[SlowThinker]

Changed the rear brake pads was one of the tasks during maintenance day. Got to these just in time.

 

[motohero1960]

Interesting Day in my FJR journey...after a nice clean and detail, I sold the 2013 model with 43k miles. After a 2003, two different 2007's, and a 2013, the FJR has been an absolute workhorse and a sporty one at that.

Gonna shop around for a newer model (2023/2024) with low miles and see what I can find. Not even sure if I need another one, that is a tough question since I don't commute to work any longer.

D

 

[2017 Authority bike]

Interesting Day in my FJR journey...after a nice clean and detail, I sold the 2013 model with 43k miles. After a 2003, two different 2007's, and a 2013, the FJR has been an absolute workhorse and a sporty one at that.

Gonna shop around for a newer model (2023/2024) with low miles and see what I can find. Not even sure if I need another one, that is a tough question since I don't commute to work any longer.

D

Congrats on the sale ,please keep us informed on what you buy and some photos also. You will notice the difference with the later bike.

 

[Scooper]

Replaced there rear tire on my 2013 in preparation for an overnighter with a buddy.
That cycle Hill tire changer makes it a breeze.

 

[SkooterG]

Well, yesterday, took a photo with a gaggle of other FJRs in Baker City, Oregon.

Good times!

 

[JoelTheMole]

Not my FJR1300 but I just did a suspension adjustment and replaced the tires on my wife's Rebel 1100 DCT coming up to prime riding season here in South Texas. Did a Kenda "Cataclysm" rear and a Shinko 777 front from Chapmoto.com. Mounted the Shinko myself but the Kenda was too stiff for me to manage with tire irons, so I took it to the local dealership service department that is run by a decent guy I have delt with with before. He mounted it but couldn't balance it, even rotating the tire on the rim several times, I took it home and it took 6.25oz!!!! of weight on my static balancer. Called Chapmoto.com and they gave me the royal run around and pretty much the one finger salute.

The was my first experience with Chapmoto or Kenda, so neither is off to a great start IMO, although I am honestly less annoyed with Kenda than with Chapmoto at this point.

Put the tires on her bike with the massive rear weight and took it for a ride to make sure everything felt ok, which it did, and scrub off the new tire surface coating. Even though her bike isn't THAT light, it always feels like such a little toy to me compared to my FJR1300.

As a side note Honda did this bike a real disservice by using wonky UBER heavy 18"/16" cruiser size tires on it instead of 17"s, next time around I am gonna say screw the stock sizing and just try to get some radials that are close to the right dimensions.

Stopped by O'Reilly's on the way back and grabbed some PEA fuel system cleaner to use in both our bikes, and grabbed a couple oil filters I haven't tried yet for oil changes on both bikes. Usually I use the O'Reilly's shorter Microgard MGL51358, but recently realized they have the same filter in a taller version called the MGL57356, so I am gonna try them out:

The taller one looks like it is basically the O'Reilly's store brand version of a Mobil1 M110A:

Excited for some cooler weather and rides with the wife.

 

[JimmyNC]

Happiness is: a new set of Road 6 GT’s

 

[SkooterG]

Happiness is: a new set of Road 6 GT’s View attachment 109990

Unhappiness is the hole left in your wallet. 😢

 

[JoelTheMole]

Unhappiness is the hole left in your wallet. 😢

Yea never worn out a Road 6, but last Road 4 GT rear I wore out lasted less than 5k miles...

This is the only Road 6 I have ever bought and it was barely on the bike before the Valkyrie 3rd gear crapped out from the GL1800 ghost shifting issue.

Recent motorcycle tire prices have just gotten absurd. I have a hard time imagining buying another Road 6 or RoadSmart 4 anytime soon.

 

[Oblivion]

Cleaned off some of the bugs after last night's drive-in excursion with my Mid Kid and most frequent co-pilot, then rode to work. New tires should arrive today. I went with OEM since they feel fine and there was a set for sale on site here. Hope to get them swapped Sunday.

 

[2017 Authority bike]

Yea never worn out a Road 6, but last Road 4 GT rear I wore out lasted less than 5k miles...

This is the only Road 6 I have ever bought and it was barely on the bike before the Valkyrie 3rd gear crapped out from the GL1800 ghost shifting issue.
View attachment 109994

Recent motorcycle tire prices have just gotten absurd. I have a hard time imagining buying another Road 6 or RoadSmart 4 anytime soon.

Would that be due to Trumps tariffs ? Like a lot of things imported to the USA they all are or will be more expensive. I feel for you guys as it is the average person that will pay more for everything. I'm not trying to be political by saying this just stating a fact.

 

[2017 Authority bike]

Cleaned off some of the bugs after last night's drive-in excursion with my Mid Kid and most frequent co-pilot, then rode to work. New tires should arrive today. I went with OEM since they feel fine and there was a set for sale on site here. Hope to get them swapped Sunday.

View attachment 110001

You buy what you are comfortable with, we all have our choices of brands and like oil everyone has their favourite.

 

[Oldjeep]

Would that be due to Trumps tariffs ? Like a lot of things imported to the USA they all are or will be more expensive. I feel for you guys as it is the average person that will pay more for everything. I'm not trying to be political by saying this just stating a fact.

