Hi, my name is Jim and I have a motorcycle problem

[jimf]

Today was my first real ride on the FJ, 220+ miles with about 7 hours in the saddle. I can see how the squared off-ness of the seat could bother people. I didn't find it that bad, but I did notice it. Other than that the seat seemed fine to me.
 
Can't fault the riding position, I barely needed to flex my legs and my spine and wrists are happy.
 
At one point I stopped to talk to my co-conspirators and my foot slipped in sand on the side of the road. Down I went. Luckily I had installed SW Motec crash bars just last night -- there's barely a mark on anything. I thought for sure the turn signal would break with the bike on its side, but it didn't. Glad I decided to take the time to put on the crash bars.
 
At one point I took us up a small town road, two lane to 1.5 lane, increasing sand, then hardpack dirt, then very bumpy dirt with some mud sections. The Dunlop D222s are not good mud tires, and I bottomed the suspension on something that I thought would be ok, but the bike was in general pretty good in that. I am more convinced to put on something like Tourance tires next time. B mode definitely helped, STD was too choppy when picking through the bombed-out parts of the road.
 
I'm more than halfway to the first oil change after 7 days. I don't know that I'll be able to make it to the oil change in the next week, too much other stuff needs doing, but it's pretty easy to eat the miles if I have the time.

[couter]

Whew! Glad you and the bike are alright. I know the excitement to get that first service done... I got my 600 miles done in a week.
 
I think that the B mode has a ton of uses. I found I like riding the bike with a passenger more in that mode. Its the perfect, I don't need the extra power, I want the comfort. B comfortable mode. I'm thinking of a poorly scripted Yamaha commercial now....
 
You are a far braver man than I. With a new bike I wouldn't be seeking out the sand and deep dirt in the first week of having it. I've been taking it really easy, getting used to it. I'm too chicken to go anywhere off the pavement for at least 6 months.
 
 
 
 

[jimf]

You are a far braver man than I. With a new bike I wouldn't be seeking out the sand and deep dirt in the first week of having it. I've been taking it really easy, getting used to it. I'm too chicken to go anywhere off the pavement for at least 6 months.

Well, I didn't actually intend to do it; the GPS showed a small road leading the way I wanted to go, so I went thattaway.  It turned out that thattaway wasn't paved for all of its length :-). 
I could have turned around, but most of the dirt roads around here are short duration (maybe a mile or two) with paved on either end, so I thought I'd just go with it.  It turns out that the road went on for some miles and straddled the state line.  At one point I actually stopped and asked some old grizzled guy what the shortest route to pavement was just after a particularly muddy section, but he just told me to go straight for another two miles, which was my plan anyway.
 
My favorite part?  He says, "There's a section up ahead that looks bombed out.  It looks like your bikes will be good for that though."
 
The other two riders were on GSes, a 2001 F650GS and a 2013 F800GS.  Those bikes were made for that, the FJ not so much, no matter the looks.  They also had dual-sport tires.  The guy on the F650GS was a trooper for not killing me for taking him down that road, he'd never even been on dirt before and he came through it neat as you please.  It can't but help his confidence that he tackled that without trouble, he has a lower opinion of his skills than he should.  I hear he did curse at me a few times....
 
Anyway I've been on worse roads (deeply rutted jeep track) in much worse conditions (torrential downpour) on my Daytona, trying to take a shortcut when a bridge was out from a recent hurricane.  Of course, I thought there was a good chance I was going to crash and never be found that one time; who would look for a pure sportbike on a road like that?  And there was no cell coverage to give a clue.
 
That was scary.  Today was just good fun.
 
[Edited F650GS year of manufacture, it was 2001 not 2011.  Stupid fingers.]

[wessie]

Glad you & the bike are okay after your adventure.
 
Is this the first "bin" reported? Does @Jimf qualify for the FBA - First Bin Award?

[jimf]

Glad you & the bike are okay after your adventure.  
Is this the first "bin" reported? Does @jimf qualify for the FBA - First Bin Award?

I don't know what you mean by "bin"?  Crash?  To me if you bin the bike you've destroyed it.  All I did was tip over embarrassingly while stopped and put small scratches in the handguard and on the crash bar. 
Since my legs are so short and the bikes I like are so tall that I can usually only toe down one side at a time I have a habit of tipping over, it's just too easy to get into a situation where the toe doesn't reach (never ever stop on the crown in between wheel tracks!) or doesn't provide firm enough footing.  I broke my collarbone on my Daytona doing that, tipping over while not moving in my driveway.  (Best part of that tipover was that I was wearing my "Safety Third, after fun and convenience" T-shirt when they did the X-rays.  Got a chuckle out of the tech for that.  It meant more than a month without riding though.)
 
At least this time there was sand involved. :-)
 
The FJ is thankfully a lot easier to manage than the Daytona was.  In all honesty, the Daytona was Really Not My Bike despite owning her for eight years.  Too tall, horribly uncomfortable (even after adding Helibars to raise the bars a full 2"), and no luggage capacity at all.  But she looked and sounded so great that I bought her anyway.  My wife claims that she was my version of Italian stiletto shoes.  She thinks the FJ is a pair of flats.  (She puts the bikes in terms she understands. :-)
 

[wessie]

Hah, a case of 2 countries separated by a common language.
 
In UK vernacular, a bin can be any incident where gravity has become the controlling force. It used to mean serious damage but has developed into any incident.
 
Is there a US term for a minor incident where pride is often the main injured party?

