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FJR Maintenance Day & Barbarian Modification

Well at just over 6400 Miles and a weekend of hard riding last weekend it was time to look things over and do a little maintenance.

At the very least we needed an oil change though 3,000 miles is pretty short for today’s oils. The Yamalube was a little dirty but not bad at all when I drained it. I opted for 10w-40 Castrol this time. It was one of the few oils I could find without the friction modifiers so I thought I’d give it a go.

Also figured out that a FRAM PH7317 will fit my bike as well. That too will save me some dough, all though I do think the Yamaha/Denso filters are probably a little better filters overall, the FRAM should be just fine.

On tap for changes this time was the Barbarian modification.

For the 06 model it’s pretty simple. You peel off some plastic on the left side of the bike, expose the main wiring harness.

Unplug the big connector, push the plug out of pin location 25, remove the wire from 23 and move it over into 25, insert the plug into 23 and put everything back together.

DSC 3949

DSC 3950

This is all sounds pretty simple and it was until you break that orange/yellow wire. Grrrrrr….

Anyway we’re fixed and we’re good to go.

What this is supposed to do, is expose the CO level adjustment interface in the diagnostic menu. Then you can adjust the CO levels for each of the cylinders, giving you smoother (richer) off idle throttle response, and potentially, perhaps a cooler running bike too.

I haven’t taken it for a ride yet, but did adjust the levels +7 across the board as recommended. (Remember all manufacturers set everything lean as can be from the factory to appease the EPA).

My values were:

INITIAL Change to +7:

C:01 5 C:01 12
C:02 18 C:02 25
C:03 18 C:03 25
C:04 21 C:04 28

I wanted to resync the throttle bodies today as well but ran out of daylight. Will do that maybe tomorrow or on an upcoming weekend.

Total cost of today’s maintenance? Oil: $12 (on sale) Filter: $4.50 (already had the crush washer) Barbarian Mod, FREE.

For more information on the Barbarian Mod check out this resource.

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FJR Eastern Owners Meet Boone, NC

Wow, what fun.

Boone 01

There’s little better in life than spending a weekend doing what you really enjoy with a bunch of other people doing the same.

Boone 02

Last weekend was a medium to large (depending on how you want to look at it) get together of owners of the same bike that I have. The Yamaha FJR 1300, sport-touring motorcycle or “super sport-touring??? as Yamaha marketing would have you believe.

The get together was in Boone, N.C. simply a wonderful place for riding. The roads were delicious.

For those that don’t understand what sport-touring is and think we all ride one of those dang crotch rockets, you’re only half right. You see those dang crotch rockets do a couple things really well. The go fast in a straight line, and they corner very, very well. The problem is, you can’t ride them very long. The slumped over the tank riding position isn’t conducive to ride from say Cincinnati to oh, Boone, N.C. and be able to walk when you get there.

A true touring bike like oh, say a GoldWing is much more comfortable. It has all the creature comforts of your lazy boy at home. In fact it’s a lot like riding a lazy boy, and they handle about as well too. (OK, so there are some guys out there than can flop those things around pretty good, but for the most part, that’s the reality).

Sport-touring is the in-between; it’s some sport-with some comfort too. We typically ride to where we’re going. So when we get there we want to be able to walk. But we want to enjoy the roads and have fun too.

The FJR is pretty good at this.

Boone 03

My trip started Thursday morning, though not as early as the guy I was meeting. Kevin’s day started at 5:00am CST. Coming from Birmingham Alabama, Kevin was aiming to do an Iron Butt, Saddle Sore ride. (1000 miles in 24 hours.) Since Birmingham isn’t 1000 miles away from Boone, that led to a rather interesting route.

I met Kevin in Frankfort, KY, about ½ way through is adventure and we slabbed it on down to Boone, N.C. from there.

I was supposed to meet him at noon, even though I knew he wouldn’t be there until 1pm, and he wasn’t there until almost 2pm. Fact: Streets and Trips doesn’t lie.

We arrived in Boone, N.C. at 1am EST. It was a long ride of boring interstate, except for I-40, that’s not boring interstate, and the evening really livened up when the fog rolled in. (Yippee).

The next 2 and days were spent surrounded by great folks, great food, and outstanding roads.

There were folks from all over, as far north as Canada eh?, as far west as Texas, and as far south as Florida.

All in all I added a little over 2000 miles to the FJR this weekend and except for the initial 600 miles the rest were in twisties or secondary highways. It was all good, even the ride home.

Photos in the gallery:

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Single Dad-dom the complete weekend.

Well, the weekend was successful.

No kiddies died, though we did sustain one minor injury which I had absolutely nothing to do with.

Friday –Monday we all escaped injury. Michael and Maria got over their colds and for the most part Maggie and I avoided it. We got it a little but not nearly as bad as they did.

Thank you mom for helping out during the work hours and shuffling the kids to their day time destinations, I couldn’t have done it without you.

After hours we did the chores that needed to be done. Played with the kittens, hung out, did soccer practice and gymnastics, and on Sunday caught “Cars??? at the cheap theatre.

I discovered Maria is a bona-fide PS2 junkie. She needs help. We’re going to get her admitted into PS2A meetings ASAP.

Maggie is a very good cook for only 11 years old. She took care of us when we didn’t eat out. Pancakes rule!

It was all good until Maria’s Tuesday’s soccer practice. About 5 minutes into it Michael and Maggie went off to kick a soccer ball. Maggie came back to sit down next to me holding her arm in tears. From the looks of things it appeared she had either broken her arm or wrist. It wasn’t good, and it was swelling pretty quickly. I went and got ice from the concession stand and surveyed my options.

If it was broken it wasn’t broken badly, but she was in pain. Maria’s practice still had 45 minutes to do. Perhaps she just hyper extended her wrist; I’m not a Dr. though I have broken an arm and a few bones and Michael has put us through plenty of these experiences. So I’ve seen my share.

I thought I’d hold out for a bit and she how she reacted. It didn’t take long and she decided it was bad enough to go to the hospital.

I rounded up the stuff, and headed to Children’s Hospital and called my parents to have them meet me to watch Michael and Maria so I could stay with Maggie.

All told it went pretty smooth. From approximately a 6pm check in to a 10pm check out we were done. X-Rays negative for a break, though there is a possibility that she has a growth plate break in her wrist, it appears to be a bad sprain from a hyper extension.

She’s in a splint for 3 days to see how she does.

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Trying a new Style

Yep, it’s been a while and we’re trying a new style here at dishers.com.

A modified version of Tarski, which I find to be very readable. It’s widget enabled and that’s mostly a good thing. Except it’s broken the Gallery 2.x integration on the sidebar. Now I need to find a good Gallery 2.x Widget 🙁

Always something.

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