It was supposed to be sunny.....

Yamaha FJR Motorcycle Forum

Help Support Yamaha FJR Motorcycle Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

RedPorscheKilla

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 12, 2012
Messages
304
Reaction score
11
Location
Olympia, WA
Well it's February and time to shake off the rust from the XMas season..Cabin fever got the better of me since the last ride on my FeeJay was about one month ago. So since the wx guy said, it' sunny, lets hit the road!!

Objective was to get used to the group riding again, as we plan to make a 3500 mile run in July, which will require a tad "wax in, wax out" if ya know what I mean.

So we ended up putting about 160 miles on the clock which was the best thing...

Here's the map as we rode it this time:

8443609941_64a569896d.jpg


Was a nice smaller loop, enough for our friends to get "rid of the rusted", plan actually to go the long way around, meaning hitting WA12 in Chehalis as well, but the other didn't feel their butts been ready for that kind of abuse.

We started our ride of course @ Home...dooh.. but was curious how my FeeJay would look @ the crack of dawn. Doesn't she look nice? The new Osram's are nice and bright, I'm very pleased with them not speak of them reflection stripes...

8444701516_ef5c134f83.jpg


So we rode from OLY to the Bremerton Airport Diner for a decent breaky... I was silly enough to go for a food challenge....(Objective, eat a stack 2" tall of 4 pancakes 12" in diameter..NEVER AGAIN
fool.gif
sicksmiley02.gif
)

Yours truly at the start of the challenge:

8444778638_fb25e1fd86.jpg


Some 30 minutes later, the finish

8443689013_2f7fc09ed8.jpg


In other words is suck... but that's not really news
not_i.gif


Once that was done, off we went, heading for the narrows, hitting Key Peninsula right before.

8444752210_54f8ea976b.jpg


We even met a few which truly braved the weather as we passed a bit of a bicycle race, I have a great respect for those fellas!!

8443661965_5083bf6d2c.jpg


The Narrow's are for me one of the most beautiful places, especially when the sun shines...

8443661809_8982a29f27.jpg


A short stop right before hitting this was needed as a friend of mine, feared that his Goldwing 1800 was suffering a leak in the fork, turned out it was a false alarm. Made us quite happy!

8444752342_2cd775d679.jpg


Soon we would hit the 110 mile mark and the intercom went off...Babe! yes Darling! I need to hit a gas station soon. Darling I know.....
banghead.gif


Unfortunately her car in disguise needs a quick stop at about 120 miles..because when there is one thing we fear worst than rain, than it's that f'n yellow light...

So yours truly checking on the misses as she refuels her trike....isn't she a beauty? I mean my FeeJay fellas
smile.png


8444751802_0140acdd92.jpg


Continuing through a bit of traffic on the WA7....

8444752276_04297f1816.jpg


Oh I forgot to ask, isn't the sunshine awesome? Right, there was non, despite the wxman telling, it will be sunny, that guy did neglect to mention that between us and the sun about a mile of cloud coverage would be hanging over the Sound!! But it was not raining, pavement for the most part dry, so that as close as it gets to a perfect riding day in WA in Feb. Temps been comfortable between 35 and 45.. so a few layers will do the job just fine.

After about 4 hours we returned to our casa, had a great cup of coffee with our friends, here's the misses:

8444752002_af583b611c.jpg


It was a fun ride, for the first time I was able to feel whether all my farkels worked up to my expectation. here a small test report:

Suspension:

Without a doubt the farkel to have, it was great to lean her in to a few twisties, she gave me a good response and I'm very pleased. Big plus also the 5/8" lift helped the angle of my knees (together with the 1.5" of Rich's seat gives me enough to feel very comfortable) so for the first time I ran 4 hours without wanting to shoot myself in the process, just so I overcome the excruciating pain in my knees.

I though have to tinker with the adjustment on the fork, I found it a tad too hard, like the response, but the fork would tell me EVERY bump in the road, which sometime felt my front wheel is either flat or my rim so out of alignment that just wobbling all over the place.

Pazzo levers VStrom Handguards:
Spot on, I love them Pazzo as I'm riding them already on my Gixxer, the VStrom farkel sweet, no cold finger, winter gloves and good is!!!

Custom seat:
Rich did an awesome job, not one tidbit of pain NADA, I could imagine going for a saddle sore with that seat, sweet!!

