[AtlRiderrr]

Figured I would put a couple bullet points here for all the “new to the FJR” people I’ve been seeing coming onboard lately!

-Buy crash cages and luggage protectors immediately and install them. Make them your first modification. You will drop your bike. Not saying you’ll crash, just saying your bike will tip over at some point. Take it from the cocky bastard that didn’t believe he was gonna be that guy, and was twice.

-If you love the stock windscreen, wonderful…score for you! If not, make that your second modification. it’s very important to your overall experience.

-Get great earplugs and use them any time you are riding longer than just swapping parking lots with the bike. Bang for the buck? Probably Hearos Xtreme. Put them in according to the directions, and spin them while pulling whenever you take them out, or you’ll keep popping your eardrums and that s*** hurts!

-If you need to lift the front end of the bike to change your tires or whatever else, put the bike on the rear centerstand, and use a scissor jack with a nice solid 2*4 under the headers (nearer to the front), to gently lift the front wheel off the ground just enough to give you the space you need to do the job. Use the handlebars to gently check the bikes stability side to side. For bigger/longer jobs, Jack it up and use a solid hunk of wood to let it back down on. Be careful of track stands (they can pull the bike just enough forward to knock it from the rear stand…ask me how tf I know 🤦🏻‍♂️), and be careful of pump jacks because they will pull the bike to the side slightly as it goes up…BAD…. They also have a tendency to “float” the whole damn bike….BAD.

-When you are facing the bike from the front…. The left side of the fork and the axle spacer next to your wheel will leave a gap after it’s tightened up if you don’t make sure you squeeze the forks together before tightening the pinch bolts on the forks. So to simplify, after your axle is in properly with the spacers, and torqued down to spec 66ft/lbs, push the fork legs together towards the center and hold them as tight as you can (i use my legs, but you could probably find a way to use a ratchet strap, but with just legs you won’t break your bike😆). Tighten the left pinch bolts to spec 13-15ft lbs while still applying that pressure…Then you can let go of the pressure and tighten the right ones. Remember this is left and right when you are facing the front of the bike, not riding it. If you leave that gap, the bike will feel like the wheel is out of balance at certain speeds.. mainly 46ish and over 90…not that we here on this forum ever go that fast!

-Do a search for lubrication of the “dogbones” or “suspension linkage”. Do that job when you have the day free on a weekend.

-Yamaha nailed the near perfect sound for all purposes with the stock cans. Get yourself a K&N filter and call it a day. No one wants to go on a 7hr ride hearing BLUUUUUUUUUH the entire time. Ask me how i know. If you’re a commuter with the bike and the occasional 2-3hr ride is all you do…Get some 18inch pipes if you want louder. It’ll be meaner sounding but not too annoying.

-19ft lbs is enough for the oil drain plug.

-Yamaha instructs that an oil filter is good for two oil changes 7-10k. Lucky you, because everything costs a fortune right now.

Hope these help!

 

[Bill Lumberg]

Agreed on all points. But which K&N filter are you recommending, and why?

 

[AtlRiderrr]

Agreed on all points. But which K&N filter are you recommending, and why?

The one that replaces the stock paper unit in the stock airbox. It’s about $65. Or WAS a year ago. I’ve been putting well cared for K&N filters in every vehicle I’ve owned since i was younger. Never had it ever affect an engine in a negative way. Numerous mid 200k cars and my VFR has nearly 80k on it with no rebuild. I will continue to use K&N until one fails me, on any engine, ever.

 

[mikester]

The one that replaces the stock paper unit in the stock airbox. It’s about $65. Or WAS a year ago. I’ve been putting well cared for K&N filters in every vehicle I’ve owned since i was younger. Never had it ever affect an engine in a negative way. Numerous mid 200k cars and my VFR has nearly 80k on it with no rebuild. I will continue to use K&N until one fails me, on any engine, ever.

I paint flames on my tank. My bike goes faster now. Cheaper then a K&N filter and I've never had to rebuild a motor either.

 

[Linton West]

Always torque the oil drain plug to the correct torque as specified.
I Always do and have never had a problem, just imagine what would happen if it came undone and the rear wheel was covered in oil.
I never use a block when lifting the front, just a scissor jack with a dished top that fits nicely under one of the exhaust pipes.
The best accessory you can get, apart from a decent seat, is a tyre pressure monitor.

 

[AtlRiderrr]

I paint flames on my tank. My bike goes faster now. Cheaper then a K&N filter and I've never had to rebuild a motor either.

