1st Post - My "Big Motorcycle" History

I'll start things off here with my riding history.

July, 2000 - On impulse, I bought my first bike, the 2000 Suzuki SV650, in cobalt blue. (my favorite color) I charged it, because the bike dealer's interest rate was higher than my credit card's! Awesome bike. I put 36,000 miles on it over the next few years, including two trips to Tennessee. Without being too big or fuel-thirsty, it had the torque from about 2500 RPM and up. Top speed: 125 mph. 0-60 in 3.2 sec. Light weight, good weight distribution, handled very well. Upon returning from the second Tennessee trip, the chain broke and cracked the crankcase. I didn't have the money to fix it, so I sold it for parts on ebay. I have fond memories of this bike, and have promised myself that I will have another one some day. It was that good.

I went through the next summer somehow with no bike. It sucked.

The next summer, I bought a used Suzuki GS850G off of a dishonest piece of crap guy on ebay. He was not forthcoming about its carburation issues. He claimed all it needed was a carb clean, which I was prepared to do. I learned how to wrench on carbs on this bike. Completely dismantled them & cleaned them out by the book. Still ran like crap. (needed the choke on, and didn't make much power) I then bought "mercury sticks" and learned how to balance carbs. Still ran like crap. One time, while out for a ride, I decided I was going to try to ride it without choke, and it nearly stranded the wife & I. Air-cooled Japanese bikes from the early 80s are dicey, unless the carburation has been richened up. Don't buy one unless you know how to do this. They're just too lean, which means they take forever to warm up, they run hot, and sometimes, they even need choke to run normally. Anyhow, nearly stranding us was the last nail in the coffin for this bike. My wife said she would not ride with me on it any more, as she didn't want to have to walk 30 miles home or help push it.

We sold this and bought a 2001 Kawasaki Concours, just out of warranty. This was a great bike, it was stone-reliable. The stock saddle is the best I've felt, and the hard luggage was fantastic. Two fatal flaws:
1) Its a buzzy engine, even after adjusting the special engine balancer, and with the huge bar-end weights.
2) Not enough torque for two-up touring. After struggling to smoke a couple of V6-powered minivans at a couple of stoplights, we were less satisfied. You see, by this point, my wife had become a proficient passenger. She likes to lean with me, and she likes it when I twist the quick-stick and we move. One day, we were out riding and got caught in the rain in Woodstock, IL. So naturally, we decided to take shelter in the local Yamaha shop. (bad idea for our checkbook) It was there that we saw the FJR, close-up, for the first time. Kate asked me: "Could we afford this, if we traded in the Concours?" Who am I to say no when the wife wants a faster bike!!??

So we bought the FJR in the late summer of 2005. Traded in the faithful Concours, which saddened us. (it had more luggage room!) However, all of this was forgotten the first time I pulled away from a stoplight. This thing has massive torque from 2000 RPM all the way to 8000 RPM. (the Concours didn't make any power until 5500 RPM, as it had an old Ninja engine from 1986) Not only that, but the Yamaha engineers knew that it would be worth it to sacrifice some horsepower to get that torque, and went with a low-revving, long-stroke engine design. So I "settled" for 120 rear-wheel horsepower on this instead of the 160 of the Suzuki Hayabusa. It was a smart decision. I have never lacked for power or speed on this bike, neither one-up nor with passenger & luggage. Not only is it twice as quick as the Concours, but it is also 7 mpg more fuel efficient! (42 mpg, with passenger, 45 solo) Gotta love the modern fuel-injection. We installed a Corbin saddle and Givi V46 topcase, and it is nearly perfect. We don't use the saddlebags except on road trips now, we just use the Givi topcase, as it doesn't spoil the aerodynamics. It also makes a fine backrest for my wife. The bike does heat you up though. The first versions of this bike were not cooled well enough, so the tank would make one's legs sweat, and engine heat blew onto one's legs all the time. From 2006, this was fixed by Yamaha. My take is that it isn't bad unless it is warmer than 80°F and you're not going at least 50 mph. Also, it is still a tad buzzy in the handlebars, though much much better than the Concours. It is not bad enough that I have addressed it yet, and I think it could be fixed with bar-end weights. We spent an extra $1000 or so for the ABS option. Since my wife riding with me over 85% of the time, I consider it worth it. All in all, this bike was over $15k. We don't even flinch when making the payment every month. We come off of every ride with huge smiles. The bike is like mental therapy. We thought about a Honda ST1300, but it cost $1000 more with the same equipment, and isn't as quick. It is said to be difficult to view the instruments when the sunlight from behind is wrong, but I bet the engine vibes are not there. (Honda uses a 90° longitudally-mounted V4, with perfect primary & secondary balance)