I recently did a road trip to Chicago from Minneapolis and loved it. The bad thing about this trip is I did it on a Concours1400 (GTR1400) so I was in the lap of luxury he whole way. I want to do more trips like this. I know the VFR is easily capable of this as I have seen people doing coast to coast trips on their steeds. I do enjoy the weekend throw down on the back roads as well and commute as much as possible during riding season . Though I save the knee down stuff for the track and my RC51. Lots of the trips I want to do would be to ride awesome roads all across the fruited plain. Now I'm tempted to try and switch out the VFR for an FJR1300 or ST1300. I don't know that I should though. The VFR is more than capable with the right equipment. I don't have an SO so passenger comfort isn't much of a concern though I do like to think ahead (I'm not in any danger of an SO anytime soon either). I'm interested in any experience or suggests you have to make the VFR changeable to be a little more focused when it needs to be. Currently my mods are as follows
SW-Motech Aero semi rigid bags. They aren't fully hard but I had the same on my Ducati Hyperstrada and they were great. I can get big hard luggage later if I need it. A big tail bag will do for now I think.
Oxford heated grips
Either Genmar or Helibars (leaning toward Genmar so I can take them off quickly for play time)
power socket
Phone mount
Other things I thought about were a MRA Touring adjustable spoiler for the windscreen and a seat of some sort. I sat on a Sargent 6th gen seat and wasn't impressed. My two complaints about the stock seat are its is slopped down in the tank and it slowly cuts of blood flow to my legs on the inside of my thighs. I would like to swap that D&D out for something that has a silencer option, like a 7th get Arrow pipe or something (I like Arrow stuff).
An ST1300 will eat up some highway miles, for sure! When I had mine, I had to make a quick 600 trip down to So Fla and I knocked it out in 1 fuel stop! 300 miles per tank on the highway! Of course you need a 300 mile A%& to go with that... :goofy:
As for the VFR, I have travelled with 3 GIVI bags and I tend to fill up whatever space is available. I've since done trips with just a tank and tail bag. Better gas mileage!
The 5th Gen Sargent is pretty good, IMO. Much better than the ST1300. It's a lot wider than stock and a bit dished. I bring up the ST seat because they can be different on different bikes. I bought the ST seat based on how much I liked the 5th Gen, but wasn't thrilled. I even had one on my SP1! Much better than stock there!
Don't know about the screen spoiler. People seem to like them. I've used the GIVI touring screen. I seem to remember liking it fine, but sold it a long time ago when I thought I was done touring... :rolleyes: I had a cheap Chinese double bubble type that was really good until I totaled the bike and the screen along with it. I'm back to stock at the moment, which is fairly ok for me.
Heated grips are great! Never used raised bars, so can't comment on either option.
Phone mount and power socket is always good! I like the RAM Mount X Grip. It works great in my work truck, and I occasionally swap it onto my VFR. I like the RAM Mount ball on the tank bolts.
And DMr suspension is great too. I have a rebuilt 929 shock and he did my forks after I converted the front to mostly SP1 parts.
It would be nice to have Remote Preload for the rear without spending $1000 on the shock.... I heard that someone swapped a 6th gen ABS shock in and put a spacer in to get the length right.
I've had some locally made touring bars on my VFR but I found that with a more upright torso, I was sliding down the stock seat into the tank more often. Modifying the stock seat so it was lower and more dished at the back would fix that I'm sure. The other change I'd suggest is putting lower footpegs on (e.g. Knight Design) to open up the knee bend while riding. With some decent suspension fitted, I have no ground clearance issues with the stock pegs no matter how hard I play, so I doubt that lower pegs would be much of a sacrifice.
It would be nice to have Remote Preload for the rear without spending $1000 on the shock.... I heard that someone swapped a 6th gen ABS shock in and put a spacer in to get the length right.
Once I got mine dialed in I haven't touched it again. If I'm carrying a lot, it's generally just highway, so no big deal.
I believe the person you're thinking of that did the ABS shock swap to get the remote preload adjuster was on a 6th gen. I'm not sure you'd have a direct swap to a 5th gen.
I bought a Sargent seat and found the same as your impressions. It's a single density foam and my a$$ hurt just as much as on the stocker. It cut in to the inner thigh on long rides. After spending more money on it to modify it, I concluded that I would have been better off to have modded the stock seat. A quick search will turn up a number of services that will do that. I had mine done with multiple layers of progressively softer foam so I can go all day on it now.
End of thread · 10 posts recoveredWayback Machine snapshot 25 Aug 2017