Yamaha FJR 1300 Ride Reports!

[sixtysix]

I was lucky enough to get a chance to ride Deano K's new 2004 FJR at PNW 2003. Pretty cool bike!



Here is my ride report:

LOOKS - 9/10; this bike looks fast and does not disappoint. The whole styling package, in my eyes, just works. It is drop dead gorgeous! The bags remove and it has inserts to go in the holes, this makes it look as good with or without luggage.

ENGINE - 9/10; The bike seems to have power everywhere, but is similar to an XS in the fact that if you get it too much under 3K it starts to lug, both my Bandit and my Triumph pull cleanly from much lower RPMs. But this motor was derived from the R1 and makes is best power higher up in the rev range. I didn't really want to beat on somebody else’s new bike, so I left the best part of the rev range for Deano to discover, but with 120+ RWHP, it has more than enough power. It is also VERY quiet, the engine hardy makes any mechanical noise at all. It was nice to see Deano just flick the starter at any temp and not have to worry about a choke or anything. I wish all bikes had FI. It get really good mileage, and has a 6.6 gallon tank so cruising range is 250-300 miles.

TRANSMISSION - 9.5/10; Flat out the best shifting motorcycle I have even been on. Half point off for no 6th gear.

BRAKES - 10/10; The best brakes of any bike I have ever been on! Yamaha got this one right, the non-linked ABS works great. This bike has just as much STOP as it does GO, and it has a lot of GO !

HANDLING - 8/10; The bike is very stable at and speed, but it achieves this by giving up 'flickability' both my Bandit a Triumph are very flickable, the FJR required quite a bit of steering input. I think on the highway the FJR would be much nicer than my Triumph (my Triumph feels busy behind trucks and is affected by even small cross winds) since is so stable. A day in the twisties might be more tiring on an FJR however. I guess it is just what I am used to, but in my opinion the steering felt heavy so I dinged it a couple of points.

RIDING POSITION/COMFORT/SEAT - 8/10; Similar to both my Bandit and Triumph the slightly forward position felt immediately comfortable to me. The adjustable windshield felt best all the way down, but I imagine if it was raining I might have something else to say! I am 6 foot tall and did not have a buffeting problem at any speed or windshield height. The bike does put out a fair amount of engine heat, especially with the fan on, but is no different than my Triumph. Full touring bikes usually keep the heat off the driver, but most of the sport touring bikes have enough open body work that you do get cooked a bit. Like most stock seats it did not fit my butt, actually the XS is the only stock seat I have ever found to be comfortable. Another thing I noticed was the instrument panel seemed hard to see at times due to glare and/or reflections from the driver.

SHAFT VS. CHAIN - 7/10; I could actually feel the gears/shaft slop on throttle transitions, maybe I was just not smooth enough. Some of this was due to a slightly binding throttle lock that we fixed. On chain bikes you don't notice this at all. A chain drive just feels smoother to me. I know, the shaft is maintenance free and lasts forever. I think this was another effort to make it more of a highway bike than a twisties bike.

Overall I give it a solid 8/10, with a new seat maybe an 8.5/10, but the heavy (to me) steering keeps it from being the perfect sport tourer. Also why no cruise control?

Mike Hart also rode this and can add any comments he has.

[Mike Hart]

Deano allowed as since I let him ride my Bandit when I first got it, that I should certainly get a run on his new FJR1300. He tossed me the keys Saturday morning (tech day) at the rally, and I headed out from Denny's toward 101.

I turned onto Delphi Rd, which is kind of the main road accessing Denny's area, medium throttle thru first and second, maybe going 45mph, and a freaking DEER leaps out of the bushes on the left going exactly perpendicular to the road - on the brakes NOW, and as the ABS was juddering the front wheel, the deer passed two feet in front of me. Whew.

Brakes: 10/10 awesome. Reminded me of the abs brakes on my K1200LT, except the FJR has the advantage of being about 350 pounds lighter than that bike. If you have room to stop, it will.

That behind me, I tried various types of roads, from traffic lights to freeway. When I got back to Denny's, I summarized my report like this: Stability, Brakes, Power.

As with the brakes, I'm pretty much in agreement with Gary's opinions, with some small differences:

Stability/Handling: 9/10 While it isn't flickable in the Bandit way, the Bandit isn't stable in the FJR way! I was very impressed by the stability, not only in a straight line, but at low speed, and at various lean angles. While the steering was slower (heavier) than the Bandit, it was very linear and confidence-inspiring. Deano should have no problem finding out which parts scrape first. Not everyone has twisties in their own neighborhood, and getting to the twisties is sometimes more than half the trip, so there is a trade-off here. Imagine a DZ400 supermotard - now there is 'flickable', wheelies, stoppies, etc, and one should be able to dust a Bandit in the extreme twisties. But getting to the twisties would be miserable. Since the FJR is a tourer, I think the trade-offs Yamaha made were just about right.

Power: plenty! Hard to give that a numerical rating, so here's a dyno chart:

At the wheel, 127.1 HP, and that 12.5 kgm is just over 90 ft-lbs of torque! Nice torque curve too, not quite as flat as the Bandit, but real good. Looking at the torque values (over 80 ft-lbs at 2500 rpm) you'd think this bike was a stump-puller, but that wasn't my experience. Perhaps it was the FI / igntion map?

Here's what I felt: While the bike hints at its full power as you moderatedly zip up thru the gears (you get to 80-90 mph very effortlessly), if you try to take it up on that hint, you will be disappointed until you approach 5500 rpm, at which point you will be going YEE-HAWWW!!! Crack the throttle the rest of the way open when doing the moderate up-thru-the-gears thing, and not much additional happens if you are under 4000 rpm. The engine starts coming to life at 4000, and is in full voice at 5500, so it's just a matter of knowing what gear to be in if you want a handful of throttle to really give results.