[jimf]

Here I am on the break-in ride:
 

 
We had stopped in Sterling, MA because one of my cohorts said we needed a history lesson.  Here it is:
 
 

 
Sterling is where "Mary had a little lamb" was written, and they had that cute statue.
 
I had planned to take a lot more pictures on the ride, but I was having way too much fun.  I should have at least taken a picture of one of the mud bogs we rode through, but stopping would have given my cohorts the opportunity to kill me, hide my body, and take my bike.
 
At one point I was doing a turnaround and got the bike off the side of the road in some deep sand.  I was surprised at just how much slip I got as I powered out of it.  Either traction control didn't do its thing (does it turn off at slow enough speeds?) or it takes a lot longer to kick in than I expected.
 
I also determined that 57F (dash ambient display) is the temperature where I would like to have my heated grips, please.  Above that I was comfortable, below it I wasn't, at least not for long duration.  Get on that, Yamaha, I have places to go and hands to keep warm.  I was surprised, I hadn't cared about heated hands until the 40s on my previous bikes, which had no hand protection at all.  The bars are the widest of any bike I've ever owned, though, maybe they are more in the windstream despite the hand guards?

[jimf]

In UK vernacular, a bin can be any incident where gravity has become the controlling force. It used to mean serious damage but has developed into any incident. 
Is there a US term for a minor incident where pride is often the main injured party?

It's always been used for a serious accident in my experience in the US. 
Minor pride-injuring incidents are often phrased as "hitting a gravity pocket" in the groups I run with, or just "I did a stupid."  There's probably some other simple term but I can't think of it right now.
 
 

[root]

Glad you & the bike are okay after your adventure.  
Is this the first "bin" reported? Does @jimf qualify for the FBA - First Bin Award?

I thought someone else had posted

 on the forum.  I guess, it's been long enough since I've seen it, I may have just came across it on youtube as I can't find it using search on this site. Anyway, I think that award goes to 

 
Just to clarify, that is not me. 
 

[root]

In UK vernacular, a bin can be any incident where gravity has become the controlling force. It used to mean serious damage but has developed into any incident. 
Is there a US term for a minor incident where pride is often the main injured party?

It's always been used for a serious accident in my experience in the US. 
Minor pride-injuring incidents are often phrased as "hitting a gravity pocket" in the groups I run with, or just "I did a stupid."  There's probably some other simple term but I can't think of it right now.
 

It doesn't really apply to bikes as well, but fender bender seems to be popular around here for minor accidents, even if the fender really isn't bent.  That usually involves 2 vehicles though. 
As far as bikes go, I've only really heard what jimf described as dropping the bike.  jimf, may get the first drop award.  Is there a trophy for that?

[suncoaster]

Here I am on the break-in ride: 

 
Nice Geeky sticker ! 
It must be time for a new avatar pic for you ?

[jimf]

Here I am on the break-in ride: 

Nice Geeky sticker !  It must be time for a new avatar pic for you ?

I wondered if anyone would notice that :-).  Yes, I need to change the avatar.  Just gotta have a few minutes to do the image manipulation, but I'll get to that. 
I think I still have a couple more stickers so there will be one for the hard luggage when it finally shows up.

[jimf]

It's always been used for a serious accident in my experience in the US. 
Minor pride-injuring incidents are often phrased as "hitting a gravity pocket" in the groups I run with, or just "I did a stupid."  There's probably some other simple term but I can't think of it right now.
 

It doesn't really apply to bikes as well, but fender bender seems to be popular around here for minor accidents, even if the fender really isn't bent.  That usually involves 2 vehicles though. 
As far as bikes go, I've only really heard what jimf described as dropping the bike.  jimf, may get the first drop award.  Is there a trophy for that?

Yes, "fender bender" is a two-car (or perhaps vehicle) minor accident.  "Dropping the bike" is probably the most accurate.  Less funny than saying that you've been assaulted by a gravity pocket though.

[wessie]

Glad you & the bike are okay after your adventure.  
Is this the first "bin" reported? Does @jimf qualify for the FBA - First Bin Award?

I thought someone else had posted

 on the forum.  I guess, it's been long enough since I've seen it, I may have just came across it on youtube as I can't find it using search on this site. Anyway, I think that award goes to 

 
Just to clarify, that is not me. 

Of course, I forgot one of the UK mob was unfortunate enough to be the victim of a myopic car driver on his first ride. I swear my memory has got worse since giving up drinking 70-100 units of booze a week. 

[jimf]

Installing farkles continues apace.
 
First, I finally received and replaced the brake lever pivot bolt that jumped out and fell to its death inside the plastics somewhere:
 

 
Then I installed SW Motec frame sliders, which I mentioned worked well in a tipover.  And today I installed the Heat-Troller that I really, really wish I'd installed before I froze my hands off the other day.
 

 
You can't tell from this shot, but it tucks in really nicely under the plastic.
 
The GPS and Heat-Troller are running through a Blue Sea Systems 6-fuse block.  I cut out most of the plastic barrier that makes the spot right under the seat latch inaccessible, it was a perfect fit to wedge the fuse block in there.  It's out of the way, doesn't move around, but can be easily extracted to get at the fuses and wiring.
 
The only things left to do are wire up the battery meter (probably tap the dash power port for that) and aux lights, at least until Yamaha gets around to sending me my heated grips and luggage.  Luggage was supposed to have shipped yesterday; I wonder if it really did?