2 up touring

[Hoblick]

ok so because of my suspension thread i started i have a question for everyone.

who actually rides 2 up loaded with luggage over a great distance.

i mean 2000 miles or so.

what do you ride?

in my other thread asking about suspension ideas i just kept getting get another bike that will handle better blah blah blah.

i love my bike and just want to improve the handling some..

what people dont understand is when you do long trips on a bike you want to be comfortable, especially 2 up, and room on a bike is important. along with a suspension that can handle the weight of a passenger and luggage you bring with you

i had a VFR and that bike was awesome, but when you get 2 people geared up, and then add in hard bags loaded to the gills, and a top trunk the suspension is at its limit of capacity. yeha i could have beefed it up some, but then the factory of room on the bike comes into play as well, being cramped up for thousands of miles isnt pleasant.

[ohiomike]

Wide Glide here, and yes I've gone 2 up on long tips loaded with luggage. At the time I was running lowered Fox billet shocks. Lots of adjustment, but being an inch shorter, a loss in travel. So in some rougher roads it would bottom out. Since mine were put on when the bike was new I still had my stock 12"ers and put them on before heading out west. Was only riding solo, but was fully loaded down. The extra inch of travel made a big difference.

Isn't the Streetglide equipped with air suspension? Maybe your's is too old a model. If it isn't, that might be an option. If thats your bike in the pic it appears to have been lowered? Nice looking scoot. Lowered?

[Hoblick]

yes they are all equipped with air adjustable shocks.

mine is lowered 1.5" front and 1.25" in the rear

the rear shocks are stock oil/air socks revalved, and shortened by Bitchin Baggers

front is progressive rate springs, and shorter damper tubes

love the look, but handling isnt up to par for me, so im gonna be changing the fronts to Progressive mono tube catridge setup, or if the ohlins catridge setup is out, and in my price range ill do them.

as for the rear im still up in the air if i should do progressive 940 shocks, Ricor shocks, or the Ohlins..

im gonna loose the lowered look, but its a price to pay for better handling

[ohiomike]

Might look at the shotgun suspension. Its supposed to be great.

[Hoblick]

never heard of it

i just got off the phone with motorcyclemetal.com guys name is davie..

he sets up some insane suspension setups with ohlins stuff

but he is a jerk off on the phone.

he knows his shit, but all he does is say everyone elses products are "fucking Junk" in those words

even though i really like the ohlins setups he sets up and sells, i probably wont buy from him, cause he is a jack ass.

[cOoTeR]

Not really helpful but I rode my friends streetglide for around 360 miles going 2up and it was less comfy than the cbr I had. It seemed to ride rough and the seating position destroyed my lower back. The radio and cruise control were freaking sweet though.

[wacky_woodchuck]

I've never done two up touring on a cruiser, but did plenty on my old Ulysses. That was perfect, once I upgraded the springs. It did have a handy preload knob to increase the preload to switch from one up to fully loaded in 30 seconds.

I know you like the lowered look, but if you want comfort, ability to lean it a bit and ability to tour, go back to stock height, get some adjustable air shocks for the rear, so you can toss in a few more PSI when fully loaded. For the front, I'd just get some stiffer springs, set up for rider weight plus some gear (it might be a little stiff just one up and empty) and add the Race Tech emulators, some heavier oil and ride.

The emultors might be "old" tech, but I ran them in my track SV and didn't have an issue running expert at mid-ohio on track days.

[Disclaimer]

Just get a CanAm Spyder RT with a trailer and get it over with

[Flying Brick]

Wife's FJR with the suspension set to hard and a Givi case with backrest works well for us. We'll take turns as rider/passenger and do lots of stretching/standing during the ride. Corban seats and XM radio help a lot too.

[oldschoolsdime92]

I run into the same issue with my Sprint as you did with the vfr. Im not much help but.I'm glad I'm not the only one with the issue.

[ohiomike]

I forgot the shotgun shock system is designed for softtails. Not sure if they have designed it for anything else, but you can check with Drew at http://www.drvtwin.com/.

Good people to deal with. Tell him glideridemike sent you.

[Hoblick]

I run into the same issue with my Sprint as you did with the vfr. Im not much help but.I'm glad I'm not the only one with the issue.

aaaa haaa i knew it wasnt just me lol

[gixxer_joe08]

assuming you dont take 2000 or mile trips every weekend, couldnt you just swap out the rear shocks back to stock just for the long trips? Im am really thinking about selling my gsxr and getting a street glide. I want one bad, and seeing yours makes me want one even more.

