How's the touring?

[Dirt Nasty]

Hey everyone,

Looks like there are no FTR touring specific posts yet, so I thought I'd start one. What have your touring experiences been? I'm wondering about your:
- Daily range
- How the seat felt or what seat you're on (could you walk after? lol)
- How were the ergonomics after a full day?
- How many girls flashed you?
- Is she stable with a side wind due to its weight?
- How'd you set yourself up for luggage?

Or anything else you can think of. But a thread to compare notes on this subject as i know many of us want to tour on the FTR.

Dirt

 

[K9F]

Return from Germany 560 miles in a single day 13 hours in the saddle to include the Channel Tunnel. Have a rack and a tank bag fitted. Had a 20 litre Kriega mounted on a 30 litre on the rack. Air Hawk seat fitted for comfort. Extended the SAE battery tender/charger socket up the frame to the left hand side of the seat and fitted a double USB to SAE adaptor to keep both my sat nav and Sena communication set working over the prolonged period. Got home no aches or pains but mentally fatigued.

 

[Max Kool]

I recently did a multi day trip around SoCal, in the saddle from 9 to 4-5ish. Apart from a little bumsore after 2PM it did perfectly fine. And the sore I did have went away after a 15 min stop to fill up and smoke a cigaret. On a tracker seat btw.

Ergonomics? Perfect.
No girls flashed at me, they all think I'm a soon to be granddad
Perfectly stable. As a matter of fact, being a heavy bike withou a fairing makes it more stable than one with a big screen (Nope, no screens on my bikes). Or a super light bike.
Luggage? Ughhh little backpack, that's all.

I love it, that's clear I guess


One consideration though, where I live now it never rains. Riding a naked in the rain is way more uncomfortable than on a bike with a fairing.

 

[HTull]

I was out in Phoenix for a research workshop at Arizona State University. I bought my RR in Texas and transported to Phoenix soi had something to ride around for the week. After the workshop I rode the bike from Phoenix to San Diego (then shipped it to Hawaii where I live). I was a bit worried about the foot peg position for a long ride as my knees are a bit cranky now that I’m pushing mid 50s, but had absolutely no issue with them. On the seat I put an Airhawk pad as I read some complaints about the hard seat. After a full day of riding, I had no complaint, and highly recommend such a pad for long rides. I strapped a waterproof bag to the passenger seat tying it down using the passenger handles. Between the bag and the seat I had an aluminum plate designed to strap things to the back of your motorcycle. This gave the bag a wider and rigid platform for support. No windshield, never had a need for them. had no problems with this set up and was as comfortable as my Harley Dyna.

 

[JDP]

I rode mine from Maryland to Utah, Arizona area and back no problems at all just my butt was sore but I’m getting an air hawk or something next trip

 

[R. Warshawsky]

Return from Germany 560 miles in a single day 13 hours in the saddle to include the Channel Tunnel. Have a rack and a tank bag fitted. Had a 20 litre Kriega mounted on a 30 litre on the rack. Air Hawk seat fitted for comfort. Extended the SAE battery tender/charger socket up the frame to the left hand side of the seat and fitted a double USB to SAE adaptor to keep both my sat nav and Sena communication set working over the prolonged period. Got home no aches or pains but mentally fatigued.

Don't forget the rain of epic proportions, my friend. That, I am sure, was one helluva ride...

 

[Pmcb41]

I finished a 10 day trip from South Dakota to California and back. 3800 miles. Average daily runs of about 450 miles. You can read about bike setup and some details in my posts. Some things not there: I have cruised in many bikes, recently a RoadMaster and Chieftain. I was very impressed how little the wind bothered me on the FTR. It handle fine even in heavy truck traffic. Maybe one just used to the wind out here. Only road in rain one day and it was fine with rain gear. I had hand cramping a little and sore neck, but my 24 yr old son was just as tired at end of 8-10 hour days. I would ride anywhere on the FTR, the ease of parking and handling in traffic and small areas, combined with the speed and maneuverability, it makes a great tourer.

 

[kungfoojesus]

I put 10,000 American miles a year on the FTR and about 15,000 on the other 3 ladies.

It’s not a bad bike for touring it can be so much worse than an FTR and I see folks do such worse!

Ride what you love. The trips adapt. I do 450, then 350, then 200-300/day for up to a week on the FTR with just a 10L canvas sling pack and a 2L satchel on my leg.

Wear wool and learn to hand wash clothing then ride it dry

When I take my 1290 I over pack 150L of volume and use maybe 20-30% of what I bring!

Don’t let the bike tell you if you can tour. Look into ultralight backpacking, that’s how I get by with 10L and 5lbs of gear at most on my FTR tours.

If I’m going camping I need 30L minimum but that’s because of shelter and insulation, not necessary in an air BnB or hotel what so ever.

Imo the cruise control is what makes the FTR tourable. My S model has adjustable suspension but even if you don’t you can always carry an air pump and just run low psi on interstate runs to save your sit bones from bruising.

