Coming soon, to an East Coast FJ Rally Near You...

[Bill_Rockoff]

... and possibly a West Coast FJ Rally, because once you're riding this thing you never want to stop, Mike-Ramos-style.



You'll hear it coming, too, because it has Leo Vince exhaust and I think a computer, and it sounds like a cross between "Bike Week" and "racing" and "Italian supermodel sex."  It feels like it pulls harder up top than the stock one that Ducati Dave(*)  (Fazer Dave? GTS Dave?) let me ride last month,  I'm normally a stock-pipes kinda guy, but I like the sound of this thing.  I'm curious to put it on a dyno and see what it does.

Then again, it's not mine, it's Andrew's.  ("You'll put your eye out, kid!")  He has had a poster of a 916 on his bedroom wall since he was 9 years old, when he talked me into taking my framed 916 poster out of the garage and putting it in his room.  (He left for college last year and wanted only two things from my house - a favorite hoodie, and the 916 poster.)  He worked last summer and has been working an engineering co-op job since January, and he has saved enough to finally make this happen as of the other day.  He plans to track it (so Jack and Nancy will probably see him ride it before I do) and commute to work and to class on it, and he is itching to put a passenger seat & pegs back on it (it's a biposto) for some reason he won't discuss with me.  

I love my FJ, and with the ME-Z8s I think it's only "a motor build" away from being as perfect as an FJ with factory fork tubes and wheel can get for me, and I hope to put another 100,000 miles on it.  But after riding Dave's clean '95 916 last month and having refreshed my mind on what it's like to ride this '97  I think that I Must Have One.  

But meanwhile, it's nice to have one in the family.  And while "track-prepped 916" and "20-year-old" admittedly doesn't sound like the smartest idea, I'm not opposed to it in this case.  

We'll see who gets another 100,000 miles first.

[The General]

....But meanwhile, it's nice to have one in the family.  And while "track-prepped 916" and "20-year-old" admittedly doesn't sound like the smartest idea, I'm not opposed to it in this case.  

We'll see who gets another 100,000 miles first.

I`m jealous!

[carey]

Bill,

You raised him right.  At my age, I'm hurting just thinking about sitting on a bike like that.

[Pat Conlon]

... and possibly a West Coast FJ Rally, because once you're riding this thing you never want to stop, Mike-Ramos-style.

Ironic that the bike is on a trailer huh?   As comfortable as it is.....

[Bill_Rockoff]

The trailer was the cheapest way to get it home.  Dave carried it from Memphis to the office (B'ham) and I carried it from the office home (Atlanta 'burbs.)  Riding it would have required a one-way ticket.

And it's actually not that bad, comfort-wise.  It has a Sargent seat, and the clip-ons can be raised but they're actually not bad.

Carey, you and I are about the same age - I rode it from Connecticut to Atlanta last year in basically one day.  We switched bikes and I rode Andrew's EX500 for 200 miles of Blue Ridge Parkway while Andrew rode the 916, but I did all the highway on it.  It was kinda great, actually.

[rusjel]

Well done Andrew!

I have a brother in law who owns a 996, maintains it and pays to keep it running.

He lets me ride it sometimes.

Things are perfect just as they are.

[carey]

Carey, you and I are about the same age - I rode it from Connecticut to Atlanta last year in basically one day.  We switched bikes and I rode Andrew's EX500 for 200 miles of Blue Ridge Parkway while Andrew rode the 916, but I did all the highway on it.  It was kinda great, actually.

Bill, 

I'm not saying Andrew's bike is not comfortable, but I haven't lead a sheltered life.  I'm now paying for my past poor choices.  I need a "sit up and beg" type seating, like a dirt/adventure bike, or my body revolts.

[ddlewis]

Carey, you and I are about the same age - I rode it from Connecticut to Atlanta last year in basically one day.  We switched bikes and I rode Andrew's EX500 for 200 miles of Blue Ridge Parkway while Andrew rode the 916, but I did all the highway on it.  It was kinda great, actually.

Bill, 

I'm not saying Andrew's bike is not comfortable, but I haven't lead a sheltered life.  I'm now paying for my past poor choices.  I need a "sit up and beg" type seating, like a dirt/adventure bike, or my body revolts.

Carey's body is revolting..   

Mine too..    I'm at the point where I'd be better off with a poster on my garage wall than the actual bike.  I love the idea of a sport bike.. but knees, wrists, neck can't take it..  The fun passes quickly and nothing but pain is left.  Even 'ol the FJ, famously comfortable sport bike, became tough on me and the Duc has the opposite rep.

