What did you do to your FJR today?

[gixxerjasen]

Okay Jasen. I’ll play your game. Today, checked the oil and the coolant levels. The oil, I checked because I once owned a BMW RT. And when it ran, it burned oil. So I check out of habit.

The coolant level was checked because I replaced my coolant last week.

Today, I learned that a paper towel left against the headers (wedged down around the overflow bottle neck, to catch drips during the day-after coolant-replacement administrative coolant level check and top-up), will only char, not fully ignite.

Can you imagine how excited I would have been to
end a bombing run into Atlanta to find fire inside the bike. What a f@$king nightmare. And you ask why I don’t do my own valve checks. Sweet Jesus. I’m a menace to machinery.

You are a mere amateur in that menace department compared to me. The only reason I'm alive today is because, after griff laughs, he fixes my shit.

Step aside sir.

[N4HHE]

[Blueridgerider]

Balanced the new rear tire and installed. Hope to balance and install the front tonight or tomorrow. Would like to change the brake and clutch fluids and change the rear erl. Looking at the weather forecast...looks good in these here parts this coming weekend.

It sure does. I have a best friend that I been taking Fall Trips almost every year since 1994. This year now that I have moved to our great riding area, he is coming down for the week and we will be taking my favorite 200 mile loop rides from my home. So many great roads in our back yard. I moved here primarily to spend my retirement years here to ride. Wait until he gets the bill for a weeks worth of room and board and food he will be getting
Honestly he is riding 500 miles from N Va to visit so 1000 miles coming and going. For that and a great week of riding with my best friend, we will be rolling out the red carpet. Hope to see you out there! He is on a platinum Wing and of course my purty blue FJR.

[Blueridgerider]

Balanced the new rear tire and installed. Hope to balance and install the front tonight or tomorrow. Would like to change the brake and clutch fluids and change the rear erl. Looking at the weather forecast...looks good in these here parts this coming weekend.

It sure does. I have a best friend that I been taking Fall Trips almost every year since 1994. This year now that I have moved to our great riding area, he is coming down for the week and we will be taking my favorite 200 mile loop rides from my home. So many great roads in our back yard. I moved here primarily to spend my retirement years here to ride. Wait until he gets the bill for a weeks worth of room and board and food he will be getting
Honestly he is riding 500 miles from N Va to visit so 1000 miles coming and going. For that and a great week of riding with my best friend, we will be rolling out the red carpet. Hope to see you out there! He is on a Titanium Wing and of course my purty blue FJR.

[BkerChuck]

Ordered a replacement front stay from Partshark.com. Apparently some of the roads last weekend took a toll on my JB Weld repair from last year and the left side is broken again. I can live with it for now but later when the weather gets crappy I'll take it apart and fix things right then get my welder here at work to repair the takeoff one for a spare. Could take up to a month to get my parts delivered anyway.

[gixxerjasen]

Ordered a replacement front stay from Partshark.com. Apparently some of the roads last weekend took a toll on my JB Weld repair from last year and the left side is broken again. I can live with it for now but later when the weather gets crappy I'll take it apart and fix things right then get my welder here at work to repair the takeoff one for a spare. Could take up to a month to get my parts delivered anyway.

Here's hoping you didn't throw any perfectly good motorcycle parts down the driveway in anger this time. But if you did, I'm sure you could find a happy recipient again.

[FJRoss]

Front brake was feeling a bit spongy and not as effective as usual so I thought I would bleed the brakes. Not much improvement. Upon closer inspection, I saw oil on the right fork leg - another seal leak!! Probably got a bit of oil on the rotors or pads.

Will have a go at it with the Sealmate and see if that gets it this time. Was OK for a few months the last time I did it. Might be time to change fork seals...?

[John d]

Front brake was feeling a bit spongy and not as effective as usual so I thought I would bleed the brakes. Not much improvement. Upon closer inspection, I saw oil on the right fork leg - another seal leak!! Probably got a bit of oil on the rotors or pads.

Will have a go at it with the Sealmate and see if that gets it this time. Was OK for a few months the last time I did it. Might be time to change fork seals...?

Put on rubber fork gaiters while your at it - never get that problem again.

[FJRoss]

Front brake was feeling a bit spongy and not as effective as usual so I thought I would bleed the brakes. Not much improvement. Upon closer inspection, I saw oil on the right fork leg - another seal leak!! Probably got a bit of oil on the rotors or pads.

