Hi Folks;
On August 4, 2013 I went to a local dealer to test ride the Concours1400 and FJR1300 with the plan being to buy the Kawasaki but ride the Yamaha just to be fair. The short version of that story is that on the following Wednesday I picked up my new FJR. I just liked it a little better than the Concours and by that I do mean a little.
More importantly, the dealer had only 1 Concours1400 left and wasn't going to deal whereas they had 4 FJRs and sold me mine for around $1500.00 less than they would've a Concours. Also, the FJR runs on regular grade fuel and is easier to work on. So those things tipped me in favor of my first Yamaha.
I rode it out to the National Rally in Idaho Falls, ID and had a good time until.......Friday morning, August 30. I was in Teton National Park stopping every 50' to take photos like some crazed tourist, and at one particular stopping point the bike rolled off the side stand and crunched over onto the left side. I jumped up and down a whole bunch while cursing at maximum volume and them spent the next 5 minutes dodging lightning bolts hurled by the Almighty while claiming I didn't mean any of what I said (yeah, right). To make matters worse and it's embarassin' to admit to, but, I couldn't pick the bike up by myself because it would roll when the tires touched the pavement. I tried reaching under the bike to put the transmission into 1st gear but somehow failed to succeed. Luckily a guy on a Honda VFR1200 saw my plight and stopped to help. Thanks again dude!!
Anyway, the all cosmetic damage amounts to $3900.00 - thank goodness for insurance. I rode another 200+ miles that day and around 700 the next so there's certainly nothing important wrong.
The dealer has had the bike for basically a month and promised me yesterday they will be done with it this coming Friday. I'll be able to swing picking it up on Saturday and am soooo looking forward to that because we've had incredible weather through the last couple of weeks and I've been missing my 2-wheeled girlfriend.
So far I have to say the bike has performed extremely well - it's not the fault of the bike I didn't fully engage the sidestand. The fuel economy has been stellar, the power is quite a step up from the C10 I traded for it and the comfort in the hot weather has been great. I did have a chance to experience severe wet/windy weather while on my way to the National Rally and missed the bigger fairing of the C10 but that's about the only drawback I've found so far.
On August 4, 2013 I went to a local dealer to test ride the Concours1400 and FJR1300 with the plan being to buy the Kawasaki but ride the Yamaha just to be fair. The short version of that story is that on the following Wednesday I picked up my new FJR. I just liked it a little better than the Concours and by that I do mean a little.
More importantly, the dealer had only 1 Concours1400 left and wasn't going to deal whereas they had 4 FJRs and sold me mine for around $1500.00 less than they would've a Concours. Also, the FJR runs on regular grade fuel and is easier to work on. So those things tipped me in favor of my first Yamaha.
I rode it out to the National Rally in Idaho Falls, ID and had a good time until.......Friday morning, August 30. I was in Teton National Park stopping every 50' to take photos like some crazed tourist, and at one particular stopping point the bike rolled off the side stand and crunched over onto the left side. I jumped up and down a whole bunch while cursing at maximum volume and them spent the next 5 minutes dodging lightning bolts hurled by the Almighty while claiming I didn't mean any of what I said (yeah, right). To make matters worse and it's embarassin' to admit to, but, I couldn't pick the bike up by myself because it would roll when the tires touched the pavement. I tried reaching under the bike to put the transmission into 1st gear but somehow failed to succeed. Luckily a guy on a Honda VFR1200 saw my plight and stopped to help. Thanks again dude!!
Anyway, the all cosmetic damage amounts to $3900.00 - thank goodness for insurance. I rode another 200+ miles that day and around 700 the next so there's certainly nothing important wrong.
The dealer has had the bike for basically a month and promised me yesterday they will be done with it this coming Friday. I'll be able to swing picking it up on Saturday and am soooo looking forward to that because we've had incredible weather through the last couple of weeks and I've been missing my 2-wheeled girlfriend.
So far I have to say the bike has performed extremely well - it's not the fault of the bike I didn't fully engage the sidestand. The fuel economy has been stellar, the power is quite a step up from the C10 I traded for it and the comfort in the hot weather has been great. I did have a chance to experience severe wet/windy weather while on my way to the National Rally and missed the bigger fairing of the C10 but that's about the only drawback I've found so far.