Excellent rally, as usual. Kris and I made it home safe, sound, but tired. Now for some rest. It was great seeing everyone again. A few regulars didn't make it this year, we still managed to have some fun riding. Dan and I swapped FJs for a few miles, the consensus from both of us, " your suspension is too stiff/soft for me"   

George D

Great advice, FJmonkey! It is out. 
The starter motor just needed a bit more pull and a bit of a pry ... used a rubber coated plier handle.

Steve

The tank is only 3.4 gallons. It says 134mte when you first fill it but you have to look for a station at about 100mi.
That's about time for me to be looking for a station anyway 

I took it apart and had a look. All connections looked ok. Maybe it's just worn out, but it doesn't look it. Could also be the flasher, but I'd rather not spend $115 on a new one and find out  it's the switch... 

Indy,

ABM makes a nice billet top fork clamp (steering crown) for about US$ 350.00 which is about half of the cost of the expensive option from Europe.
Bolt-on handlebar adapters start around US$ 15.00 but if I used them, I'd want a heavy washer above and below the OEM steering crown on the mounting bolt.
7/8" (22mm) aftermarket handlebars will work with all of your OEM grips and switches. You will have a great many choices for hand positions, with aftermarket handlebars.

Quote from: STLanduyt on Yesterday at 05:43:23 PMThe current snag ... the starter is stuck and I cannot pull it out, although it does rotate in place a very small amount.  I followed the Yamaha manual, which simply said unbolt the unit and remove it.  Unbolting was straight forward.  Removing it hasn't happened yet.  Is there a secret technique to removing the unit that Yamaha is keeping to itself?

Steve

I think the starter has an O-Ring seal. This might need just a little more pull. Try gently prying straight out.

The FJ1100 is currently suspended from the rafters in the garage, wheels, front fork, fairing etc. are off and I am cleaning, de-rusting and repainting components of the engine and frame with the bike in that posture, as I mentioned before, and the transmission is in neutral ...

The current snag ... the starter is stuck and I cannot pull it out, although it does rotate in place a very small amount.  I followed the Yamaha manual, which simply said unbolt the unit and remove it.  Unbolting was straight forward.  Removing it hasn't happened yet.  Is there a secret technique to removing the unit that Yamaha is keeping to itself?

Steve

Weather got hotter over the last few days!

I took 221 south to I-40 and got off after about 9 miles, in Black Mountain, to go south on Route 9. This was a gorgeous road, but it's under repair so it's down to one lane in a couple places.

64 from there to highlands was fine, a little traffic-y, and so was 106 and 23 to Clayton GA. I took 76 west and then ducked south on the very pretty Charlie Mountain Road just east of Lake Burton. Highly recommended. Back roads to Cleveland GA, and then south on 400 to home.

Great to see you guys! I hope your weather holds for a couple more days; I got a couple drops as an evening storm builds for later this evening.

Cheers!

Dan, that looks to be a hoot to ride. Once you get the light weight 17's on and scrubbed it, let us know your riding impressions.
 What's the range on your tank?

Have fun amigo and no, you're not insane. Your priorities are spot on.

Pat

Quote from: 86FJNJ on May 05, 2026, 02:39:46 PM

Quote from: giantkiller on May 01, 2026, 12:07:28 AMI was helping a friend of mine. He's going to have back surgery. He was going to adjust the chain on a friend's Indian. The guy left the key. But he couldn't ride it to his garage. So he asked me to help.
Expecting a big bagger...
It's an FTR 1200.
I never knew they made such a thing. Awesome vtwin torque....
Now I'm obsessed with them.....
I'm trying not to buy one.

FTR's are really cool, you can find them for decent price because they're discontinued but I've seen they are harder to find for the same reason. A similar look/feel would be a Harley Pan America ST, the ST version is the rather new road focused version to the Pan American line up but you may see those used in the near future, 150hp vtwin, stay away from the 2021 and 2022 Pan Americas but I've hear good things about the 2023's and newer.

Checked out the Pan American. Many videos on them. Only Hardly Dangerous could make it look so ugly. That being said they are amazing how many features they have. All the things they incorporated into it kinda freaks me. So many things that it has.  That you never would have come up with. But when they show them to you. You go wow that's really cool. But it weighs 580lbs wet. Ftr is 518-522lbs wet. And the cheapest price is $20,000 all the way upto $30,000. My ftr being the most limited with more carbon fiber than the carbon versions. Was $20,000. I got mine with 517mi for $10,000 off.