FJowners.com

Well, the year everyone would love to forget is almost gone. Let's welcome on 2021 with high hopes and ambitions for everyone.

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I hope everyone has a safe and Happy New Year. Everyone stay safe in both daily life and when out enjoying your favorite pastime, riding your FJ. Now, get out on the FJ and ride because the virus cannot keep up with a FJ. :bye2:

Randy -RPM

What if 2020 was just the start of a horrible decade? :bomb:

2020 followed of a horrible decade for us as a family and was basically worse than anything since 2010....and it really does look as if it getting worse for us in 2021 already.

Our new Covid rules came in just over an hour ago - no leaving home except for approved reasons; no visiting anyone else's home; allowed to meet a maximum of 1 person if in a public place for an approved reason (for example, for exercise).

Basically, most of the UK is under house arrest with only essential shops open too (food, medicines etc)......not good, but we only have our population to blame....they couldn't stick by the simple Govt rules we've had in place for 9 months, hands-face-space (just last weekend 300 people attended an illegal rave in Coventry, no masks, all in close proximity to each other inside a large warehouse room - and 90 people were removed from a party at a private house, they were squeezed in like sardines!!).

Most of the UK is now classified as being in Tier 4 and here's a quick summary of the travel restrictions now in place.

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Here's a link to the detail of Tier 4 in all its "glory"......no motorcycling for me for the foreseeable future Randy !!

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/tier-4-stay-at-home (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/tier-4-stay-at-home)

I am looking forward personally to a good 2021. 2020 wasn't that bad. I never stopped working ,never stopped riding, I attended my own personal west coast rally with my son and wide open roads. I got my two FJ1100's running better than they ever have. All my kids and grandkids are doing well. I've had a brother a sister a brother in law a sister in law and two nephews catch the covid but all are doing fine now. I am sick of wearing masks Everytime I go in somewhere and our elections are a mess but it's not going to stop me from enjoying myself. I really think by summer herd immunity will be reached and I'll be riding up somewhere by Bend Oregon and then maybe at the next RPM  rally.       Happy New Year everyone. I hope I see you on the road.

I hope your optimism is warranted Travis, over here the talk from the scientists is that herd immunity will still take over a year to be fully developed, even on our densely populated little island, so I'd guess in the USA it could take a lot longer.

However, once the restrictions are lifted and we can get back to safe travel, we'll be hitting up the USA, Australia and NZ as soon as we possibly can.

Happy New Year!   :drinks:

Look forward to the good times, toughen up from the rough ones!

Then time on the FJ will be that much sweeter!

Happy New Year folks. I expect the next few months will be worse, until it gets better.

Dean, I realize it’s tough set of lock down rules you have, understanding that they just trying to save lives.

 I wish my area took the Covid infection more seriously. In my region of Arizona, 50% don’t wear masks.
They are part of the “Live Free or Die” crowd who sneer at all the “sheepeople” who do wear masks.

A typical American misguided sense of entitlement. Quite incredible.

Hang in there Dean, with these drastic actions, your country will see daylight before mine.

Thank you Randy, has been an interesting year thats for sure.
If you do get to Australia Dean and travel to Queensland look me up, lots of spare room and 2 FJs that need riding  :good2:

The above offer goes also for anyone who travels to Aus (when we can again  :rofl: )

Take care, and see you in 2021  :yahoo:

Thank you Ray, we will certainly call in if we get to Qld - and a similar offer stands here, if any of you ever make it to the UK, our hospitality (and our Fazer 600) is on constant offer. Sorry that I only have one FJ now and Liz always uses the Fazer 1000 !!

Yeah, that's all good and well Ray.....UNTIL SOMEONE RETURNS IT DIRTY!!

Noel

Thankfully Pat, these rules are basically what we have been living to ourselves, before they became law. It won’t be any real hardship for at least 3 months, as the conditions are awful for motorcycling any way.

It’s 33F today, but I’ll be out on my mountain bike this afternoon for a 20 mile-ish ride to blow out the Christmas cobwebs.

With the lockdowns and vaccines, hopefully we’ll have this beaten sooner than most !

