Another long journey

[Papa54]

Hi everyone. I wanted to let the community know that I recently completed a 6856 mile trip on my 2013 FJR1300a. My Japanese mistress turned over 73,000 miles shortly before arriving back home where I live just south-east of Atlanta. 73,000 flawless trouble free miles. Important to me since I'm 63 years old and wouldn't relish the thought of breaking down somewhere.
Also, I left in mid-August and traveled through Kansas on my trip to Seattle. It reached 105 degrees in Kansas, as well it was extremely warm in Northern Utah. Idaho, and Eastern Washington state. I would have planned around that extreme temperature event, except that my main purpose for going was to see my son and his new house, and needed to work around his schedule.
My machine performed flawlessly as usual.
I made a trip to Seattle in 2016 also on my FJR, but from there I traveled down the west coast.
It's still a joy and an adventure to me traveling on this machine, and it seems like the miles pass under my bike, every one of them a joy to cover. Admittedly though the last trip I was 56 years old at the time and a 700+ mile day here and there wasn't a problem, and I even logged one day when wanting to cover the distance from Peoria, Il. to Rapid City, South Dakota that I covered 952 miles.
Those days have changed for me now, as my age and health are changing being 63 now. Five hundred miles is a long day for me now, even when not traveling in extreme heat.
I'll be sad when I can no longer do it, and give up my love for this sport to something less taxing. At that time, I'll be looking for some young guy to buy my bike, who has the same sort of lust for motorcycle travel and understanding of the ZEN universiality of a journey in which you only plan your day around gas stops and even then loosely.

 

[biknflyfisher]

Thanks for sharing these thoughts! I love taking off on the FJR with a map and a credit card for gas and just wandering where I please……
We are of a similar age (I just turned 64) so I get what you are saying, but still a working stiff.

 

[Papa54]

Thanks for sharing these thoughts! I love taking off on the FJR with a map and a credit card for gas and just wandering where I please……
We are of a similar age (I just turned 64) so I get what you are saying, but still a working stiff.

biknflyfisher, the heck of getting old for me, is the thought that I'll have to hang up my helmet.

 

[metalman]

My 2014 ES that I purchased new has just turned 73000 miles…..and I turned 75 three months ago. I too, can’t do 900 miles any longer but still ride regularly. 500-600 miles is a long day now. Try not to let being able to see the end coming closer dampen your enthusiasm or enjoyment. We’ve all had a good run.

 

[Yar]

Awesome!
I remember my first 6000+ trip. 1979 trying to figure out whether to try out for the Army Rangers or get out. Did that and more. The "mistress", for me, was a Suzuki 550. Back then I didn't know that was not considered a touring bike. I had all the camping gear I could slap on her plus my 12 yr old brother. Who lets a 20 yr old travel the country, on a bike, with a 12 yr old. My Mom had a stroke. Fortunately she wasn't in charge.

65 now. Toured from Florida to British Columbia, up the Outer Banks to Nova Scotia, down the Pacific coast highway and everything in-between. Thought about touring Europe. Wanted to ship my bike there, but the wife had neck surgery. She doesn't ride anymore so we spend our traveling, these days, in a teardrop camper.

My younger brother and I re-enacted our first trip a few years ago up the East Coast from Florida and back down the Blue Ridge Parkway. COVID got him but not before we had that trip.

Went 984 miles from Northern California to Phoenix once. Remember getting off the bike thinking I could ride another 16 miles and have another 1000 mile ride. Nope. My man proving days were behind me!

Still ride the new "FJR" girl to work but haven't found the urge, without the wife, to go hauling the country anymore.

Thank you for opening the flood gates of memories.

Drive Fast, take chances!

 

[bonami00]

Awesome!
I remember my first 6000+ trip. 1979 trying to figure out whether to try out for the Army Rangers or get out. Did that and more. The "mistress", for me, was a Suzuki 550. Back then I didn't know that was not considered a touring bike. I had all the camping gear I could slap on her plus my 12 yr old brother. Who lets a 20 yr old travel the country, on a bike, with a 12 yr old. My Mom had a stroke. Fortunately she wasn't in charge.

65 now. Toured from Florida to British Columbia, up the Outer Banks to Nova Scotia, down the Pacific coast highway and everything in-between. Thought about touring Europe. Wanted to ship my bike there, but the wife had neck surgery. She doesn't ride anymore so we spend our traveling, these days, in a teardrop camper.

