Motorcycles



I've liked riding motorcycles since I was in 8th grade, when a couple of my friends had dirtbikes.

Dirtbikes are great for learning how to control a motorcycle in all kinds of conditions you'd really want to avoid on the street - especially sliding. Having to learn how to deal with a loose rear end (insert pun here) on a 150-pound dirtbike in, well, the dirt than on a 600-pound streetbike on - you guessed it - the street.



After that, aside from a broken moped I fixed and rode for a couple of weeks (the gas cap didn't shut and it had no brakes, so my shoes wore out quickly), I was motorcycle-less until college, when I inherited/bought my friend's Yamaha 400XS. Air-cooled inline-2. That lasted for a while :



Sometime in college I bought a used Yamaha YX600F Radian. Mine was red. What a great bike. I loved it so much that, after I was in a head-on accident with an idiot which destroyed the bike, I got another one exactly the same.

I'd recommend this bike highly to anyone looking for a medium-powered bike. The power is much less peaky than similarly-sized sportbikes, and max tourque is available at much lower RPMs. It has room for a nice fat back tire - with the Metzeler ME99 in back and the ME33 Laser in the front, the Radian handles much better in the curves than you'd think from looking at it.

After a while, though, I wanted a bike that was a little bigger, with more room for a passenger, that was more comfortable at highway speeds, and had some more wind protection.

I looked around for the right bike - I wanted sportbike-like power and handling, but without the uncomfortable riding position and need for 5-digit RPMs of many sportbikes. I looked at the Yamaha V-Max (which wasn't really what I was looking for but is cool anyway) and came very close to buying a Honda VFR750, which is a very capable bike.

Once I saw the FJ1200, though, I knew that was the one I wanted. I got one (an '86) with 2800 miles on it. It already had an aftermarket Vance and Hines exhaust with individual air filters and a stage 3 jet kit. Not something I'd have done to an already-powerful engine, but fun anyway.

My friend and I convinced each other that we could do a good job painting it. We were wrong (The picture isn't mine, I'll make one soon). Anyway, that was 11 years and 30000 miles ago, and the bike's been great. It's gone 12-18 months without running, a couple of times, and come right back to life after a battery charge. It's fallen off a ramp onto a moving van. It's been great but it's getting old. When I saw the FJR1300 that was released in Europe and Asia a couple of years ago, my jaw dropped. I'd been casually looking at new bikes, especially the Honda CBR1100XX, but none really grabbed my the way my FJ had. Until I read about the new FJR, that is. I wrote letters to Yamaha asking them to sell the FJR here. Lots of people did. Yamaha said, over and over, that they didn't see enough of a market for it.






Well, Yamaha changed its mind at the end of February 2002, and announced that the FJR1300 would be available in the United States in August! It will be here only in silver, and will come with the attached luggage shown in this picture. My Priority Delivery Claim form number is 102380!