But that is a very cool bike..  the kid has taste.

[rktmanfj]

Carey's body is revolting..   

[carey]

rofl2

Randy,

If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all.

[Bill_Rockoff]

Between being a bit sedentary lately, and injuring a hip working on the house in June, and a knee that makes enough noise lately that it's audible over my footsteps walking uphill, I'm not the most agile guy anymore myself.  But I must be lucky, because these things just fit me right.

I did some sit-up-n-beg on Dave's Fazer last month, and it was a neat enough bike, but I was chilly in a non-riding-gear jacket and I frankly wasn't having a super time.  The 5-valve felt nice enough, and I can remember what that sort of top-end rush was like when it was new.  (John the Beer Scientist got a Maxim X brand-new back when those were brand-new, which was the Fazer engine in a shaftie cruiser.  It was the first really new bike I got to spend any time with, and it was like the Millenium Falcon making the jump to light speed.)  But riding the Fazer I was thinking "I hope I'm just tired and grumpy, because if not, it might be that I just don't like riding motorcycles very much any more."

But when we switched, it was a completely different experience.  The 916 just fits me.  Dave's has bar risers, Andrew's has lower bars but a Sargent seat so it's about a wash, comfort-wise, and I just like the riding position.  Also, I love the light weight, the suspension response, the places it's narrow, the places it's broad.  Even if it didn't adore the bike's looks, I'd still love riding it.  And even if it didn't make the power it makes, it just feels great at speed.

But it DOES look how it looks, and it IS pretty damn quick - it's got FJ power, but it weighs about 120lbs less, and it sounds as good as it looks.  Dave's factory one is stout enough and it makes a great thrum, but Andrew's with the Leo Vince pipes feels like it pulls harder especially up top.  And the forward lean seems to be counterbalanced by the wind on your helmet and chest, so at fast-highway speeds the bike disappears and it's just like that dream you had as a kid where you're flying.

And because of the looks, and the noise, and the anticipation, riding it is kind of an event....  You're a bit of a rock star on one of these, just by the way it looks and sounds.  And when it comes on the cam and vaults you forward with a howl from the exhaust, you sort of become the god of speed, and of thunder, and you start to feel the need to coin a phrase that amounts to "HOLY FUCKING SHIT!" only it should ideally last longer and get progressively louder and more vehement, like the engine as it pulls toward the big end of the tach. I don't know, maybe "Holy fucking fucking FUCKING FUCKING FUCK!!" Man, I need to find some more swear words to come at the end of that.   Riding Dave's, even without the extra racket, I never wanted to stop riding it, "where are we, Memphis? Where's the ocean? Let's go ride to an ocean."  Riding Andrew's is like surfing a wave of outrageous thunderous speed.

I'm old and creaky, and I didn't start to think "all right, I've had enough, I'm ready to be done" until after about 16 hours on the road last year, and that's because it was cold out and I really don't like being cold.  Get me on one of these things when it's nice out?  Seriously, I might never want to stop.  (Reminds me - it's my squishy FJ seat that is the first thing to pain me; a Sargent seat will probably put me back into the 'let's never stop riding' mode on the FJ.)  

Andrew and I left the Fall rally that Sunday and went across the Cherohala and then down 28, and we had a lot of the road to ourselves - a lot of empty clear roads, and we both had the newest stickiest tires either of us have ever had the opportunity to push.  (ME-Z8s for me, Battleaxe radials on the EX500.  The Ducati tires are stickier, but neither of us have yet had the chance to really work one of those.  Yet.)  We had the exact right pace, enough to work the bikes a bit but not enough to give ourselves a "moment," and when we stopped for gas we agreed that "this was about the most fun we have ever had on motorcycles, in an entire lifetime of having fun on motorcycles."  And all I can think of now is "oh man, just you wait."  He is gonna enjoy the hell out of this thing, in a way that he never could have if I had just bought one and handed it to him.  

Dave is thinking of selling his '95 (something about making room for more GTS1000s?) and I could probably make that happen for myself, for about the same amount of dollars I would spend having the FJ's motor rebuilt.  (I will still do that also, but I may buy another bike first if that other bike can be a 916.)

Carey, maybe see if he'll switch with you for a spell.  If he doesn't this spring, I'll switch with you in the fall.