Will have a go at it with the Sealmate and see if that gets it this time. Was OK for a few months the last time I did it. Might be time to change fork seals...?

Put on rubber fork gaiters while your at it - never get that problem again.

I have considered that. Any specific recommendations? Accordion bellows style or velcro-attached neoprene Shock Sox?
I am due for a fork oil refresh and I will give the seals a good cleaning at that time.

[John d]

Front brake was feeling a bit spongy and not as effective as usual so I thought I would bleed the brakes. Not much improvement. Upon closer inspection, I saw oil on the right fork leg - another seal leak!! Probably got a bit of oil on the rotors or pads.

Will have a go at it with the Sealmate and see if that gets it this time. Was OK for a few months the last time I did it. Might be time to change fork seals...?

Put on rubber fork gaiters while your at it - never get that problem again.

I have considered that. Any specific recommendations? Accordion bellows style or velcro-attached neoprene Shock Sox?
I am due for a fork oil refresh and I will give the seals a good cleaning at that time.

I did a full writeup on that years ago with pictures. I think it was on the other forum, but can't search that forum. Mine are a modified bellows type. The rubber bellows type keep dirt out way better than other types IMHO.

[FJRoss]

Put on rubber fork gaiters while your at it - never get that problem again.

I have considered that. Any specific recommendations? Accordion bellows style or velcro-attached neoprene Shock Sox?
I am due for a fork oil refresh and I will give the seals a good cleaning at that time.

I did a full writeup on that years ago with pictures. I think it was on the other forum, but can't search that forum. Mine are a modified bellows type. The rubber bellows type keep dirt out way better than other types IMHO.

Couldn't find it either...
I'll see what might be available locally unless you can suggest a place to start.

[bungie4]

I would think a basic set of foam dirt bike fork covers would do the trick.

https://www.rockymountainatvmc.com/part ... k-covers-p

[Toter]

Took a ride with 5 other guys including my son-in-law. Everyone had adventure bikes but me. No worries. On the way up Shake Rag Rd. to Bell Mountain, right at the steepest uphill right turn, I meet an SUV coming down. Because of the steepness and drop of the road on the inside of the turn, I tried to stay more in the center. When I saw the SUV, I stopped, and put my feet down. Right foot found nothing but air, for quite a ways, and the bike was getting over center. Try as I might, I could not hold it and struggled it slowly on to the right side. Thankfully the guy in the car quickly jumped out to help me right the bike. The T-Rex engine guard and slider never touched down. The bag guard touched down and protected the bag and exhaust. Only casualty was the peg lowering bracket, it sheared off. Guy put it in my pocket and I rode the rest of the way to the top. Was able to remove the bracket and installed peg as normal. First tIme I have dropped a bike since my dirt bike days. This just hastens the removal of the lowering brackets. I was dragging both sides on Wolf Pen Gap before this incident. Surprised the bracket sheared off, but it really was supporting almost all of the bike weight and sheared at a quite thin area. The bracket and bag guard are the only parts that touched down. Cardinal sin was stopping, but the car was occupying the space I was headed for. If I had just paused and continued forward quickly, it would not have happened. That was probably the only spot on that road where a full stop was not possible. But, dumbass that I am, I found it! Bruised ego, but no real damage. I was very lucky! T-Rex bag guard saved the bike!

[FJRPittsburgh]

Right foot found nothing but air, for quite a ways, and the bike was getting over center. Try as I might, I could not hold it and struggled it slowly on to the right side.

We've all been there my friend. Sorry you got into such an awkward situation. Thanks for sharing your experience.

[wheatonFJR]

Right foot found nothing but air, for quite a ways, and the bike was getting over center. Try as I might, I could not hold it and struggled it slowly on to the right side.

We've all been there my friend. Sorry you got into such an awkward situation. Thanks for sharing your experience.

Bell Mountain Rd has no place to stop...you have to run it all the way to the top...which is hard on a 1 1/4 lane road if oncoming traffic is there. Very steep 20% grade at some spots I would guess. Jwilly gave me and Duane/1911 the tour.

[John d]

I have considered that. Any specific recommendations? Accordion bellows style or velcro-attached neoprene Shock Sox?
I am due for a fork oil refresh and I will give the seals a good cleaning at that time.

I did a full writeup on that years ago with pictures. I think it was on the other forum, but can't search that forum. Mine are a modified bellows type. The rubber bellows type keep dirt out way better than other types IMHO.