CB OEM Windshield:

Hmmm I could imagine to use it in da summer IF, was a tad dis'd about it, not the quality, I bought the +4 +3 but found it too small for my build, couldn't ride with open visor, it was noisy, really shity IMO. So next, I'm glad no one from this forum picked up my backflip Windshield, that will come back on, that's for sure!!!

FZ1 mirrors:

Well I have the aftermarket ones and I'm VERY pleased with them, they don't wobble, no distortion in the rear, just enjoying the relaxed way I now can check on my rear end and think, I got the biggest bang outta that farkel.

Wasn't much of a sight seeing, more to get acquainted to the group riding and leading a group, as we will have tons of them this year, which I'm very happy about. Weather wise, well don't move to WA if you can't make a grey in grey day as sunny as possible. Well to tell you the frustrating part. When we arrived at home at about 0400PM the sun came out for about an hour.... BRILLIANT, well again, that's WA, you won't tan, you will rust that's for sure.

Thanks for reading, hope ya had fun

Yours truly,

8444751732_c77164dd16_n.jpg


V

RPK

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Brrr. Looks COLD!! That white vehicle in the garage with the topcase - is that a CanAm Spyder?

 
Last edited by a moderator:
It was nice from the temps, a few layers will help ya tons. Yes the white vehicle is my wife's Spyder RT Special Edition. She's very happy with it.

V

RPK

 
Great RR and pictures, I wished I got out this past weekend.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
You know what RPK?

You keep doing RR's and stuff and we might let you stick around! :lol:

 
Hey Old Michael,

Thanks a lot, yes I was damn close but there's just so much you can eat on pancake dough, which I suspect is the reason, that I was the 116th trying and failing....

V

RPK

 
Nice ride report RPK. I was planning on going around the Oly Pen on Saturday (Port Angeles, Forks, Aberdeen yadda yadda yadda) but the fog quickly put a damper on those plans. Glad to see you got out.

I went to Yakima in the cage with my wife to visit her parents. As soon as we cleared North Bend at noon the fog was gone and it was brilliant sunshine the rest of the day. Spring is just around the corner.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Nice ride report. My brother lives in Bainbridge Island. Always seems to be raining over there.

Also, is the Narrows Bridge the one that replaced the bridge that collasped way back when?



Although before my time, I always was facinated that modern engineers could build something so ineffective.

 
@ hppants,

Yep what you are referring to is the good ol' galloping Gerty..she went down with a big boom. The new bridges have taken all whoop's in to account so I feel quite good about it. Must be, since they charge you on the way out $5 per vehicle LOL.

@ Fontanaman,

I was afraid that the fog would cross our plans, but as soon as we hit Shelton all was good, just a little mist short before Bremerton. Yes, spring is just around the corner..can't wait for steady weather above 50's.

V
RPK

 
Great RR - so great that I was almost enjoying my vicarious ride with you... Until you tossed out "35-45 degrees". I had to pull over and add a layer. As a third-generation SoCal native, I have to psych myself up for temps below about 50.

Glad you had fun and got to test the upgrades.

 
Thanks for sharing the RR and pics with us RPK!

I got out on Saturday for a ride north and thankfully out of the fog. Only managed about 140 miles, but breaking into the sunshine was a treat and made it worthwhile. Began at the house in fog and 38, saw a high of 53 and ended up in thick fog and 38. The casa never broke out of the fog all day long...foothill living.
sadsmiley.gif


Spring's just around the corner!

--G

 
RPK, give the bike a few hundred miles or one long long ride and you will notice that you get used to the firm front end.

Managed to get out early Sat with Leo, one of the local PNW crew. Soupy fog till Tacoma, but we checked out the Southern Kitchen for breakfast. Highly recommend it for the upcoming museum ride. We did a remote back ride through Tahuya and up to Seabeck that the crew may remember from a few years back. Roads were awesome if a bit slippery. For the first time in a while, I had no urge to stop and take pix, but rather, rode it hard and enjoyed a much needed ride. Home by lunch.

 
@Escapefjrtist,

Great that you've been able to hit the road too.

@Hudson,

On second thought, I think I'll follow your lead and will give it a few more hundred miles before I'll make my call on the fork. Like I wrote, I liked the feel of it a lot, wasn't under-sprung anymore just very steady, which was a big plus. I think them Oehlins springs are the way to go, it's just a matter of getting used to it I guess, because the response from the bike is worth more to me, than the comfort. For that I have my lazy boy cruiser
punk.gif
.

V

RPK

 

Latest posts

Top