I’ll always take my chances with imaginary engine destroying particles from stories on the Internet, than i will with possibly sucking in mouse-house parts directly into my intake manifold. Many members on this forum alone have found the latter in their airbox. I’ve never personally had (nor anyone I’ve ever met, or anyone they’ve met) had to rebuild an engine or even clean a top end from a k&n filter. If that’s happened to anyone you know, they are probably a fool who didn’t clean and relube the filter for 80k miles 🙄.

 

[RaYzerman]

-When you are facing the bike from the front…. The left side of the fork and the axle spacer next to your wheel will leave a gap after it’s tightened up if you don’t make sure you squeeze the forks together before tightening the pinch bolts on the forks. So to simplify, after your axle is in properly with the spacers, and torqued down to spec 66ft/lbs, push the fork legs together towards the center and hold them as tight as you can (i use my legs, but you could probably find a way to use a ratchet strap, but with just legs you won’t break your bike😆). Tighten the left pinch bolts to spec 13-15ft lbs while still applying that pressure…Then you can let go of the pressure and tighten the right ones. Remember this is left and right when you are facing the front of the bike, not riding it. If you leave that gap, the bike will feel like the wheel is out of balance at certain speeds.. mainly 46ish and over 90…not that we here on this forum ever go that fast!

I'm not sure the suspension gurus would agree, and I too have thought it wrong to side load a fork. The fork should be in it's natural straight line to avoid stiction as it travels up and down.... so one should let the fork take it's natural straight line position before tightening the right side (as if sitting on the bike) pinch bolts. The gurus will recommend jouncing the forks up and down to ensure that before tightening the pinch bolts.

When you install the axle, the wheel, spacers and axle are sandwiched to the left side (as if sitting on the bike), and once torqued, you can tighten the left side pinch bolts as nothing you do will change that sandwich. The right fork is free to slide sideways on the axle... again into its natural position.... you can tighten those pinch bolts provided the axle has been torqued. Same goes for the rear end, the sandwich is all torqued to the left side, and the pinch bolt torqued last with the swingarm in it's natural position..... not that you can easily bend it anyway.

I'm not sure why you'd feel the wheel is out of balance, that should not matter regardless of the method used. But now we're going to get into the "steering head bearing" discussion, with all the speculation on causes and effects.

 

[RaYzerman]

Always torque the oil drain plug to the correct torque as specified.
I Always do and have never had a problem, just imagine what would happen if it came undone and the rear wheel was covered in oil.

The drain plug torque.... Yamaha has never corrected that 31 ft. lbs. or at least clarify dry vs. lubed...... torques are usually specified with dry threads, but the engineering tables say to reduce the torque 35-40% when lubricated with engine oil. I have difficulty (mental block) going that far, so I use 30% if using a torque wrench. Yamaha crush washers start crushing around 14 ft. lbs, seem to max out about 17. Coincidentally, the almost identical drain plug (except for the magnetic tip) in the rear drive is to be torqued to 17. One would be wise to stick to that.

Going back to several posts on FJR forums about stripped drain plugs in early FJR days, we learned to reduce the torque. In fact, many have found it very difficult to remove the drain plug at their first FJR oil change, so Yamaha may have torqued it to 31 dry on that first installation. You'll find (a) most other Japanese bikes have torque specs in the 17-20 ft. lbs., the assumption being an oil pan drain plug is always going to be lubricated with engine oil.

 

[red]

Excessive torque is the wrong answer, IMHO. Anybody concerned with losing an oil drain plug can buy an aftermarket drain plug, drilled for safety wire and even magnetic (the FJR Final Drive oil plug is magnetic).

There is a reason why they make safety wire, and why people (like racers) will use it. The answer is right in the name. Any auto parts store has new crush washers by the bag (for cheap), in several different types.

 

[Racoonguy]

I paint flames on my tank. My bike goes faster now. Cheaper then a K&N filter and I've never had to rebuild a motor either.

I was told by my Harley friend that every skull sticker or chrome doo-dad ads 1.5 hp.

 

[relhok]

The one that replaces the stock paper unit in the stock airbox. It’s about $65. Or WAS a year ago. I’ve been putting well cared for K&N filters in every vehicle I’ve owned since i was younger. Never had it ever affect an engine in a negative way. Numerous mid 200k cars and my VFR has nearly 80k on it with no rebuild. I will continue to use K&N until one fails me, on any engine, ever.

I don't doubt your success with K&N. However, I think a UNI NU-3255 is better for less money.

 

[BigOgre]

The gurus will recommend jouncing the forks . . . .

I learned a new word today. Always helping guys out Ray is.

Happy St. Pat's btw!

 

[mikester]

I’ll always take my chances with imaginary engine destroying particles from stories on the Internet, than i will with possibly sucking in mouse-house parts directly into my intake manifold. Many members on this forum alone have found the latter in their airbox. I’ve never personally had (nor anyone I’ve ever met, or anyone they’ve met) had to rebuild an engine or even clean a top end from a k&n filter. If that’s happened to anyone you know, they are probably a fool who didn’t clean and relube the filter for 80k miles 🙄.