My younger brother and I re-enacted our first trip a few years ago up the East Coast from Florida and back down the Blue Ridge Parkway. COVID got him but not before we had that trip.

Went 984 miles from Northern California to Phoenix once. Remember getting off the bike thinking I could ride another 16 miles and have another 1000 mile ride. Nope. My man proving days were behind me!

Still ride the new "FJR" girl to work but haven't found the urge, without the wife, to go hauling the country anymore.

Thank you for opening the flood gates of memories.

Drive Fast, take chances!

love the "hobbit" camper

 

[bob431389]

Keep it up you younger guys! I am 81 and ride about 3-400 miles a week in the Georgia NC,SC and Tennessee mountains all from the Atlanta area. Agree that I used to be able to ride more miles but my skinny butt just won't let me. Hope to keep riding for more years to come. Have had 3 FJR's in the past 10 years. Currently on a 2014 with 57,000 miles on it. Love these bikes!!

 

[Super13]

Hi everyone. I wanted to let the community know that I recently completed a 6856 mile trip on my 2013 FJR1300a. My Japanese mistress turned over 73,000 miles shortly before arriving back home where I live just south-east of Atlanta. 73,000 flawless trouble free miles. Important to me since I'm 63 years old and wouldn't relish the thought of breaking down somewhere.
Also, I left in mid-August and traveled through Kansas on my trip to Seattle. It reached 105 degrees in Kansas, as well it was extremely warm in Northern Utah. Idaho, and Eastern Washington state. I would have planned around that extreme temperature event, except that my main purpose for going was to see my son and his new house, and needed to work around his schedule.
My machine performed flawlessly as usual.
I made a trip to Seattle in 2016 also on my FJR, but from there I traveled down the west coast.
It's still a joy and an adventure to me traveling on this machine, and it seems like the miles pass under my bike, every one of them a joy to cover. Admittedly though the last trip I was 56 years old at the time and a 700+ mile day here and there wasn't a problem, and I even logged one day when wanting to cover the distance from Peoria, Il. to Rapid City, South Dakota that I covered 952 miles.
Those days have changed for me now, as my age and health are changing being 63 now. Five hundred miles is a long day for me now, even when not traveling in extreme heat.
I'll be sad when I can no longer do it, and give up my love for this sport to something less taxing. At that time, I'll be looking for some young guy to buy my bike, who has the same sort of lust for motorcycle travel and understanding of the ZEN universiality of a journey in which you only plan your day around gas stops and even then loosely.

Great story! I rode 4800 miles in 17 days, late August/ early September. Much of this ride was in southern NM and AZ. Then heading south of the border, 105*. I, too, am wondering how long I'll be able to enjoy riding safely. I felt good on this ride. Friends of mine are already switching to the CanAm. Thank goodness they cost a fortune, if you know what I mean. Steady at 72!

 

[art miller]

Interesting accounts by seniors. My 14ES is about to hit 70,000 miles and has been a pure pleasure to ride. My buddy and I do two long rides each year. We cover the southwest in the spring and the northwest in the fall. At 81 years old I am in good health and hope to be a capable rider for a few more years. The FJR will be my ride as long as I am capable to ride.

 

[ctfjr]

Good on you Papa54!

I am now 77 and sold my FJR a few years ago. Thought it was to large for what I needed. I agree, the 1000+ days are but a memory for me. The last couple of years were 500-600 mile that I felt compfy with for a day.

btw my longest ride was 13k+ miles in 18 days - solo to Alaska. I would like to do that again on a smaller ride and take several weeks exploring the state.

 

[Papa54]

My 2014 ES that I purchased new has just turned 73000 miles…..and I turned 75 three months ago. I too, can’t do 900 miles any longer but still ride regularly. 500-600 miles is a long day now. Try not to let being able to see the end coming closer dampen your enthusiasm or enjoyment. We’ve all had a good run.

Thanks metalman, and what good vibes too, to hear of someone 75 and still enjoying the life of journey.

 

[Papa54]

Awesome!
I remember my first 6000+ trip. 1979 trying to figure out whether to try out for the Army Rangers or get out. Did that and more. The "mistress", for me, was a Suzuki 550. Back then I didn't know that was not considered a touring bike. I had all the camping gear I could slap on her plus my 12 yr old brother. Who lets a 20 yr old travel the country, on a bike, with a 12 yr old. My Mom had a stroke. Fortunately she wasn't in charge.

