This is what happens when you let a friend ride...

[DragonflyTN]

So... One of my KLR 650 riding buddies says to me that he's getting too old for this off road stuff and anyway most of our KLR rides are on paved or decent gravel roads anyway.

Says he: "I'm thinking about maybe getting a touring bike so me and mama can ride together. Can I ride your FJR over to Larry's house to see if I like it? It's only 4 miles."

Me: "Sure, be careful, it's got a ton more power than the KLR".

So off he takes. An hour later I'm thinking: OK, either he liked it a lot or he's in an ambulance on the way to the hospital.

It turns out that he liked it so much that he rode for almost 2 hours, and now he wants to buy one. Liquid Silver or Black will do he says. :yahoo:

If anybody has an ABS for sale in a 200 mile radius of Nashville, send me a private message and I'll let him know.

 

[kolonial72]

Hah! Not the outcome I had expected, but completely understandable. It only took one test-ride for me to be sold.

 

[ionbeam]

...If anybody has an ABS for sale in a 200 mile radius of Nashville, send me a private message and I'll let him know.

A bit more miles (x2) but a smoking good deal HERE.

 

[wheatonFJR]

Hah! Not the outcome I had expected, but completely understandable. It only took one test-ride for me to be sold.

For me, it was a piece of paper with a photo of the FJR.

 

[DragonflyTN]

Hah! Not the outcome I had expected, but completely understandable. It only took one test-ride for me to be sold.

For me, it was a piece of paper with a photo of the FJR.

WheatonFJR: It just takes less for some of us hit our peak! I probably bought 10 bikes before I finally found the one I could stick with. I admit to being a bike whore and usually change bikes every 2, but I've had the FJR 4 years with no thoughts about changing. Maybe stepping up to a 2007 one day.

 

[rogdeb]

Hah! Not the outcome I had expected, but completely understandable. It only took one test-ride for me to be sold.

For me, it was a piece of paper with a photo of the FJR.

WheatonFJR: It just takes less for some of us hit our peak! I probably bought 10 bikes before I finally found the one I could stick with. I admit to being a bike whore and usually change bikes every 2, but I've had the FJR 4 years with no thoughts about changing. Maybe stepping up to a 2007 one day.

I think Wheatie is referring to the PDP all of us early buyers had to endure? Mark?

 

[majicmaker]

Hah! Not the outcome I had expected, but completely understandable. It only took one test-ride for me to be sold.

For me, it was a piece of paper with a photo of the FJR.

Me Too! It was the Full Page picture in Ultimate Motorcycling Magazine when the '06AE first came out. It was Love at First site. My knees got wobbly and I wobbled over to the dealer and ordered one.

 

[wheatonFJR]

Hah! Not the outcome I had expected, but completely understandable. It only took one test-ride for me to be sold.

For me, it was a piece of paper with a photo of the FJR.

WheatonFJR: It just takes less for some of us hit our peak! I probably bought 10 bikes before I finally found the one I could stick with. I admit to being a bike whore and usually change bikes every 2, but I've had the FJR 4 years with no thoughts about changing. Maybe stepping up to a 2007 one day.

I think Wheatie is referring to the PDP all of us early buyers had to endure? Mark?

I had no idea what a PDP was, but in the summer of 2002 I visited a dealer thinking that I was going to re-enter the mcy touring world on some sort of cruiser...cuz that's all I saw in the showrooms. The sales rep said...nah, that's not what you want....THIS (handing me the brochure) is what you want.

I took one look at that brochure, reminded me of my ol XS Eleven...but with a sport touring look and fell in love. I said...where do I buy it, he said ...ya gotta ORDER IT. I'm scratching my head thinking...what?

So, I left the dealer and kept the brochure, and kept the dream. My wife and I had discussions, she was never going to agree to us getting a brand new bike...so I kept it on the back burner for awhile.

Fall of 2003, I went back to the dealer, he said yep, you gotta order one...none in stock. I said okay...but give me an out the door price to think about. The next day, I went to a dealer 10 miles away that in a previous iteration sold me my XS Eleven. I walked in and said, " I know you don't have any of these...but can you give me a price on one for comparison?"

The salesman's ears perked up, he walked in back with the manager, they both came back and said, actually, we DO have one. My jaw about dropped off my head. I said, I'll take it.

