Monday 1-20-14

[Bob]

I didn't count but I think we had 10 bikes on this ride. Lessee--Broz, Ed, Don, Beachy, Sam, and I met up at the Halfway Hardware and rode Old 18 to Morganton where we met up with Brick, Lee Davis, Chris Jernigan, and Gary Lackey. Yep, 10 bikes. Brick led us on a novel variation of the Lake James loop which took in Piedmont Rd., 181, Fish Hatchery Rd., and 126--culminating at Bruce's in downtown Marion. After assorted Bruces burgers, Reuben sandwiches, etc. (which were quite tasty), Lee led Ladd (thats a mouthfull) and Sam southwest around Lake lure, while Broz, Don, Ed, and I retraced 126 and then took 90 & 268 towards Wilkesboro, then south thru Russell Gap to Taylorsville and home via Catawba & 16. Apparently Brick, Chris J., Chris C., and Gary Lackey....went somewhere, lol. I'll let brick fill in those blanks and I think he also took a pic. I only took one at the Gate. The weather was gorgeous, warming up almost to 70F!!

[Brick]

Oh yea, it was a super day for a ride!
Like Bob said 10 bikes left the Gate station in Morganton for a brisk jaunt over to Marion and Bruce's Fabulous Foods. Good stuff!
Chris and January Clapp joined us for lunch. After lunch which when you get 12 people always takes longer than expected, Gary Lackey headed for home and Chris, Jan, Chris and I rode down to Lake Lure. Bat Cave had some "chat"... Ok sand and crap on it but its always fun anyway. After a brief stop at the General store in Lake Lure we meandered back to Morganton.
Great day!
Thanks to all it was good to see you all again!
BTW: I want you all to know that Professor Davis gave me a B+ for my route today. [THUMBS UP SIGN]
I go for additional remedial training to polish my routing skills before my up coming trip to ride Baja, Mexico!


Brick

[Bob]

B-plus? Hell brick I'd give you at least an A-minus lol. It was flawless except for those "via points" that kept announcing. Now i'd love to see your rendition of the Baja route....

[Brick]

Well the Baja route... I'll send it to you but it's pretty easy. I'm taking the first day and just getting 500 miles southeast if here. Then it's some back roads across AL, MS and LA. Tx we go just north of Houston and actually we may stop at Colin Edwards, the Texas Tornado's Boot Camp just to say Hi. Then we get to ride one of the three sisters in the Texas Hill country. After that it is over to San Diego.
I'm still working on it but it will send it to you when it's more done.


Brick

[Ed]

A great day to be out & about with a group, for sure... I'd vote for something a bit less "fabulous" for lunch next time, in the interest of getting back on the road more quickly although the chow was as tasty as advertised. Enjoyed the ride!

[Marc K]

Great report ! I would have liked to ride but my FJR is down with the classic FJR ignition switch failure. (Gen I not in the Yamaha recall) I will be down until new switch arrives. Next time y'all cut through Lake Lure stop at Lake Lure Smokehouse. Debbie & Tim Turner the place and are great. Debbie is a long time rider.

[Bob]

Great report ! I would have liked to ride but my FJR is down with the classic FJR ignition switch failure. (Gen I not in the Yamaha recall) I will be down until new switch arrives. Next time y'all cut through Lake Lure stop at Lake Lure Smokehouse. Debbie & Tim Turner the place and are great. Debbie is a long time rider.

Yeah, we were "attacked" by Debbie last time in there, lol. She followed us outside and bs'd for a while, obviously wanting to ride somewhere. See ride report-->> http://cofsta.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=200

Hope the feejer isn't down too long. Good weather is just around the corner.

[Ed]

Lake Lure Smokehouse

Yep- as Bob sez, that's one of our semi-regular "lunch" destinations and a good spot

[LeeDavis]

Great day and liked the new lunch place - a keeper. After the Gate I was about 7th or so in line and it was very cool seeing all the bikes in front of me snake through the twisties. Ladd and Sam wanted their money's worth so when everybody split up we put the hammer down and stayed with the route. No messing around - we finished a little before 4pm.

[Bob]

After the Gate I was about 7th or so in line and it was very cool seeing all the bikes in front of me snake through the twisties.

