motorcycles, technology, music, business

Riding in on my way to work this morning, the question danced across my mind: Have I finally found the bike within my bike? That bike that is smooth, predicable, and ride-able?

Perhaps I have.

I first rode my step-father’s 2008 Yamaha FZ1 and loved it. It was the sportiest bike I had ever ridden to that point and it, by comparison to my 2006 Harley-Davidson Sportster 883, was sporty. Yet it was also practical for around town and long(er) trips.

After returning from that wonderful trip, within a week I had posted my Sportster for sale on Craigslist, and within a month or so I had purchased a used 2006 Yamaha FZ1 from a nice gentlemen in upstate New York via eBay. I was very excited to get the bike and really enjoyed its power and handling.

Relatively soon after buying it I started playing with the suspension and geometry to get it to handle better and at the beginning of the next season I did my best to set-up the suspension right. Also, soon after I got the bike I noticed that the throttle response at roll on was rather snatchy. I thought, and had hoped, the Ivan’s FCE (Fuel Cut Eliminator) would resolve this. After receiving an FCE via a generous Christmas gift, I installed it and liked what I felt.

Within just a few months of having this bike I had taken the time to adjust the suspension and geometry and also try to make some fueling modifications. My tweaks would work for most of that season, but as I got more experienced riding a sport bike, I started to want a better cornering experience. It took some time, but I figured out that I couldn’t trust my bike while it was leaned over because the throttle was so snatchy that I was afraid it would push me right out of the turn when I rolled back on the throttle. With that feeling, I couldn’t lean over as far and I would drive one or two gears higher than I wanted in order to not be in the meat of the power range when I rolled back on.

I began to question the FZ1. And I listed it on Craigslist several times but (perhaps thankfully) was unable to sell.

At some point I couldn’t take it anymore, I either needed to fix the problem or sell it. Since selling it and buying a new bike was out of my budget, I decided to try the ECUnleashed service. They should really advertise more, because I think I came across them rather accidentally on an FZ1 forum. The result was bike-saving, in that I didn’t feel the need to immediately sell my bike any more. It even seemed to increase my fuel economy while increasing the power and smoothness.

It was a lot smoother. As I got still more comfortable with it I still felt some of that snatchy throttle though. So, one morning before work I decided to put my FCE back in.

Got the bike opened and reinstalled the Ivan’s FCE in under 50 minutes. I could almost open that thing blind folded now. #FZ1 #fb

— Jeremy Blanchard (@jeremyblanchard) July 13, 2012

Three commutes later, with some rides through the Blue Hills, brings us up to the question posed at the beginning of this post. It seems, at least for now, that the combination of the ECUnleashed ECU and the FCE has resulted in a much smoother power delivery throughout the rev range of my 2006 Yamaha FZ1. I wish I could have sold my FCE to cover some of the cost of the ECU service but alas, I will take a better behaved bike.

My initial thoughts are that the FCE removes a bit of the Unleashed-ness making the bike feel a little less raw. This means that the bike is slightly less exhilarating, but much smoother and predicable mid-corner, which is what I have been shooting for all along.

In short here is my evaluation of the 2006 Yamaha FZ1:

1. Stock – Sell it!
2. FCE – Keep it for a while
3. ECUnleashed – Keep it for a longer while
4. FCE + ECUnleashed – Keep it (at least until your needs or wants change)

I now feel that I have a nice, predictable, yet powerful platform on which I can continue to fine tune various aspects to hone in on a better riding machine for my needs. Before, I didn’t want to try to build on top of a faulty foundation, but now I feel better about the idea of spending some money on certain accessories since I should get some return out of them.

Thanks for reading and happy riding.

On May 22 I posted a “Want ad” of sorts on Craigslist. In short, I was hoping to borrow or rent a Triumph Daytona 675 for a few hours. You can read this earlier post for more details.
After a week, and after I had given up I heard from someone willing to let me borrow their Daytona. Awesome!! I wrote about it in this post.
After weeks of waiting and bad weather on the weekends, he needed to bring it up from the cape on the weekend, this person has rescinded his original offer. He stated that he didn’t want to accept the liability of someone else riding his motorcycle.

So after a month, my social media experiment almost succeeded but in the end failed. I am fairly certain it would have succeeded had the weather been better on the weekends. He would have allowed me to ride his Daytona without having rethought about his insurance.

So, I still haven’t ridden a proper sport bike and probably won’t until I am able to schedule a test ride through the dealer.

Even though my experiment was a failure, I would try something like this again using social media. It has great opportunity to work.

Thanks for reading and happy riding.

Last Saturday I posted an experiment on Craigslist. For those of you who would rather not read my previous post about it I will recap:

-recap-
I have been day dreaming of riding and potentially owning a Triumph Daytona 675. I have never ridden a proper sport bike and the fact that I am interested in one is an interesting progression in my riding since I initially started down the Harley-Davidson cruiser path. There are no places to rent non-cruisers in New England and especially no places to rent the Daytona 675. The only place I found that does rent them is in Utah. I did price out my various options including flying to Utah and decided that I wasn’t ready to invest that much time and money just yet.
I awoke one morning with an interesting idea which I immediately put to digital ink. I would post on Craigslist a want ad for renting or borrowing a Daytona 675.
-/recap-

After posting my want ad to Craigslist I did not invest much hope that it would work out, but it couldn’t hurt, right? A day or so after the posting of said ad I received an email. Don’t get too excited, as this email was a tip to give a local Triumph dealer a call and ask for a test ride. I considered this option but it wasn’t ideal in that the test ride would probably be short and being a new bike it would not be able to be revved past 5K. That being said I put it on the back burner.

About the point that I had given up on the ad, it had been five or so days, I receive an email from a gentleman in Cambridge who is in the process of selling his 2006 Triumph Daytona 675. He offered to let me borrow it, for multiple days, only paying for the fuel that I use. How awesome is that?!! We have textually (via email) agreed and I should be able to borrow his bike, for probably just a day, in the first half of June. Perhaps even on my birthday!

I am surprised to say that my experiment seems to be producing a positive result. I will post an update once I am actually able to ride the bike and I will also be giving a ride report as a separate entry I am sure. After all my involvement in social media it may be actually paying dividends for me personally.

Needless to say I am very excited that it appears I have made a connection through Craigslist and that I will get to ride the bike which has been of so much interest to me.

thanks for reading and happy riding.