[ribbert]

Between being a bit sedentary lately, and injuring a hip working on the house in June, and a knee that makes enough noise lately that it's audible over my footsteps walking uphill, I'm not the most agile guy anymore myself.  But I must be lucky, because these things just fit me right.

I did some sit-up-n-beg on Dave's Fazer last month, and it was a neat enough bike, but I was chilly in a non-riding-gear jacket and I frankly wasn't having a super time.  The 5-valve felt nice enough, and I can remember what that sort of top-end rush was like when it was new.  (John the Beer Scientist got a Maxim X brand-new back when those were brand-new, which was the Fazer engine in a shaftie cruiser.  It was the first really new bike I got to spend any time with, and it was like the Millenium Falcon making the jump to light speed.)  But riding the Fazer I was thinking "I hope I'm just tired and grumpy, because if not, it might be that I just don't like riding motorcycles very much any more."

But when we switched, it was a completely different experience.  The 916 just fits me.  Dave's has bar risers, Andrew's has lower bars but a Sargent seat so it's about a wash, comfort-wise, and I just like the riding position.  Also, I love the light weight, the suspension response, the places it's narrow, the places it's broad.  Even if it didn't adore the bike's looks, I'd still love riding it.  And even if it didn't make the power it makes, it just feels great at speed.

But it DOES look how it looks, and it IS pretty damn quick - it's got FJ power, but it weighs about 120lbs less, and it sounds as good as it looks.  Dave's factory one is stout enough and it makes a great thrum, but Andrew's with the Leo Vince pipes feels like it pulls harder especially up top.  And the forward lean seems to be counterbalanced by the wind on your helmet and chest, so at fast-highway speeds the bike disappears and it's just like that dream you had as a kid where you're flying.

And because of the looks, and the noise, and the anticipation, riding it is kind of an event....  You're a bit of a rock star on one of these, just by the way it looks and sounds.  And when it comes on the cam and vaults you forward with a howl from the exhaust, you sort of become the god of speed, and of thunder, and you start to feel the need to coin a phrase that amounts to "HOLY FUCKING SHIT!" only it should ideally last longer and get progressively louder and more vehement, like the engine as it pulls toward the big end of the tach. I don't know, maybe "Holy fucking fucking FUCKING FUCKING FUCK!!" Man, I need to find some more swear words to come at the end of that.   Riding Dave's, even without the extra racket, I never wanted to stop riding it, "where are we, Memphis? Where's the ocean? Let's go ride to an ocean."  Riding Andrew's is like surfing a wave of outrageous thunderous speed.

I'm old and creaky, and I didn't start to think "all right, I've had enough, I'm ready to be done" until after about 16 hours on the road last year, and that's because it was cold out and I really don't like being cold.  Get me on one of these things when it's nice out?  Seriously, I might never want to stop.  (Reminds me - it's my squishy FJ seat that is the first thing to pain me; a Sargent seat will probably put me back into the 'let's never stop riding' mode on the FJ.)  

Andrew and I left the Fall rally that Sunday and went across the Cherohala and then down 28, and we had a lot of the road to ourselves - a lot of empty clear roads, and we both had the newest stickiest tires either of us have ever had the opportunity to push.  (ME-Z8s for me, Battleaxe radials on the EX500.  The Ducati tires are stickier, but neither of us have yet had the chance to really work one of those.  Yet.)  We had the exact right pace, enough to work the bikes a bit but not enough to give ourselves a "moment," and when we stopped for gas we agreed that "this was about the most fun we have ever had on motorcycles, in an entire lifetime of having fun on motorcycles."  And all I can think of now is "oh man, just you wait."  He is gonna enjoy the hell out of this thing, in a way that he never could have if I had just bought one and handed it to him.  

Dave is thinking of selling his '95 (something about making room for more GTS1000s?) and I could probably make that happen for myself, for about the same amount of dollars I would spend having the FJ's motor rebuilt.  (I will still do that also, but I may buy another bike first if that other bike can be a 916.)

Carey, maybe see if he'll switch with you for a spell.  If he doesn't this spring, I'll switch with you in the fall.

So, tell us Bill, did you like it?

[Klavdy]

I love you, Bill.

[Motofun]

Sport bikes, cruisers, hell even choppers can all be great...just takes turning the mental switch to the proper channel.....unless you're Carey with a revolting body.

[carey]

Carey, maybe see if he'll switch with you for a spell.

I'll "borrow" some of Henry's Geritol that day