No chance of that with us Noel, Liz always cleans the bikes after every ride, before they go back in the garage  :sarcastic:

We have just come out of an even tougher lockdown than Dean is experiencing and it went on for months, the end date was not fixed at the onset and was ultimately determined by results alone.

Curfew (9.00pm), 5 km radius from home including all shopping and exercise, only leave house for one of 4 reasons (employment if absolutely necessary, individual exercise for max 1 hour, medical treatment & care giving, essential shopping), gathering limits, border closures, mandatory quarantine for all travellers, masks, expanded powers of arrest, huge fines, all businesses except essential services shutdown (the entire CBD a ghost town) non essential court cases deferred, you couldn't even get your car serviced, fast food was delivery only etc. But, our State has just passed 60 days without a single case and the entire country currently has less than 20 cases, all of whom are in quarantine and the govt has an excellent contact tracing system at the ready should an outbreak occur within the community.

We paid a heavy price but are now starting to enjoy the benefits of the sacrifice and life is almost entirely back to normal.

The virus will no doubt re appear as travel is relaxed and loopholes (unbelievably) continue to pop up, but we are confident we are now geared up to handle it. We, like NZ have effectively eliminated it at this point, but at great economic cost. The entire nation grasped the need to do the unthinkable and shut the place down and now we are out the other side and rebuilding. It worked because everyone was on board. Some countries seem unable to come to terms with the scale of what needs to happen, all the while refusing to acknowledge the cost of doing nothing.

I can't see this working in the UK or in particular, the US.

Noel

Dean, rumour has it Ray's wife shadows him to rallies with a spare bike in the van in case the one he's riding get's dirty.

Noel

I'm glad your efforts in Australia have been successful to this point but with a nation of 330 million instead of 25 million surrounded by porous borders instead of ocean, and with the head start the disease had due to the purposeful seeding of the world by China I don't think eradication was ever a possibility here . Despite the strictest attempts of our nation in California it has become the epicenter of the disease in our country.Thank God for the unprecedented rapid development of vaccines. With the vaccines and the level of natural immunity occurring there is light at the end of our tunnel. I only hope this virus isn't just the first of many. It's time to quit playing with the manipulation of viruses and the holding of those who do responsible. How many times can we afford to repeat this process. I work every day not because I don't believe in this disease but because my efforts are essential to maintain our infrastructure I ride because as Randy says the virus is to slow to catch an FJ ,I  wear a mask and limit personal contact because I don't want to infect any of my family or the vulnerable.

I've heard rumours Noel, that some FJ owners don't even ride their bikes to rallies !!!!!!!!!! They take them in trucks and on trailers, just like Hardly Movingsons......... whatever next !!!   :bomb: :sarcastic: :sarcastic: :sarcastic:  :bomb:

Happy 2021 to all my fellow FJ'ers.  2020 was one for the books, glad to close the cover on that one.

I believe that herd immunity is the only thing that in the short term will minimize the Covid...either that or it evolves into something less transmissible.  If you agree then you must also understand that lock downs only delay the inevitable.  Integrate under either curve (the peaky one or the flat one) and you will find the same number of cases, the difference being the time it takes to get to herd immunity where transmissibility is effectively interrupted.  Of course the vaccine is a form of artificial immunity so that affects the timing of herd immunity.  If my understanding is correct then 2021 is also going to be screwed.  
I'm OK with taking my chances out in the wild.  I'm also OK with others choosing to be hermits.  I'm not OK with liberty killing restrictions.

OK, I just reread my post from earlier today.  It wasn't my intention to offend anyone.  As a motorcyclist I just assume we are more inclined to be risk takers as compared to our fellow travelers.  Liberty and freedom are the natural rights that allow us to decide for ourselves how the tilt the risk/reward chart.

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Dean, rumour has it Ray's wife shadows him to rallies with a spare bike in the van in case the one he's riding get's dirty.

Noel
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Unfounded rumours Noel, my support vehicle has cleaning products with buckets for emergency washes etc  :rofl2:

Yep, we took a big hit economically and early in the year were in recession for the first time in 29 years. But, we also came (technically) out of recession  for the Sep 2020 quarter with a GDP growth of 3.3% but unemployment still remains high - as my school reports used to say "there's room for improvement". Will be interesting to see the December quarter.