Hard to say for sure, but vendors are raising their prices on a lot of things - even when they are already in the country since a lot of businesses are waiting to make orders and see if the tariffs go away shortly. If you stock up now then you are screwed in the future because you paid too much, if you don't then you might not have anything to sell. gonna take a while for the supply chain to work all this out.

 

[2017 Authority bike]

Hard to say for sure, but vendors are raising their prices on a lot of things - even when they are already in the country since a lot of businesses are waiting to make orders and see if the tariffs go away shortly. If you stock up now then you are screwed in the future because you paid too much, if you don't then you might not have anything to sell. gonna take a while for the supply chain to work all this out.

I tend to Agree I know Australia Post stop delivering to the USA due to the tariff and no real information who or what the cost would be .They did not want to pay any tax so after about 2 months they have found someone in the USA to deal with it on their behalf. What a lot don't understand the guys importing have to pay the tariff once it land in the country then they need to pass it on or just cop the cost but that cuts their profit so can't see that happening a lot, without passing it on.

 

[Oldjeep]

That is a whole other issue. That relates to the de-minmus rule and the fact that tariff now applies to shipments under $800. So it increases a lot of customs overhead because every little thing needs declared value and then the shipping co has to actually collect it from the importer (the little guy having it sent to his house). This is a whole lot more work than dealing with containers of stuff going to your average big parts reseller. Whole thing is still a bit of a mess.

 

[JoelTheMole]

Not sure what all the reasons are, although I am sure the choices made by our Cheeto in Chief are impacting many prices.

I realize some of this is likely due to the Dunlop factory in the USA closing last year too, but this was a bit over a year ago:

Same exact vendor price today on the exact same tire:

Then some stuff is so cheap it doesn't even make sense, this was my local grocery store last night:

$3 each when you buy 6+. I honestly can't fathom how they are shipping a bottle of wine from Australia to Texas for $3. Let alone making the wine, buying the bottles, labels, packaging, shipping it, paying import fees, selling wholesale to a distributor, that is then selling at a profit to a grocery store, who is then adding their markup to sell to the consumer.

Even assuming it is a loss leader they are temporarily selling at or a little below cost to get a foothold those numbers don't even begin to make sense to me.

What's funny is I sent that picture to an Australian internet friend and she was like "WTF? that is so cheap! We can't get wine that cheap here!!!"

 

[Deets55]

Three day trip to the End of the World State Park, PA

 

[Oldjeep]

Not sure what all the reasons are, although I am sure the choices made by our Cheeto in Chief are impacting many prices.

I realize some of this is likely due to the Dunlop factory in the USA closing last year too, but this was a bit over a year ago:
View attachment 110011

Same exact vendor price today on the exact same tire:
View attachment 110012


Then some stuff is so cheap it doesn't even make sense, this was my local grocery store last night:
View attachment 110013

$3 each when you buy 6+. I honestly can't fathom how they are shipping a bottle of wine from Australia to Texas for $3. Let alone making the wine, buying the bottles, labels, packaging, shipping it, paying import fees, selling wholesale to a distributor, that is then selling at a profit to a grocery store, who is then adding their markup to sell to the consumer.

Even assuming it is a loss leader they are temporarily selling at or a little below cost to get a foothold those numbers don't even begin to make sense to me.

What's funny is I sent that picture to an Australian internet friend and she was like "WTF? that is so cheap! We can't get wine that cheap here!!!"

They probably dump all the swill that nobody there will drink on our market They probably send it over in a gasoline tanker and bottle it here.

 

[JoelTheMole]

They probably dump all the swill that nobody there will drink on our market They probably send it over in a gasoline tanker and bottle it here.

Probably, my wife likes sweet alcoholic kool-aid, so I bought 3 bottles, so if I disappear in the next few days you will know I died doing what I love: being a cheapskate! 🤣

For real though Australia has liquor taxes or something going on that makes alcohol pricing seem bizarrely high from my perspective. At one point my friend said something about buying a bottle of Vodka, which is her drink of choice, and how much it cost and I was just like 🤯🤯🤯.

I pulled up an Australian liquor store online and was frankly shocked by how high it was. I sometimes brew my own stuff and have a small air still, I don't remember the exact pricing but I remember thinking a fifth of low to mid range vodka for her cost about the same as my air still cost me. I was just like "good vodka is just watered down ethanol, buy a still, a carbon filter water pitcher, some yeast, a big bag of sugar and make all the darn vodka you want!" 🤣

 

[Oldjeep]

Probably, my wife likes sweet alcoholic kool-aid, so I bought 3 bottles, so if I disappear in the next few days you will know I died doing what I love: being a cheapskate! 🤣

For real though Australia has liquor taxes or something going on that makes alcohol pricing seem bizarrely high from my perspective. At one point my friend said something about buying a bottle of Vodka, which is her drink of choice, and how much it cost and I was just like 🤯🤯🤯.

I pulled up an Australian liquor store online and was frankly shocked by how high it was. I sometimes brew my own stuff and have a small air still, I don't remember the exact pricing but I remember thinking a fifth of low to mid range vodka for her cost about the same as my air still cost me. I was just like "good vodka is just watered down ethanol, buy a still, a carbon filter water pitcher, some yeast, a big bag of sugar and make all the darn vodka you want!" 🤣

FWIW - was in AUS and NZ a couple years ago and didn't consider their prices to be outside of the norm for the USA, but we were drinking beer/wine and no spirits.

To bring thread back on track, I will drink a beer while walking past the FJR in the garage today