Pretty good summation of my feelings as well. I traded a Honda NC700 that I used for everything for 5 years and 60k miles for an FJ-09 because I got a little bored and thought the FJ would be a bit more fun.bruinTENEREguy said:- I rode the FJ-09 for 9500 miles and got sick of buffeting, crappy seat, vibration, a bunch of other little things that bothered me.
- I thought of putting a bunch of $$$ in it to upgrade everything, but decided to buy a used FJR to try it out for a while, as maybe an FJR would have those problems
rectified from stock.
And it was. A lot of fun.
But... so many little issues. On longer trips the wind protection (even with a Madstad screen) and the ADD / hyperactive character became annoying. The suspension was ok for me (light years better than the NC700), but not as good as it should / could have been, IMO. The vibrations and buzziness didn't bother me at first, but after buying 3 sets of different bar ends and performing multiple TB syncs to calm them down I started to obsessively focus on them all the time. It was great on my commute but I couldn't help but think if that's all it really excelled at why didn't I buy the lighter and even more fun FZ-09?
It was a good bike, and I think it was just a bad fit for me -- too far down the sporty, minimalist road. I put up with it for a year, trying to convince myself I liked it before selling it and getting a great deal on my Tenere. Zero regrets -- the Tenere is a much better fit for me and the riding I do.
trey