I don't think you offended anyone (certainly not me) although our experiences with Covid lead us to disagree completely on some basic Covid issues.

What we are finding (in our densely populated island, where such things develop faster) is that rather than the virus evolving into something less transmissible, it is doing exactly the opposite and evolving into something MUCH more transmissible. Even here, where we live closely packed together, the medical and virology experts are agreeing that it will take well over 12 months for herd immunity to develop  - in which time, tens of thousands of deaths (or more) will result - so I have serious concerns that it won't develop somewhere like the USA in anything like the time you are thinking. Our medical services across the UK are already approaching breaking point in many areas and there simply aren't enough hospitals and beds to cope with the numbers of ill/infected that we are seeing now.

The general understanding is that in less densely populated countries (such as the USA), without proper restrictions, this virus will spread more slowly, but last longer than in smaller, more densely populated countries (who will get the shorter, sharper hit).

What we see from the media coverage (which may not be true representation of the facts), is that there are vast swathes of "Covid non-believers" and people who believe the rules are a breach of their rights, liberties and freedoms - and while some may well feel this, the experiences we have had here (and from the number of family and friends who have been infected in my circle) have led me to believe that what we are giving up, is a very small sacrifice, compared to what those who have contracted the virus have faced and suffered.

Similarly to you, I have no wish to offend anyone, but I'm just trying to highlight how our different experiences of Covid can result in our huge differences of opinion in such matters - and in the hope that the experiences we have had, can in some way help to mitigate the pain in areas which have yet to feel the full force of the virus.

I do agree that we as motorcyclists are much more inclined to be risk takers than the majority of people, but my wife has an analogy about that which put it into perspective for me - "if you knew, for an absolute fact, that if you went out on a group ride today with 99 other riders, 5 of you would be killed by dangerous car drivers, would you still choose to ride with that group today"  - when not following the Covid rules about social contact and following the Hands, Face, Space principles, that is the kind of risk I'd be taking here.

There is much fun-poking globally at the "sheeple" who are following the rules, but I also have a couple of friends right now, in hospital, who were those poking fun and ignoring our rules a couple of weeks ago. They have both now changed their tune.

I also realise that where I live is not typical of the rest of the world and our population density means we are going to see much more rapid transmission of the virus and would not want to "tell others what to do" - all I would say is be thankful for what you have, and enjoy it while you can, just in case things change  :yes:

Happy new year gang.

Regardless of what 2021 brings, we have the forum (thanks Randy!).

Troyskie

Happy New Years to all the FJ owners here. 2020 has been a rough year for many. I was struck a severe blow very shortly into 2020. I lost my job.

With organized Rallys being canceled by the dozen. For many the cancelation of the WCR and RPM was a huge let down. I had planned to attend a few events. The MotoGP races in Austin, Texas (postponed, then canceled), The 5 State Poker Run in Guymon, Oklahoma, (canceled) and the MSTA Star Days Rally in Cape Girardeau, Missouri (postponed and then canceled). Instead of sucking on a Sour Lemon, I made Lemonade.

I decided to do my own thing and got 5 significant trips in. The 11 day camping trip to Utah, 3 day trip to Northwest Arkansas for a rider memorial ride, the 5 day group ride to Avon, Colorado, 3 day trip to Texarkana, Arkansas for a job interview, and the 2 week trip to North Carolina for the Vintage Yamaha Rally and VFR750 Fall Ride Rally.

Looking forward to seeing many of you in 2021



Fred

Sorry to hear about your redundancy Fred, hopefully you're now sorted with a job going forward..........you have to find a way to finance a big bore engine for your 95  :sarcastic:

Seriously though, I do hope you are sorted job wise and get the 95 back on the road quickly for more winter rides to keep us occupied with something to read  :good2:

Oops, looks like some of our near neighbours in Leicester have had a less than positive start to 2021 by flouting the rules on NYE. This is an excerpt from the Leicestershire Police FB page detailing their activities last night......some pretty hefty fines handed out there !!!!!!