 

[Bomverh69]

Interested in this as i will be touring Europe again next year and normal do about 2500 miles on the trip over 7 days.
I've not decided yet on either taking a tailpack on rear seat or buying a rack!

 

[kungfoojesus]

Interested in this as i will be touring Europe again next year and normal do about 2500 miles on the trip over 7 days.
I've not decided yet on either taking a tailpack on rear seat or buying a rack!

The rear rack is heavy and over loading it is a good thing too!

The trellis frame siiiings. The vibrations of the FTR are rough with the mileage you have in mind.

I run extra heavy bar end weights, a “bar snake” bar damper, and yes believe it or not the rack over loads just fine and kills most if not all the vibrations in the seat that cause butt burn for some.

Soften your rear suspension if it’s adjustable and you can lower your psi as low as 10-12 without losing the tire (I wouldn’t run it that low but I have before and it was fine) Obviously it won’t sport well at this pressure.

If you’re fit and stubborn I don’t see the FTR being an issue. My saddleman seat took 3000-4000 miles to get comfortable, not the claimed 500-1000 on their webpage.

 

[kungfoojesus]

Here’s a picture of me I did 1,500 miles in 4 days with everything you see in picture. Air pump/jumper pack tire plugs and tools in waxed canvas sling pack. I cut the handles down on my tools and I got my rain gear from ZPacks.com which fits in a couple pockets but outperforms heavy goretex suits by a mile.

If you want you can tour very light. I use pine tar and bees wax on my leathers, a montbell lightweight jacket insulation layer, a lot of merino wool base layers and neck buff, those pants are AA rated UHWMPE woven Danese etc etc.

I backpacked the entire Appalachian Trail in my 20’s carrying 5lbs of gear and the technology in textiles has only gotten better in past 21 years now that I’m 41.

My helmet is an AGV sport Modular for touring trips and the chin buffer thingy is worth it’s weight in gold on cold mornings, don’t leave it at home lol. Oxford heated grips are a must as well. I use the klim gloves that are light so they dry quickly and rely on heated grips to maintain feeling in my hands instead of heavy gloves. I prefer Klim because they put the visor squeegee on the index finger of the glove for rain.

Pin lock is another MUST have after dark in rain, not part of plan but shit happens.

 

[kungfoojesus]

 

[kungfoojesus]

 

[kungfoojesus]

On that trip my battery died, like died died, my shifter fell off on Wayah road and I had to clamp vice grips on my shifter to finish trip kicking the vice grips to shift, my garmin zumo XT lost battery connection due to corrosion, my fuel float got stuck on the tail of the dragon from leaning the bike left right left too fast and stuck on E permanently. Something else went wrong… (oh yeah I broke off my header side peg feeler, the thing that sticks out the bottom of my Gilles set foot pegs. I didn’t make a single trip to a shop I had everything I needed to finish trip just fine on schedule.

He

 

[kungfoojesus]

Here’s a picture of what breaks a fuel float. I was front wheel off the ground out of every single turn on the dragon… not advised

 

[kungfoojesus]

Final advice, run a 17/43 sprocket combo if you want to do mostly hwy/interstate. I wouldn’t advise this in the mountains cuz too low revs in second gear for my map pictured above.

I ran a 16/46 combo that trip but should have run a 16/49 tbh. The 16/46 combo (basically stock but shorter wheel base) wouldn’t give me enough to slip my rear tire out a bit on command when rly rly pushing the bike. The FTR doesn’t lean like my 400 or my 890 so I have to slide the ass out on the switch backs to keep up with my friends. The 16/46 would kick the butt out but only if I gave it way too much way too early. It was a bit rough sliding it out only in a steep lean, much prefer the 49 or higher in the mountains where a power slide is easy while near up right

 

[Bomverh69]

The rear rack is heavy and over loading it is a good thing too!

The trellis frame siiiings. The vibrations of the FTR are rough with the mileage you have in mind.

I run extra heavy bar end weights, a “bar snake” bar damper, and yes believe it or not the rack over loads just fine and kills most if not all the vibrations in the seat that cause butt burn for some.

Soften your rear suspension if it’s adjustable and you can lower your psi as low as 10-12 without losing the tire (I wouldn’t run it that low but I have before and it was fine) Obviously it won’t sport well at this pressure.

If you’re fit and stubborn I don’t see the FTR being an issue. My saddleman seat took 3000-4000 miles to get comfortable, not the claimed 500-1000 on their webpage.

I will probably cheap out and go with tail pack. we stay in Hotels so can pack very light even for 7 days.
Here is my 1200 monster from last year hoping to repeat with the FTR

 

[kungfoojesus]

I will probably cheap out and go with tail pack. we stay in Hotels so can pack very light even for 7 days.
Here is my 1200 monster from last year hoping to repeat with the FTR

The tail rack rly rly helps a lot with vibrations of the big american vtwin built to spin. Dunno I'm only 150lbs so I don't contribute much to damping with my own mass, your results may vary.