Season's greetings (although a bit early) from a Dutchman in Germany

[fjaap]

Hello all,

My name is Jaap, I live in Germany (near the border with the Netherlands) and I work in the Netherlands.
In the nineties I owned 2 1TX's with an intermediate period of a few years, but I ride motorcycles since '83.
About 6 years ago (when I had an SRX600 and an XS750) I stumbled upon an FJ1100 for which about $ 250 was asked.

At that time I was fed up with the SRX, it had seized twice upon me. The trust in the engine was gone, so had the fun ...
I bought another engine, bolted it into the fram and sold it.
I also got hold of an XS750 (pre-owned by me) for the price of a voucher (about $ 25). Yeah, I know, you must already be thinking: the Dutch ....
That bike surprised me once on the highway with a complete lack of torque, I almost got squished between a truck and a car, because I did not have the torque to bolt out.

Recollections of the powerhouse-like torque immediately came back and I thought: If I could own an FJ once  more ...
The bigger was the surprise to find an 1100 for only 250 € (about 325 USD).
Of course I bought it, and in true dutch fashion I make it better and better for as few euro's as possible.
I have already equipped it with WP forksprings, WP rear shock, Tarozzi footsteps, a K&N replacement air filter, SSt braided front brake lines (Spiegler) and Dunlopad brakepads (front).
This winter I am planning to replace the fuel gauge and all instrument bulbs.
It's not that much work, I know, but I have got so much to do in and about the house, that I prefer to keep it in a running state  

[Steve_in_Florida]

...I almost got squished between a truck and a car, because I did not have the torque to bolt out.

Recollections of the powerhouse-like torque immediately came back and I thought: If I could own an FJ once  more ...

Welcome, Jaap.

This is a pretty active and informative group. I'm happy that you found us.

Your comment about almost being squished reminded me of one of those cool FJ moments from my past:

I was stationed at Ramstein Air Base in Germany all through the `90's. One evening, my (now Ex-)wife and I were on my 1990 FJ-1200 travelling east on Autobahn A-6. The autobahn was only two lanes in this stretch, and there were two commercial semi-trucks running side-by-side at a crawl, several hundred meters ahead of us, causing traffic to back up for quite a ways behind them. (They caused an intentional stau!) Since we were meeting people for a movie at the Ramstein village Kino, we had no time for their shenanigans!

I decided to split the lanes between the huge line of cars behind the trucks, then thread my skinny little FJ right between the two offending semi-trucks, and blast past them! For a moment, it felt like being in a tunnel, then suddenly bursting free like an orgasm!! (I'm sure we were only going about 80 kph, but it felt like light-speed!) I punched it to the Kookaloo zone, and was able to make our movie date on-time!

Thank you for allowing me to remember that moment. It's one of the best I have on my FJ.

Steve

[Tiger]

  Hi and welcome Jaap...you have come to the right place

John.

[Dan Filetti]

Welcome here Jaap.  Nice introduction.  I am certain you will find lots of valuable information on this forum.  There is no finer, more involved, more knowledgeable group of FJ enthusiasts, in the world.  Do be careful, the more you read, the more susceptible you will likely become to modifying your FJ.  It's thought of as a sickness 'moditous' that many here seem to suffer from.

Dan

[movenon]

Welcome ! It amazes me how many of these FJ's that are all over the world and still running strong. "The sun never sets on an FJ" 

[racerman_27410]

Welcome to the group!


Its never to late to come home to the FJ.... seems like the right one found you!



KOokaloo!


Frank