I waited from 10am to about 2pm....so I waited about 4 hours told for my FJR in October of 2003. After getting online and hearing other people's "waiter" stories...it didn't seem fair.

But in truth, I waited a lot longer than that...I waited while I finished college, waited till after we we saved up for a house, waited for kids to arrive, waited till they were a little bit older, I waited enough doggone it...so I came home with the bike, and asked forgiveness later.

She has since forgiven me and then some....clicky

 

[FJokeR07]

When I owned my 99 Roadstar and before blowing it up in the Columbia Gorge :angry: ...I was always careful to not get lured into test driving an FJR fearing it would lead to an instantaneous two motorcycles.....

FIrst trip to the Yamaha dealer to check on the status/plan for my engine the 2007 Black Cherry was parked right in front of the dang door :assassin: ..."what's that doin' there?" I asked the sale man...."guy just traded it in on a $40K Ducati..."....the rest is beautiful history!!

Of course stock performance HAD to be examined and "treated" with a Holeshot exhaust system (headers & cans), plus the PC III and custom mapping...resulting in a full gamma-ray burst! These are the ultimate sleepers! I've started planning for Bonneville Speed Week to "apply" for the 150 mph club :yahoo:

FJokeR07

 

[FJokeR07]

P.S. Epilogue to a "Ducati trade" wherever you? (probably sitting in Starbucks with your D parked where its at its best :lol:

At my mapping session with a m/c dyno whiz we had to remove a new Ducati from his dyne set-up...."what's a new Ducati doing here? I ask"....

"well, the guy just paid $33K for this and when it wouldn't run below 5K and he took it back Ducati told him he needed to add the Ducati performance upgrade ($2600).... :assassin:

Apparently fully brainwashed by the Ducati marketing cult, he paid it and then paid the dyno-man to install. PErformance improved but MR. Dyno said the bike (using that term loosely...) needed a Power COmmander to run properly....which was added to get the m/c to run correctly.

When asked, dyno-man told me that only bikes he has owned are R-1s ....and that when he test drove the 33K-D its the first bike he nearly dropped since he had hold rpms @ 5K and feather the clutch to make it around the parking lot...

All causing me to love the FJokeR all the much more :yahoo:

 

[gixxerjasen]

For me, I'd wanted an FJR for a while, but it took chasing one down, me on my FZ1, through the mountains of Arkansas seeing what it could do to seal the deal.

A related story however...

My wife's uncle lives in Crested Buttee Colorado (You can hate him, I sure do) and had ridden dirt bikes a bunch and owned a DRZ that he tooled around town on. On one visit he asked if he could take my FZ1 for a spin. He came back grinning ear to ear and not sure if the cops were on his tail or not.

A couple of days later he called me up and told me he should have never ridden my bike because he's been thinking on it ever since. Now, talk about your pieces all falling into place at once.

1. He's in Dallas, much better motorcycle shopping than in his small town.

2. He just traded his car for a pick up truck which he'd driven to Dallas.

3. His condo that had been vacant for 6 months finally has someone sign a contract that morning.

He was ready to shop and wanted some help. He ended up scoring an amazing deal on a leftover anniversary edition of the Honda VFR. Beautiful bike. On a trip up there a couple years ago I got to ride with him and took a spin. Man he's a lucky guy to have all that in his backyard and such a fantastic bike!

 

[Scooper]

Hah! Not the outcome I had expected, but completely understandable. It only took one test-ride for me to be sold.

For me, it was a piece of paper with a photo of the FJR.

WheatonFJR: It just takes less for some of us hit our peak! I probably bought 10 bikes before I finally found the one I could stick with. I admit to being a bike whore and usually change bikes every 2, but I've had the FJR 4 years with no thoughts about changing. Maybe stepping up to a 2007 one day.

I think Wheatie is referring to the PDP all of us early buyers had to endure? Mark?

I had no idea what a PDP was, but in the summer of 2002 I visited a dealer thinking that I was going to re-enter the mcy touring world on some sort of cruiser...cuz that's all I saw in the showrooms. The sales rep said...nah, that's not what you want....THIS (handing me the brochure) is what you want.

I took one look at that brochure, reminded me of my ol XS Eleven...but with a sport touring look and fell in love. I said...where do I buy it, he said ...ya gotta ORDER IT. I'm scratching my head thinking...what?