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Wowser....$13,700 for having a party.  Question, Are these fines a way of making a show and not really serious?  Did your legislators actually pass a law like this?   :wacko1:

Haha, not in Australia. You wouldn't even want to try it on unless you had at least two limbs in plaster, even then they'd look at you and ask how come you didn't ride? Seriously, trailering to a bike rally here would result in an immediate cancellation of your Man Card - even at BMW rallies, although I'm not sure they know about Man Cards.

I'm perhaps more of a rider than many FJ owners, but as much as I love catching up with everyone, rally attendance is largely about the ride. A couple of years ago I rode 5000km in 6 days to an FJ rally, my bike was due for an oil and filter change within a week of the previous one. To not have ridden there and back would have been a crime, even now it makes me smile just thinking about that trip and if I start on the photos.......

Sitting in the climate controlled comfort of your vehicle, listening to music while sipping a latte does not make memories, in fact, the trip is most likely entirely forgotten within minutes of arriving. How sad to have been handed the excuse for an epic ride and then squander it by taking the car.

Some of my most memorable rides have been to rallies. I've heard excuses such as fatigue, comfort, boredom, pooling, packing, weather, age, arriving fresh and so on. I know, I know, each to their own but I just don't understand it.

Noel

Definitely not for show - they're deadly serious. Yes, the law was passed into statute by Parliament. We have to somehow stop people from getting together in groups and spreading this around like wildfire. In our town, one person went to a pub, a cafe and a restaurant later in the day. That person was infected and was a carrier and the track and trace details collected at the venues identified over 90 people that subsequently developed symptoms and tested positive in the couple of weeks after being at those places at the appropriate times on that day.

This virus is killing about 1,000 people per day here, it's no joke, but many people are still not taking it seriously because they haven't yet experienced its consequences. Many younger people think it only affects the older and infirm, many more think it's all a ruse and a hoax and a "panic about nothing". Slowly, but surely, they're finding out the error of their ways.

Our friends who have just contracted it were the ones who ignored all of the advice and went to visit other friends for a birthday party, in Essex. They put their photo's up on Facebook and poked fun at us for refusing to take the risk of mingling in close proximity with a dozen or so friend who we hadn't seen for months. They're not poking fun at us any more and the husband is seriously struggling to breathe, even though he's only in his late 30's and was previously fit and healthy (ironically, his wife is a nurse at a local doctors practice and should have known better).

I did forgive Fred, because he couldn't possibly have attended the both the VFR and Yamaha rallies if he'd had to ride home to swap bikes and then get back to the rally sites (which were not too far apart) - and it would just be wrong to turn up on a FJ to a VFR rally  :sarcastic: :sarcastic:

As an add-on comment, my sister, a niece and a nephew are all serving Police Officers - we hear first hand from them about the situation and they have very clear instructions to prioritise any reports of house parties for immediate attendance and full enforcement. At our local hospital in Coventry, beds have been so short that there have been reports of patients waiting in ambulances for between 4 and 9 hours before being attended to at some times.

Keeping Covid and non-Covid patients apart to prevent the spread is making care a logistical nightmare for the staff. Part of the reasoning for not travelling and specifically for not riding motorcycles unless absolutely necessary is the shortage of ambulances and the issues at A & E depts should you be involved in a RTA.

The loading on the hospitals has been a key factor in determining which areas have tighter restrictions.

You guys who have not yet seen the real brunt of Covid are very lucky and I hope you don't get it as badly as we've had it (living more "remotely" you have a better chance of avoiding it until the vaccines are widely available).

Haha, yes Fred has well and truly earned his stripes, you're right, he gets a pass on this one.

Noel

Maybe I should move to Australia. I used to make fun of my boss for trailering his HD to Sturgis. Then again I've never been to a rally, unless you count Sunday mornings at Marcus Dairy in Connecticut.

Happy New Year to all of you guys. I hope 2021 is a good one for all of us. I sure hope Boone Is Soon for us, and that we all have the year of health and happiness and riding together that we were hoping to have last year.

I have trailered to FJ rallies, and I'll do it again.