65 now. Toured from Florida to British Columbia, up the Outer Banks to Nova Scotia, down the Pacific coast highway and everything in-between. Thought about touring Europe. Wanted to ship my bike there, but the wife had neck surgery. She doesn't ride anymore so we spend our traveling, these days, in a teardrop camper.

My younger brother and I re-enacted our first trip a few years ago up the East Coast from Florida and back down the Blue Ridge Parkway. COVID got him but not before we had that trip.

Went 984 miles from Northern California to Phoenix once. Remember getting off the bike thinking I could ride another 16 miles and have another 1000 mile ride. Nope. My man proving days were behind me!

Still ride the new "FJR" girl to work but haven't found the urge, without the wife, to go hauling the country anymore.

Thank you for opening the flood gates of memories.

Drive Fast, take chances!

It feels spiritual for me at times. In 2016 I was on my first trip to Seattle, and part of that journey including a visit to Glacier National Park. On the way I'd left Bozeman that morning in a pouring rain. The rain let up slightly but I rode for over four hours in the rain off and on. In the mid afternoon the rain had let up, and the skies cleared in time for me to experience riding along side Swan Lake on one side and the dense Flathead National Forest on the other. After the long wet ride, the scene felt like my "final reward". I'll never forget it.

 

[Bruce Ente]

This summer, three days after my 74th BD, I left on a 4000 mile, five week excursion on my 2006 FJR. It quickly turned into an eventual 6,066 mile trip when I realized that a 1000 mile “detour” would allow me to spend two days with my new granddaughter in New Orleans. 100% “worth it,” despite the 100+ degree temps and brutal humidity in MO, LA, AL. And I was camping!

Made it to Ottawa and Toronto, Canada and saw a lot of beautiful scenery (and beautiful friends) along the way. Motorcycle travel helps keep me young, so I intend to “keep on truckin’” for a while longer. The FJR, my second one, is getting to be a bit top-heavy, but it’s such a superb long-distance hauler I don’t want to give it up quite yet!

 

[HilltownDave]

Offering a different perspective here:

I want to thank you men for sharing your experiences with the Forum. It sure is satisfying to hear about guys confidently riding into their 80’s!
Frankly, for me, it is always profoundly sad to hear about another rider giving up riding for any number of age-related reasons. Sore back, fading situational awareness, loss of strength or confidence, and even the most recent close to home one: vision impairment. You name it, but whatever it is, these mortal bodies don’t last forever (not on THIS side of the grave anyway) and none of us knows how much longer we have.
The fond memories shared here are a tremendous source of encouragement to us younger men who have a veritable lifetime of riding ahead of us. So many miles yet to be ridden, memories yet to be lived…

In addition to the invaluable service/maintenance resources here on the Forum, reading about the interesting places people have traveled has been particularly interesting to me. For those of us who are not “cruisers,” it’s what the sport tourer is all about. I swear, every single time I pull out of my driveway and start shifting through the gears on my FJR there’s a little thought that comes to mind: “I just wanna pack up and GOOOOooooooo…”

One of these days I will.

For now, my riding buddy and I will be content to do long weekends a couple times a year and, of course, our Sunday afternoon rides.
But the open road is calling me with increasing volume.
It’s the main reason I upgraded from an ‘07 (my first FJR purchased only two years ago) to a later model with cruise control earlier this summer (2023).

One of the greatest benefits of riding an FJR in general (in my opinion) is the fact that these bikes seem to be the steed of choice for experienced riders who know what they want and have the resources to farkle their bikes effectively and tastefully for the task at hand. Riding.
LOTS of riding …which brings me to my next point:

One of the most meaningful benefits of the Forum itself is the opportunity it affords young whipper snappers like me (in their 50’s) to take over the reins of a well appointed beast once the original owner/rider decides willingly or otherwise to throw in the towel.
Although I’m sure he’s no longer on the Forum, a deserving shout out goes to the original owner of the ‘14 ES that I purchased just over two months and 2,000 miles ago. While bittersweet for both of us, the transaction was also mutually satisfying.
For him - selling to a very appreciative fellow Forum member who showed up riding an earlier model of the same bike and paying asking price with no B.S.
For me - buying a like-new (literally not a single scratch) bike with under 7,000 miles and probably $3-4k in extras.

