My wife and I just got back from a trip from Southern California up to the Lake Tahoe area with lots of great roads along the way. (We did several of the Sierra Mountain passes.) Marilyn had only ridden the FJR once for about an hour, so I was very curious to hear her comments. When I had originally bought my '03 ST1300 it had much to do with the comfort for her. (Before that I had a '90 FJ1200 which was not great for 2-up riding.) This is not a direct comparison of the two bikes though, as both my ST and the FJR have after-market seats and shields as well as other other farkles.
Her comments:
- She said the biggest difference was actually the seat. I had a Sargent seat on the ST with a Honda topbox with the standard backrest. My FJR has a Corbin front and stock rear seat. The fact that the stock seat has the grippy material was the biggest comment. She has one bad knee that would get real sore on the ST1300. On the FJR she felt comfortable putting her legs to the side to straighten her leg out as she didn't slip at all. On the Honda she had to hold on real tight in order to put her legs down.
- She said that she would have liked it if the pegs had been a bit lower on the FJR. I had put lowering pegs on my ST, but the lower pegs made it much harder for her to climb on it, so I ended up taking them off! I don't think this is enough of an issue, as she was not complaining about her knees at all on this trip, mainly due to the fact that she felt comfortable hanging her legs down. (Marilyn is 5'2" with about a 29" to 30" inseam.)
- Even though there are lots of complaints about the stock seat, she did not really complain about it. I complained about my rear getting sore on the Corbin more that she did on the stock rear seat! Next time I'm going to try the stock seat on a long ride. The Corbin looks great, but is pretty stiff.
- On this bike I did not install a top box. Instead I have a Premier Cycle Accessories backrest and rack. Not surprisingly, she said that his backrest is far more comfortable that the hard pad built in to the Honda top box.
- We sit closer together on the FJR compared to the ST, as the seat seems to be shorter. I liked this part, as I always felt that she was too far back from me if she was leaning against the top box when we got into anything other than the slab. She was able to lean back on the backrest with no real noticeable effect on the handling in most riding situations. When we'd get in to tight twisties she did lean in to me, which made it a bit better.
- Since she is sitting closer to me she received better wind protection on the FJR. She said that she was getting less turbulence than on the ST. This is not apples-to-apples comparison though, as both bikes had after-market shields. I had a Clearview Short with Goldwing vent on the ST and I have a Rifle with the "tuning blocks" on the Feejer. The Rifle is fugly on this bike, but works great!
- No real comments from her on any heat issues in the back. (However, this Gen II bike has far better heat management for the rider than the ST. It was well above 100 today on the way down I-15 for the last two hours! Mostly between 106 and 108! Isn't it supposed to be the Fall now?)
- She was able to see over my shoulder on both bikes, but on the FJR she could actually see the riders behind us. I can't recall if that was the case on the ST.
My comments:
- I already mentioned the handling benefits for us since we sit closer together. The extra roominess of the STs seat may be of benefit for larger riders though.
- I had the suspension setting dialed in pretty good for my solo riding. The only change I made for this trip was to set the rear preload from "Soft" to "Hard". This helped with the sag, but the rebound was way too loose on both front and rear for riding 2-up with lots of gear for a 4-day ride. I mostly noticed the looseness when we rode the "Little Dragon" on Hwy 49, as I was following Maldos riding 1-up on his ST in "spirited riding mode".
- The '06 and '07 FJR has a very annoying driveline snatch that is far worse than the STs. This is basically a poor design on the GenII bikes that was corrected in the '08 model. I plan on putting a G2 Throttle Tamer on, which is supposed to alleviate it to some extent. There's also a fix by loosening one of the three throttle body springs, which I really don't want to do. I think the '08 had some coding changes in the ECU, but I have no plans to buy another ECU. The issue isn't that bad in most riding conditions, but is extremely annoying in spirited riding in the twisties.
- I need a real throttle lock! This bike has a POS Throttlemeister that is simply junk compared to the simpler thumb operated throttle locks. When it's functioning properly, which is rare, I use it to just relieve some of the spring tension, which is too hard on this bike. This extreme spring tension is part of the problem I mentioned above.
- I don't really watch mileage, but I think I was getting mid forties. Don and I got the exactly same amount of gas at one stop, so the mileage is likely very close to the same as the ST.
- I hit reserve on the FJR when Don was still showing 2 bars! I went for about 25 miles and then was only able to put in 5.4 gallons though. I thought the reserve was 1 gallon, but it's actually 1.45 gallons. Total capacity is 6.6 gallons on the FJR compared to the 7.7 on the Honda.
- When you hit reserve on the FJR, the last bar on the gauge flashes and the indicator shows the amount of miles you've gone since hitting reserve rather than the miles remaining on the Honda. I like this design better, but I rarely hit reserve.
Well, I hope this adds to collective comments on the FJR. Personally, I love this bike the more I ride it!
Rick
