2014 ES 15,000 Mile Update

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MartyO

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I’ve managed to put some miles on my 2014 ES since January and I’m very pleased with the bike. The back Bridgestone lasted 12,000 miles and the front almost made 15,000. I hear people say a lot of bad things about the OEM tires but they lasted well and had good performance. I put a PR2 on the back and put a Pirelli Diablo Corsa on the front since I still have a stack of the Pirelli’s that a buddy gave me (can’t beat the price – free).

I’ve had the Yamaha emblem on the right side case fall off the chrome strip twice and had the shop replace it under warranty. Other than that, no problems at all with the bike.

I’m impressed with the handling and to me, the upgraded ES suspension is excellent. I do find I switch it on the fly since I have a 50 mile one way freeway ride to work each day. May as well glide along in soft or standard when I’m cruising. The hard +1, one-up with bag setting is my sweet spot with or without the bags. I’ve done the two-up with bags when my adult daughter and I took a trip and it felt very good. About the handling: I get much less wiggle on the high speed bumpy corners, very solid and holds the line very well. In aggressive cornering, it inspires confidence. It doesn’t seem like I’m pushing too hard but I find my chicken strips are a 1/4 inch on the back tire and were more like 3/8 to 1/2 inch on my 2006. It just feels good to carry more speed through corners on the 2014. I haven’t touched a peg feeler yet on the 2014 but I did occasionally on the 2006. Seems I have more cornering clearance now.

I don’t get any buffeting with my Cee-Bailey sport shield on the 2014 but my 2006 offered a quieter bubble with the +2 reverse flip stock width Cee-Bailey.

I changed my spark plugs at 8,000 but I think they were fine. There are no iridium plugs for this bike yet and I will push the current plugs a little longer before I replace them. As I stated in a previous post, I did find some pretty dry drive shaft splines early on and took care of this potential problem.

When I hear and read about some of the reliability problems with other sport touring bikes, I’m very glad I went with the rock solid FJR again. Besides, it's red and looks very sporty and cool. Who needs sixth gear.

 
Must be the guy who puts on the right side Yamaha sticker, mine came off of my '13 too.

 
Is it because I'm fat that I wear tires like all get out? I also ALWAYS wear the front tire far worse than the back.

And yes, I drive reasonably spirited. Back tire was still 'ok' at 8K but the front was pretty much done.

My 2009 wore tires the same way. I run 39PSI in front, 42PSI in back.

 
Is it because I'm fat that I wear tires like all get out? I also ALWAYS wear the front tire far worse than the back.
And yes, I drive reasonably spirited. Back tire was still 'ok' at 8K but the front was pretty much done.

My 2009 wore tires the same way. I run 39PSI in front, 42PSI in back.
Weight and heat have a huge effect on tire wear.
If a plus size guy takes a curvy road on a hot day with slightly low tire pressures the tires can be toast! Slab riding on hot days equally bad.

I run 40F/42R and I weigh 255#.

My OEM Bridge at one rear went 4,700, front had tread but was cupped severely.

I've got just over 12,000 miles now and the PR4's I put on have only a few more local miles left on them. Front has more tread than the rear but front is cupped bad enough to give you 45 mph decel head shake.

You got good mileage out of your OEM tires.

 
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Is it because I'm fat that I wear tires like all get out? I also ALWAYS wear the front tire far worse than the back.
And yes, I drive reasonably spirited. Back tire was still 'ok' at 8K but the front was pretty much done.

My 2009 wore tires the same way. I run 39PSI in front, 42PSI in back.
As for the front vs. rear thing I don't think weight is much of a factor. I'm not fat (169 lbs) and my front OEM BT023 was squarer than that old Rubik’s Cube that I never could solve way before the rear was even near the wear bars. I’m getting much more even wear on my current T30-GTs.

 
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I have zero miles on my Gen 3 (have not picker her up yet), so my opinion may not be worth the electronic ink it is written in. But my experience on other bikes (including FJRs) and with many brands of tires is that the absolute single most important factor is the tire pressure.

I would be suspicious of my pressure gauge (or where I'm setting them at) if I was one of those guys that can't get more than 5-6k miles out of a dual compound ST tire. Sure, you can shred a tire faster if you brake hard going in, and gas it out of every corner, but still...

 
Sure, you can shred a tire faster if you brake hard going in, and gas it out of every corner, but still...
Wait, what....? I'm not supposed to do that?
rolleyes.gif


 
Side note. My 2014 still cups the front tire but far less then my 2006. Also I notice I don't have the pronounced bar wobble (if you take your hands off the bars) at slower speeds on my ES like I did on my 2006. I'm running the recommended 36 front and 42 rear and weigh 200 pounds. I do too much slab riding, sorry to say. It is better than slab driving.

 
38R / 40F - all good in da hood

had the DS on the Goldwing...might swing the FJR to the DS once this OEM craps out!!

 
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Nice summary Marty.

Got a chance to take an extended "test ride" on an ES this past weekend and was very impressed with the overall package!

--G

 
Your experience is similar to mine with a couple of exceptions. I now have about 13k miles, my rear was at the wear bars at 7.5k, front at 9.2k, I had no chicken strips on the rear since I did touch pegs several times and the bike felt poised and could have leaned over further. I am now running 023GT's abd it appears I will get more miles out of them. My emblems have not fallen off. The rest is your report is similar to mine.

Viva la ES! :)

 
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Nice report Marty. That wasn't you one the red '14 that passed me on my silver '03 heading north on the 5 fwy in Mission Viejo Thursday morning was it?

 
Keep waiting Don. My rule with bikes is the same with tools. Only buy, never sell.

 
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