Couldn't find it either...
I'll see what might be available locally unless you can suggest a place to start.

This one.

https://www.directcycleparts.com/frames ... 11511.html

[FJRoss]

I did a full writeup on that years ago with pictures. I think it was on the other forum, but can't search that forum. Mine are a modified bellows type. The rubber bellows type keep dirt out way better than other types IMHO.

Couldn't find it either...
I'll see what might be available locally unless you can suggest a place to start.

This one.

https://www.directcycleparts.com/frames ... 11511.html

Thank you. I will look at those when I have the forks apart the next time.

[N4HHE]

Flushed the horrid brake fluid visible in my shock install pics. Have a Harbor Freight air-compressor powered brake bleeder. Best $30 ever spent at Harbor Freight. Too lazy to put caulk, bubble gum, or grease around the threads of the bleeder nipple so it sucks a lot of air but serves to keep an uninterrupted direction of flow moving. Any possible bubble can not rise between pumps of brake lever. Start the thing sucking then I feed the reservoir and pump the lever to speed things up. Surprised the clutch fluid was not any worse than the brakes, in the past the clutch has been nearly black.

Found brake pedal was sticky. Came inside to look up the parts diagram to figure out how to remove. Don't know how to deal with the spring that I couldn't see or reach but the cotter pin on master cylinder clevis was the information I was looking for. That stupid simple cotter pin is $5.30 MSRP from Yamaha? Insane. Reused the old. Had it broke would have used safety wire until my next trip to Lowes. Anyway could not remove the 1" diameter pivot with the spring attached so I got about half of it out, slathered that with Bel-Ray Waterproof Grease, pushed it in/out a number of times with more grease, declared "Perfection is the enemy of good enough. This is good enough." Remounted brake pedal one spline higher than it was.

Also greased clutch and brake lever pivots.

Then I started on my 2007 Honda Recon ATV because I had the brake fluid and bleeder out. Bought used a year ago then parked. Needs a full service. Found P.O. discarded air filter metal core and mounting bracket. Ordered those weeks ago and new air filter as the OE one it had was mush. Tears when touched. Fought that for about an hour, gave up. The metal core goes in the rubber manifold from carburetor and the rubber end of air filter goes over that, all at the same time. Rubber manifold over the metal and under the air filter. Not having had a metal thing in it for possibly years I couldn't get it in. Inserting metal thing in the foam air filter reminded me of prying a tire bead over a rim. Next time I'll take the core out and practice inserting in the manifold rubber. When I perfect that then I'll put the filter over it and try again. I have some understanding of why the P.O. threw the original metal core away, but to do so was totally wrong and left a 1/4" hole in the end of filter for dirt to freely enter carburetor.

Recon brake fluid was far worse than FJR, probably original from 2007 as it still has original tires. After much study and failed effort realized I had to remove the front wheels to get a wrench on the bleeders. Then I started looking for my 8mm. Had just had it. Not to be found. Stopped to rest and drink about my 4th bottle of water that day, thinking. Last saw the 8mm on FJR clutch bleeder. Went and looked, it was still there. In my tired stupor had put the rubber cap back on the bleeder with the wrench still in place. And test rode up the street and back.

Didn't get around to changing oil in Recon or changing air filter on FJR. Probably doesn't need it, only has 40,000 miles on it.

So tomorrow change FJR air filter and put the side covers back on, then test ride! Will also fit an inch or so of aquarium tubing over threaded stud used to hold hard/soft lever. The Traxxion/Penske shock reservoir hose brushes one of the studs. Thought a lot about cutting the stud off but after sleeping on it I think padding the threads and anchoring the hose with wire ties will be a better, easier, and reversible solution.

Next week: AK-20 forks. For some reason I thought the shock would be easier than the forks. But this was only my 2nd linkage shock surgery and I've done fork seals probably 20 times. This will be first FJR.

[raYzerman]

I've done I dunno how many FJR's... note, upper bushing is an interference fit more than any other bike I've worked on. Can slide hammer out, but on an FJR, remove the dirt deflector shields and heat up the lower tubes hot at the bushing area before attempting to slide hammer the bushings/seal out. Otherwise, you'll be getting things jammed up in there most likely.
Best done clamped horizontally in a solid vice.

[gixxerjasen]

Otherwise, you'll be getting things jammed up in there most likely.

Geez, I bet that would suck.