Yah I'm one of those who found a mouse nest in the air box on my new bike at the first service. Bike is stored in a clean and tight garage, don't know how or why these critters like these air boxes or how they even find them. Bike runs better without the mouse nest, go figure.

 

[Oldjeep]

I have never once used a torque wrench for an oil drain plug on anything. Put the socket on the socket wrench, put the drive in your fist and tighten it. That should be just about right.

Jeebus, I rebuilt car engines without a torque wrench - this is not some black art.

 

[FastPappy]

I have never once used a torque wrench for an oil drain plug on anything. Put the socket on the socket wrench, put the drive in your fist and tighten it. That should be just about right.

Jeebus, I rebuilt car engines without a torque wrench - this is not some black art.

+1 I use the German torque spec "goodntight". 😁

 

[rbentnail]

Though I don't agree with everything the OP said, nor with some of the subsequent comments from others, listed are many good things to think about and some options. IMHO the most important thing was left out however- utilizing the powerful FJROwners Forum Search feature. This forum has been around a long time and chances are whatever you're looking for has been discussed (beat to death ) before. We also get it that many newbies may not wish to post. Or may be put off by the contradicting opinions or the off-topic tangents that threads often take, just like in this thread . Or may simply choose not to be subjected to the "humor" or belittling from others and may want to simply read about it. I know a combination of these factors (and others) are why I visit other FJR forums often but rarely post on them. Lord knows the ramblings of some members' posting are awfully hard to follow sometimes. As are some of the attitudes, mine included .

So, a few pictures for the uninitiated. Remember, these are from a laptop's view. A tablet or a phone (blech!!) may look a little different. This first picture is where to click to start using the search feature

Once you click to place your cursor in the 'Search community' box, you have a choice:

• enter a word to search for,
• or click on the 'Advanced Search'

The 'enter a keyword' may sometimes provide too many choices or I may remember part of a title or which member posted it. The 'Advanced Search' feature allows you to filter the results you get by these and a couple more options.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hopefully this helps some of the old (us ), not-too-computer-savvy guys & gals find some little thing they are looking for. And by all means, if you don't find a good answer then POST UP! Most people here want to help everyone else. My biggest pieces of advice to newbies-to-forums:

every person here has his/her/its opinion. Don't be put off or insulted by it, if you don't think it works for you then ignore it. And, this is very important, as you are reading along, any time you see the word 'should', realize that is one person's opinion. There are probably other differing opinions. In your mind change that word 'should' to the word 'could'. Some folks can't help being commanding know-it-alls .

We also have 2 "special" areas to help folks out. One is called The Practice Area. This is where you can go to try new things like quoting or picture posting, folks are happy to help you do this as we LOVE us some pictures. One great thing about this forum is that you can download directly from a computer. Pictures from a tablet or phone can be a little tricky sometimes so go practice. Another area is called Site Help and Suggestions. This is where you can post with a question of how this electronical computer wizardry works.

Or you can contact any member (once you yourself are a registered member with 5+ posts) via the PM (private messaging) system. We have threads on that, try doing a search !

Good luck, I hope to see yoose guys around more often.

 

[nhsteve]

Bentnail that is a really nice post with good overall info (especially on how to use the search feature!) that I at least really appreciate.
Kudos!

 

[Barsinister]

+1 on the crash bars. Fairly new to FJR (AUG will be 2 years). From the info learned from reading posts on this site, it was one of the 1st things I did. Even though I didn't like and still don't like the looks of them. I was SSooooo careful not to dump it on it's side until I did.

The result. Absolutely no damage. Not even a scratch to the crash bars. BTW the method of picking up a heavy bike (my others were much lighter) by placing your back to the seat and lifting with your legs, works like a charm.

 

[Oldjeep]

Crash bars are a good idea as insurance. I find that people who drop a bike once, do it twice and then again say it is inevitable to make themselves feel better

 

[ReRose]

YouTube is how I figure stuff out and iffens that fails then I ask here which sometimes is worse. I am a techtard and have to have someone help me post a pic and the search seems like I never put the right words in to hopefully find what I am looking for so after 2 hours of search I give up. What really impresses me is some of the skills people have on this board. People post things they have made or a different way to repair something that I would never imagine could have been done. The amount of knowledge some here have is about 2 miles or more above my head and makes ones like me think well I have a lot of tools now all I have to do is figure out how to use them.
Sometimes I have to laff at myself for the stuff I try and total failure is end result. At least I can hop on another bike in the garage and ride !!!!!