While I regret that the former owner didn’t have the opportunity to rack up as many miles as he deserved to, I appreciate the decisions he made, the money he undoubtedly spent, and the time he took to set this bike up so nicely.

And to the rest of you older gentleman out there, whether it’s locating the best twisties in your neck of the woods, the problems you’ve had to troubleshoot or the accessories that have provided the most bang for your buck, thank you for lighting the path for the next generation. We “newbies” appreciate all that you do to elevate the riding experience.

 

[Pete-o]

I second HilltownDave's sentiment. I'm about to turn 65, and this gives me a tangible vision into my future. Thanks gents; I also hope to still be riding through my 70's..... maybe even 80's, who's to say... Favorite ride is up to Canada, Quebec is 439 miles from my house, up and back for a 1K weekend. Mount Washington also a great trip for us, 500 mile round trip, three days would clock 7-800 miles, awesome riding through the New Hampshire hills. We snowmobile up there too, on a Yamaha! (Pittsburg) Very disappointing when the winter forces me onto 4 wheels; for months on end... that's when the "Ferkel Fairy" visits A LOT! Ssshhh my wife's a total Karen.

To all "Speed Safley"!

 

[Papa54]

My 2014 ES that I purchased new has just turned 73000 miles…..and I turned 75 three months ago. I too, can’t do 900 miles any longer but still ride regularly. 500-600 miles is a long day now. Try not to let being able to see the end coming closer dampen your enthusiasm or enjoyment. We’ve all had a good run.

It's not simply "a sport" or a "mode of transportation", but a life. You can watch scenery from a TV, or a computer screen, but you can't feel it like you do on a cycle. You truly become one with nature, and then the scenery appears. Unless you're on a motorcycle, you may as well be sitting in a lazy boy watching it on TV, and dosing off. In motorcycle travel, there's nothing to isolate and separate you from the world you're going through. It's a leaving the stressful/working/worried world behind and opening our senses to the natural world.
When I roll the throttle accelerating onto a highway it's like leaving the planet behind. I think Bob Seger was experiencing the same nirvana that inspired him to write the song ; Roll Me Away -----------

 

[biknflyfisher]

Great video and great song - back when music was created by musicians…..

 

[milwdick]

This summer, three days after my 74th BD, I left on a 4000 mile, five week excursion on my 2006 FJR. It quickly turned into an eventual 6,066 mile trip when I realized that a 1000 mile “detour” would allow me to spend two days with my new granddaughter in New Orleans. 100% “worth it,” despite the 100+ degree temps and brutal humidity in MO, LA, AL. And I was camping!

Made it to Ottawa and Toronto, Canada and saw a lot of beautiful scenery (and beautiful friends) along the way. Motorcycle travel helps keep me young, so I intend to “keep on truckin’” for a while longer. The FJR, my second one, is getting to be a bit top-heavy, but it’s such a superb long-distance hauler I don’t want to give it up quite yet!

Hi Brute. Last weekend I did 1200 miles on my 2013 and I'm 87. Took 4 days. Put tire pressures at 38 and 40, gassed up and away. Love my FJR

 

[Bobnos]

66 here. Two trips over 5000 miles this year, and a number of long weekends. I don't notice any change in desire or pleasure, but I do notice I've dropped about 5 mph from normal riding speed on twisty back roads.

 

[Papa54]

Good on you Papa54!

I am now 77 and sold my FJR a few years ago. Thought it was to large for what I needed. I agree, the 1000+ days are but a memory for me. The last couple of years were 500-600 mile that I felt compfy with for a day.

btw my longest ride was 13k+ miles in 18 days - solo to Alaska. I would like to do that again on a smaller ride and take several weeks exploring the state.

Ct, good to hear from you. Glad you're still riding too. Sometimes along the way folks look at us cyclists and you can see in their eyes they think we're fools. To be expected because many are slaves to societies expectations. I enjoy when I stop for gas and someone approaches, seeing my FJR loaded up, and asks questions. More than a few times I've had a person say, "You're living the dream". It truly is for me and many of us. I can't count the number of times sleeping in a hamock stretched between two trees, and waking up having a great nights sleep in the open air. Mostly it's just the feel of living and traveling and drinking in nature.
You probably feel the same way, that many are missing life.