen options should provide remediation. For me, smaller was better... keeping wind off my chest and my helmet in clean air. The CalSci tinted shorty did this well. One of my more recent farkles was adding the AdventureTech 2" extenders - after months of looking at my arms & elbows. I wish it was the first thing I did! It greatly increased my riding pleasure as I can see multiple lanes of traffic as well as behind me (as stated before by many on this forum) all at the same time. Highly recommend. Whatever you do it will be enjoyable because it is such a fun bike! Again, welcome to the forum. So what didn't I like about the FJ-09? The stock mirrors are useless. I don't even think extenders will make those mirrors useful. Such a limited field of view, and the odd shape left me feeling blind to anything behind me. I always check my blind spot before changing lanes anyway but in all my years of riding and all the bikes I have driven these instantly rated the worst I have ever had to use. The last thing I wasn't impressed with was the stock wind screen. It was at its highest setting and on the highway I was taking it right in the visor on my helmet. That meant a lot of noisy buffeting that I didn't suffer from even on my VFR. A quick search of the after market though revealed a selection of much better options available so not a big deal. In fact, there are quite a few after market farkles for the FJ ready to go and most reasonably priced (damn you revzilla.com Lol).[span][/span][span][/span][span][/span] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
koth442 Posted April 21, 2017 Share Posted April 21, 2017 Am I the only person in the known universe that doesn't hate the stock mirrors? '15 FJ09 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nsmiller Posted April 21, 2017 Share Posted April 21, 2017 Am I the only person in the known universe that doesn't hate the stock mirrors?There is another... [video src=https://youtu.be/AuI3QvGEMZY] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJM Posted April 21, 2017 Share Posted April 21, 2017 Am I the only person in the known universe that doesn't hate the stock mirrors? Nope. They work perfectly fine for me. Who looks backwards while riding forwards anyway, amirite?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member britelitebob Posted April 21, 2017 Premium Member Share Posted April 21, 2017 Am I the only person in the known universe that doesn't hate the stock mirrors?Nope. They work perfectly fine for me. Who looks backwards while riding forwards anyway, amirite?? What I need is some way to see what's up ahead of me better because on this bike I keep catching up to the cops way too much. BLB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
koth442 Posted April 21, 2017 Share Posted April 21, 2017 Okay, just checking \\endthreadjack '15 FJ09 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ayrton Posted April 21, 2017 Share Posted April 21, 2017 Install the extenders - then they are perfect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member fddriver2 Posted April 21, 2017 Premium Member Share Posted April 21, 2017 Nope. They work perfectly fine for me. Who looks backwards while riding forwards anyway, amirite?? What I need is some way to see what's up ahead of me better because on this bike I keep catching up to the cops way too much.Yep..... "It doesn't matter who walks in, you know the joke is still the same" Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. USA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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