That really is a neat view. And it seems no matter how many bikes we have, we maintain a fairly tightly spaced herd. Makes it even funner.

Next time maybe you can get some video of the "snaking bikes". That camera takes good vids.

[LeeDavis]

I would have liked to ride but my FJR is down with the classic FJR ignition switch failure. (Gen I not in the Yamaha recall) I will be down until new switch arrives.

Same thing happened with my FJR. If you get tired of waiting, drill out the 2 screws that hold on the switch back plate and you'll see a loose wire. Solder it back, replace the screws with generic 3mm and you're good to go.

[Marc K]

Great report ! I would have liked to ride but my FJR is down with the classic FJR ignition switch failure. (Gen I not in the Yamaha recall) I will be down until new switch arrives. Next time y'all cut through Lake Lure stop at Lake Lure Smokehouse. Debbie & Tim Turner the place and are great. Debbie is a long time rider.

Yeah, we were "attacked" by Debbie last time in there, lol. She followed us outside and bs'd for a while, obviously wanting to ride somewhere. See ride report-->> viewtopic.php?f=4&t=200

Hope the feejer isn't down too long. Good weather is just around the corner.

Thanks Bob. i thought I saw Debbie mentioned before. She is a....character ! I have the triple clamp on the fJR apart and waiting on the switch. Weather looks like no riding for a while. Down to zero by Friday here on the mountain.

[Bob]

I have the triple clamp on the fJR apart and waiting on the switch....

I had to do the same on my '06 FJR a few years ago. What a pain. Seems like I had to cut off or drill out a security screw to get the old switch out....must be pretty widespread.

[Brick]

Hmmm... My 06 FJR did not have that problem.

Re: Debbie... Yes she is a hoot for sure! A friend since the Cajun BBQ... to bad that burned down.


Brick

[Bob]

Hmmm... My 06 FJR did not have that problem.

Neither did mine, lol. After posting that, it dawned on me why I was removing my ignition switch; it was to install my Heli-Bars triple clamp that was supposed to put me in an upright seating position so I could keep the bike. Alas it didn't do enough. My memory is getting a little flakey these days.

But I do remember the recall of my entire dash gauge cluster.

And I still have the oem clamp, in case someone needs a cheap replacement.

[Brick]

Oh yea my dash was replaced right before I got mine... under warranty one of the recalls. I asked the previous owner to get all 3 recalls done. Wish I had not done that one. All it corrected was incorrect estimated fuel consumption. I never used that setting in the dash anyway. So I got an FJR that showed 64 miles when it really had 12,076 miles.


Brick

[beachy]

I would have liked to ride but my FJR is down with the classic FJR ignition switch failure. (Gen I not in the Yamaha recall) I will be down until new switch arrives.

Same thing happened with my FJR. If you get tired of waiting, drill out the 2 screws that hold on the switch back plate and you'll see a loose wire. Solder it back, replace the screws with generic 3mm and you're good to go.

same here twice I added a relay to take the heat out of the switch after the 2nd time,they had a wiring diagram on the fjr forum.

[HaulinAshe]

Very good to see you guys had fun. I was a jealous working stiff.

Lee has done the full ignition switch bypass on his Gen-I FJR before. He can hook you up with details.

[Marc K]

Very good to see you guys had fun. I was a jealous working stiff.

Lee has done the full ignition switch bypass on his Gen-I FJR before. He can hook you up with details.

Thanks I had a bypass rigged on my. Since it's the dead of winter here I'm doing the switch change but leaving a bypass in place in case it happens again while in the middle of nowhere like last time. I'm going to rehab the old switch and keep it as a spare.

[LeeDavis]

Very good to see you guys had fun. I was a jealous working stiff.

Lee has done the full ignition switch bypass on his Gen-I FJR before. He can hook you up with details.

Thanks I had a bypass rigged on my. Since it's the dead of winter here I'm doing the switch change but leaving a bypass in place in case it happens again while in the middle of nowhere like last time. I'm going to rehab the old switch and keep it as a spare.

Try silver solder to re-attach the wire on the old switch. I wish I had done that when I fixed mine but was too lazy to go out and get some so just used regular 60/40 I had in the shop. I think the much higher melting temp of silver solder might remedy the problem "forever" and could actually be better than a new switch.