Some of my favorite rides have been to and from the East Coast rallies. The ride there and back is most of my riding most years anymore. And as much as I like seeing everyone once I get there, the ride there is part of the anticipation. I feel like I'm sort of "with everyone in spirit" on my way there, "oh BOY, this is gonna be GREAT! I wonder where everyone is riding today!" Also also, I feel like I've earned it a little bit if I've ridden a few hours to get there, like I deserve everyone's company in a different way. "This is how much you all mean to me, I rode all day to get to you." I mean, it was FUN to be sure, but it was also WORK.

However, I have trailered bikes some years. It's less fun getting there and back, but it has let me bring a second bike with me so that I can ride with someone who doesn't have a running bike at the moment. I have also carried a second bike back home for my son a couple years ago, when he had a wedding to attend in the other direction afterward and it was just easier if I carried his bike back home along with mine. That trip also served as a trial run for attending a rally with my wife, who might come with me on future rallies and perhaps even ride a bit on one of these things. (Pipe dream - if I ever get her on two wheels, we could trailer there and she could do some low-key riding up in the pretty parts.)

And, I might trailer a bike or two to Boone this spring. I have job-site visits in DC and Montreal, and if the schedule works out, I can trailer to Boone at the beginning of a month-plus odyssey of work trips and riding and remote working and vacation. I could ride with the East Coast folks in May, trailer to DC for a week of work, continue north to my family's place in New England for June, and then either drive or ride to Montreal for a few days for work there in June or July. I could take some vacation and spend a couple weeks riding motorcycles around an area I really didn't ride motorcycles around when my parents were alive.

As far as fining someone a lot of money for breaking the law? Well, that's kind of the idea of fining someone for breaking a law, it's supposed to be enough money to dissuade someone from breaking that law. Otherwise, it's not really a punishment or a disincentive, it's just a cost. That's largely how we treat a speeding ticket in the US - we try not to get, say, five of them in one weekend, but I have noticed during our rallies that we generally keep a pace that says "it's not the end of the world if we get speeding tickets." A speeding ticket costs less than a tire puncture that requires replacement; it's not a punishment, it's an expense. We are all willing to pay North Carolina or Tennessee or Georgia $125 if that's what it takes to get these bikes leaned over in a corner a little bit.

Hopefully see you guys out there.

Everything you say makes perfect sense Bill and in each of the scenarios you describe, I would probably do the same.

Just as we take the piss out of Harley riders (and my favourite, BMW riders) it's all a bit tongue in cheek and a bit of fun, nothing malicious. If my comments were directed at anyone, it's the attendees who trailer for no other reason than to keep their lady parts dry and warm. :bomb: :biggrin:

Noel

Just to add some perspective to Dean's claim:

The population density of England  -  430 people per sq km
                                     USA        -   35     "       "       "
                                     Australia   -    2.8  "       "       "

Noel
                                         

You've got it Noel   :good2:

We get hit quicker and harder because we live on top of each other here, relatively speaking.

You get a Royal Pardon Bill, all great reasons for trailering  :sarcastic: :good2:

I suppose at this point I have admit that I've trailed my FJ a couple of times, once when we moved house and I trailered the FJ and my Aprilia on one journey, the FZ1 and 2 dirt bikes on a second journey and the second FJ and the VF on the third journey.

The second time I trailered my FJ anywhere, was a trip to the Nordscleife (Nurburgring), with the FZ1 also on the trailer and 2 kids and a load of luggage in the double cab pick-up (with a bed "hood")  but the main reason for using the pick up was so that we could fill the truck bed with bottles of German wine and beer to bring home with us.  :sarcastic:

I think the last "Rally" I went to (other than the family-oriented FJOC rallies, very civilised) was in 1983, on my CB 650.........this was a different event to what the US FJ (and U.K. FJOC) rallies are like........it was a full on "Hell's Angel" type gathering with tents in mud, much alcohol, drug abuse, naked women, setting fire to bikes and throwing "first timers" onto bonfire's or off the pier into the sea (which by midnight had retreated, so anyone thrown off the top ended up with broken legs..... I knew of 3 that were taken to hospital).

The bike "club" I joined got increasingly into that culture, which is when I decided enough was enough and quit the club/rally scene altogether.