Didn't get to do side-by-side rollons, but I think a Bandit would pull away in a 3000rpm rollon, while a 5500rpm rollon would see the FJR being the one pulling away.

I'd say the FJR is in the same practical power area as the Bandit, the V-Strom, the ZXR1200, the FZ1 - not the fastest bike out there, but more than most of us can make full use of. BTW, the FZ1 has a similar power curve, coming on a little higher than the other bikes mentioned. It's a Yamaha thing!

Now, what I didn't like:

The heat. My legs (knees down) were roasting at even a short stop light. When I was sitting there waiting for the light to turn, griping about how uncomfortable that was, the fan came on and blew hot air right in my face! Gary may have learned to live with that on his Triumph and so was less critical, but I hated that. There must be some fairing mods to alleviate that problem.

Also while at the light, I was afraid someone was going to run over one of my feet, I had to place my long legs so wide to avoid being gouged in the inside of the knees by the points of the fairing. Gary and Deano had no problem with this, but I'm 6'5" and most of that is legs, and would have to do some body work on the bike to make it fit.

While I really liked the riding position, it being very similar to the Bandit, I found the seat to be pretty much inferior to the Corbin seat on the Bandit. Seems to me a $12,000 bike shouldn't need a seat transplant right away. It wasn't horrible, but I didn't like it.

I tried the electric windscreen, and found the only useful position to be fully down. When fully up, I had pretty severe helmet buffeting (taller than Gary and Deano). I felt no reduction in wind blast while the screen was on its way from fully down to fully up, just an increase in buffeting.

It's not really fair to compare this bike to the $20,000 K1200LT, but I will anyway: The KLT's electric windshield had something good to offer at all positions, the seat was very comfy (and heated), there was no engine heat being vented/directed on the rider. OK, I'll compare the other way too: the FJR is lighter, more powerful, the brakes are just as good, handling similar (the KLT can carve, very deceptive for such a large bike) but the FJR being the lighter bike, it gets the handling edge. The $8000 difference in price between the FJR and KLT would only by justified if you rode two-up all the time, and a lot of that on the slab.

As Gary said, why no cruise control? I'll add: why no heated grips? (or did it? I don't think so...) To some, the lack of a stereo might be another issue.

Bottom Line: 8/10 A very good-looking good-handling powerful machine with awesome brakes. I had ergonomic issues with it, and while the heat problem might be fixable, and the seat can definitely be replaced, I haven't heard of a good windscreen replacement yet, perhaps there will be one down the road. With those three things fixed, and a bit of trimming on the fairing, I'd give it a 9/10

[Shack]

Gret REPORTS!!!

Good job...I am glad you both had the chance to ride etc...I was on a ride two weeks ago and someone had a 2004 also. He also has a Bandit 2001 with jet kit and Yosh full race header and slip on...He says the Bandit will out pull at all rpms...that was his opinion of full out throttle... I was beside him and we did a couple of roll ons and my bike pulled him every time....but I also have a jet kit 125 mains and free flowing muff...the Motorcycle consumer news lists the FJR as a little quicker in stock condition...I was topld that with the jet kit and free flow muff I picked up around 10-12 HP...I am not sure how much moe HP but it pulls much harder than before mods..I am very impressed witht the FJR but he also complained about the HEAT!!!! it was 95 with 55% humity that day with heat indices of 115!!! I appreciate your reports on the FJR..keep em coming..

Shack

[sixtysix]

Just some wheelbase info I dug up:


1997 Bandit 1200 56.5"
2000 Triumph Trophy 58.66"
2003 Aprilia Tuono 56.2"
2003 Yamaha FJR 1300 60.6"

The FJR is 2 inches longer than my Triumph and over 4 inches longer than the Bandit. This may have accounted for the lack of quickness in steering, all of them have the same 120/70-17 front tire.

The XS11 has a wheelbase of 61.9 inches for comparison.

[Huron52]

Gary

As I know you took Deano's FJR for a run. What do you think. Does it need another gear? I am asking you because I know one of your bikes has a 6th gear. Some of the guys on the forum think it needs a 6th gear. Do you ever get to 6th gear on yours?
Mine is too new to try to get to a speed that I could tell.

[Mike Hart]

He gave it a half a point off for no 6th gear, so he must think it could at least 'use' one, if not 'need' one...

XS/XJ and FJR could use one, Bandit too (even more so) but we struggle along, eh?

[sixtysix]

Any highway bike (touring) in my opinion should have a '6th' gear to give the ultimate gas milage when needed (hours of freeway droning). Does it need one? Not really. SHOULD IT HAVE ONE? Yes it should. Do I get mine to 6th gear? Yes when 60ish MPH and above. I really did not get the FJR out on the highway...but did wind it up to "5" over.

On the Triumph at an idicated 80mph (75 actual) I am lumbering along at 4000 RPM in 6th gear. I never missed having a sixth on the Bandit...the first few times I ride it after the Triumph I just did for it out of habit.

The new bike has 6 speeds but probably does not need it, I am getting a smaller front spocket to take some of that high end away. I don't plan on touring with the Tuono anyway, but my normal day rides are in the 300-400 mile range. The Tuono has the same motor/gears as the RSV Mille but the front sprocket on that is a 17T (top speed 180ish), the Tuono in the US has a 16T (top speed 168) but will not go that high with out areodynamic help, so I figure with my 15T, I will be fine at any speed. (up to 150mph!! )