So, I left the dealer and kept the brochure, and kept the dream. My wife and I had discussions, she was never going to agree to us getting a brand new bike...so I kept it on the back burner for awhile.

Fall of 2003, I went back to the dealer, he said yep, you gotta order one...none in stock. I said okay...but give me an out the door price to think about. The next day, I went to a dealer 10 miles away that in a previous iteration sold me my XS Eleven. I walked in and said, " I know you don't have any of these...but can you give me a price on one for comparison?"

The salesman's ears perked up, he walked in back with the manager, they both came back and said, actually, we DO have one. My jaw about dropped off my head. I said, I'll take it.

I waited from 10am to about 2pm....so I waited about 4 hours told for my FJR in October of 2003. After getting online and hearing other people's "waiter" stories...it didn't seem fair.

But in truth, I waited a lot longer than that...I waited while I finished college, waited till after we we saved up for a house, waited for kids to arrive, waited till they were a little bit older, I waited enough doggone it...so I came home with the bike, and asked forgiveness later.

She has since forgiven me and then some....clicky

Awsome post Wheaty

I like your style

 

[escapefjrtist]

Great story Dragon...after all that's what friends are for!

Tons of excellent buys out there, your buddy will find one in no time.

--G

 

[rbentnail]

For me it was love at first sight but I was reserved enough to do some shopping and comparing with the ST1300 and the Concourse 1400. I had up until then (Dec '07) only ridden a sport bike 1 time (hated it!) but had been on standards/cruisers off and on since the early 80's. Never had the opportunity to ride any of the s/t's so I made my best guess and on to a dealer an hr down the road. The '08s had already come out so he wasn't interested at all in selling me an '07 since he didn't have one on the floor (I've had black bikes- hated it!). Screw him, ain't what I want and I ain't settling. So off to another dealer an hr up the road. Same thing. So off to another dealer 1.5 hrs over yonder-way. I ask the price of an '07, we discuss, we agree, then she searches. Finds one still in the crate in Chicagoland somewhere. 2 weeks later I'm riding it home. I did make it a point to visit both of the other dealerships and show off my shiny new bike and remind them of who I was and what I was looking for and how they screwed themselves by trying to tell a customer what he can have instead of providing what he wants.

 

[majicmaker]

For me it was love at first sight but I was reserved enough to do some shopping and comparing with the ST1300 and the Concourse 1400. I had up until then (Dec '07) only ridden a sport bike 1 time (hated it!) but had been on standards/cruisers off and on since the early 80's. Never had the opportunity to ride any of the s/t's so I made my best guess and on to a dealer an hr down the road. The '08s had already come out so he wasn't interested at all in selling me an '07 since he didn't have one on the floor (I've had black bikes- hated it!). Screw him, ain't what I want and I ain't settling. So off to another dealer an hr up the road. Same thing. So off to another dealer 1.5 hrs over yonder-way. I ask the price of an '07, we discuss, we agree, then she searches. Finds one still in the crate in Chicagoland somewhere. 2 weeks later I'm riding it home. I did make it a point to visit both of the other dealerships and show off my shiny new bike and remind them of who I was and what I was looking for and how they screwed themselves by trying to tell a customer what he can have instead of providing what he wants.

Good Man! I would have rubbed it in their noses too. :lol: I was told my wait time was going to be about 6 months. I said OK I'll wait. 2 weeks later I got called to come and pick up my bike. They found one in Chicago too. It was a happy day when they handed me the keys. :yahoo:

 

[camdenlake]

Oh man i was sweating reading that. Whew. Great outcome .

Josh

 

[DragonflyTN]

And my bud Tim is still looking. I told him about the forum but he's not much of a joiner. This week he and his SO are gonna take a longer ride on mine just to be sure. Of course she says "I can handle it."

 

[rbentnail]

And my bud Tim is still looking. I told him about the forum but he's not much of a joiner. This week he and his SO are gonna take a longer ride on mine just to be sure. Of course she says "I can handle it."

Yer a bigger man than me! Only one other guy (other than mechanics) have ridden my bike and I was a nervous wreck even tho he was a very experienced sportbike rider. Never again!

 

[psd2001]

Came from a klr myself. Good bike but needed more. Not much of a trail rider myself