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275 Posts
I was hoping I wouldn't hate my 09 after the first long trip, especially with no windshield, but we both did great. I left 10/24 at noon and got home 10/28 at 3pm. Total mileage was 2280 miles! 3 days were over 500 miles. The bike has 5278 miles now! Do I get a prize for highest mileage in the first month?
I don't normally ride nearly this much, but the new bike has just been so much fun. At least maybe this shows that there probably aren't going to be any major new bike issues, as nothing has gone wrong. Even the chain has just finally stretched enough to need adjustment.
I went through Owens Valley, CA, a lot of northwest Nevada, northeast CA, and a little bit of Oregon. Also a little bit of Death Valley. Temperatures were from 28 to 78 degrees. I had a lot of wind at times, not much fun, and some rain with 39 degree temps with wet gloves, really not fun.
I was using my Tourmaster heated jacket liner and heated chaps. The bike seemed to be able to power all that no problem but the charging system probably wouldn't keep up below 3500 rpm or so. I need to check what rpm it takes to break even.
This really is a comfortable enough bike for 10 hour days, at least for me, although the seat got painful but not unbearable. With a windshield and seat mods it will be almost perfect. I do need to build or buy a rear rack of some kind so I can carry a larger seat bag.
The bike ran great the whole time, started immediately every time, even on 25 degree mornings. Gas mileage averaged 52.7 mpg. Mostly I was just cruising 65-70 mph and then twisting on the throttle a lot in appropriate twisty sections. I was checking the mpg gauge on the bike every fillup and found that it is really inconsistent. Pretty disappointing as I was using it to estimate how much fuel I had left, since I don't like to trust fuel gauges on bikes.
It doesn't seem to use any oil. The synthetic Spectro 10w40 I put in at 1200 miles hasn't gone down at all in 4k miles.
The small tank, 4.1 gallons after mods, wasn't really a problem except the time my GPS swore there was gas in Denio, NV. They hadn't had gas in over a year. My low fuel was already flashing and it was 98 miles to gas in Winnemucca and it was almost dark. And getting really cold. A really kind soul who worked in the restaurant there offered to drive 5 miles home to get a can of gas for me. I hate to put people out but I had no other options. She tried to charge me 7 dollars for 2 gallons but I made her take a 20, she didn't want to take it though. Saving me from freezing to death was worth at least 13 dollars.
I know some of you will think I'm nuts for thinking this is some kind of touring bike, especially since Yamaha kind of ruled that out, with the small tank. I just really like the bike and tend to do what I want with my bikes even if it takes a little creativity to get the details right. I'm so picky and I've rejected so many bikes in the past, that when I find one I really like I try to get it to be my do everything bike. No regrets so far.
I got a bunch of photos on the trip, I will post some up when I get more energy.
I'm already thinking about a 9-10 day trip late next spring. With windshield!
I don't normally ride nearly this much, but the new bike has just been so much fun. At least maybe this shows that there probably aren't going to be any major new bike issues, as nothing has gone wrong. Even the chain has just finally stretched enough to need adjustment.
I went through Owens Valley, CA, a lot of northwest Nevada, northeast CA, and a little bit of Oregon. Also a little bit of Death Valley. Temperatures were from 28 to 78 degrees. I had a lot of wind at times, not much fun, and some rain with 39 degree temps with wet gloves, really not fun.
I was using my Tourmaster heated jacket liner and heated chaps. The bike seemed to be able to power all that no problem but the charging system probably wouldn't keep up below 3500 rpm or so. I need to check what rpm it takes to break even.
This really is a comfortable enough bike for 10 hour days, at least for me, although the seat got painful but not unbearable. With a windshield and seat mods it will be almost perfect. I do need to build or buy a rear rack of some kind so I can carry a larger seat bag.
The bike ran great the whole time, started immediately every time, even on 25 degree mornings. Gas mileage averaged 52.7 mpg. Mostly I was just cruising 65-70 mph and then twisting on the throttle a lot in appropriate twisty sections. I was checking the mpg gauge on the bike every fillup and found that it is really inconsistent. Pretty disappointing as I was using it to estimate how much fuel I had left, since I don't like to trust fuel gauges on bikes.
It doesn't seem to use any oil. The synthetic Spectro 10w40 I put in at 1200 miles hasn't gone down at all in 4k miles.
The small tank, 4.1 gallons after mods, wasn't really a problem except the time my GPS swore there was gas in Denio, NV. They hadn't had gas in over a year. My low fuel was already flashing and it was 98 miles to gas in Winnemucca and it was almost dark. And getting really cold. A really kind soul who worked in the restaurant there offered to drive 5 miles home to get a can of gas for me. I hate to put people out but I had no other options. She tried to charge me 7 dollars for 2 gallons but I made her take a 20, she didn't want to take it though. Saving me from freezing to death was worth at least 13 dollars.
I know some of you will think I'm nuts for thinking this is some kind of touring bike, especially since Yamaha kind of ruled that out, with the small tank. I just really like the bike and tend to do what I want with my bikes even if it takes a little creativity to get the details right. I'm so picky and I've rejected so many bikes in the past, that when I find one I really like I try to get it to be my do everything bike. No regrets so far.
I got a bunch of photos on the trip, I will post some up when I get more energy.
I'm already thinking about a 9-10 day trip late next spring. With windshield!