[Hoblick]

I could, but i lowered the front too. Im just gonna redo the whole suspension. Stock they ride pretty good when you get the air pressure dialed in on the shocks

[swingset]

I do the majority of my touring 2-up on my DL1000.

Works great for me, and we generally mix the ride up with light trails, gravel roads, twisties, etc...so I need a bike that can do all that.

[Pfloydgad]

I have been riding longer then I have known my wife. She has ridden with me for our 32 yrs of knowing each other, but never, ever on a tour ride. Even when I had Wings in my stables, she just has never been interested in longer tours.

One reason is possibly because she falls asleep in about 10 minutes of riding. I had arm bars on my Wings, just to keep her partially upright when we would ride.

And to tell you the truth, I Love to ride and camp, period, her idea of roughing it, is Room Service.

So I ride and tour solo, what are you going do?

Ride safe all.

Greg

[JBWalker]

2 up loaded with luggage over a great distance.

i mean 2000 miles or so. what do you ride?.

DL1000 v-strom. 81k on the clock. works ok for me.

[foster]

My street glide is stock suspension all around. While I wish it handled better for a spirited ride the long 2-up touring (trip to Maine, and one to Deal's Gap) we have done has been comfortable. I've got a sundowner seat and am thinking about adding a backrest for me.

[Hoblick]

just ordered progressive mono tube fork cartdige kit, and progressive 940 ultra touring shocks.. i should be good to go lol

[IN_NO_OH]

It sounds like you're better reassured about firming up your present ride, Hoblick. In case it's still of general interest, though, I have to say that it's surprisingly difficult to find a motorcycle that is capable of carrying two people and luggage comfortably on long rides.

Just about every bike has a pillion platform, of course. But it's unusual to find a bike in which the pillion is more than an afterthought, much less one that leaves room for a passenger to ride comfortably for hours at a go. A bike has to have room for two adults to sit comfortably, with some adjustment possible, room for enough luggage to take the trip, and the capacity to carry all that without adversely affecting handling. There just aren't many motorcycles designed to provide all of these things well. Full passenger room alone rules out all but a handful of models, and when you demand hard bags and high weight capacity you don't have a lot of bikes to choose from.

A Beemer RT-- my bike-- is one of the able tourers. A Gold Wing was, obviously, another, but the two-wheeled Accord wasn't for me. Honda has the ST, but there were a few reasons I thought the Beemer was a better choice. Even the Beemer K's seemed aimed more at the rider wanting a sport ride for the weekend with the ability to do a longer ride once in a while. For me, anyway, the K bikes wouldn't have been as comfortable on a long ride.

An FJR's another bike in this area, but it's set up pretty aggressively for the rider. Not everyone would want to perch that way all day. It's also just a five-speed, which is to me an extremely annoying design element in a sport touring bike. Someone above's got a Kawi Connie, and he can say more about that bike than I can.

Harleys are probably the most common choice for two-up long range riding, but I don't know much about them. I do know that substantial numbers of Harley owners say that the bikes are really comfortable for them and their passengers for a long day's tour. I've only heard people say that commonly about their Wings or an RT.

I've taken a couple of rides out to the east coast this summer. I see a ton of newer Road Glides at the rest stops. They carry some pretty big people on occasion, too. I'm more than convinced they're a comfortable ride.

I don't know about the Street Glide, but since you're already riding one you know whether you're comfortable on it for a longer ride. If your passenger can sit on the thing for two or three hours already then she can probably handle a day's ride.

The suspension mods seem like a good idea. To be honest, though, the questions I'd have about the SG-- and again this is without doing any investigating at all-- is whether it would pull hard enough to keep up the speed climbing mountains on the interstate and whether you'd get worn out without more wind protection.

As you must well know, one of the longstanding issues with some Harleys is that they aren't so happy making high speed with a load for a long time, but then again the newer bikes make respectable horsepower for a touring rig so this issue might be resolved. Again, I'd assume you know the details. The wind-- well, when I got my RT I was thinking seriously about two-up longer rides and I wanted lots of wind protection. You're already on the SG, so you know what the wind's like.

Good luck. I hope you're out enjoying your tours soon.

[wicked94s10]

You think the fjr is setup agressivly? What are you an eighty year old lady? Have you owned or toured on one?

Now back to the subject at hand what kind of seat do you have that makes a huge difference when touring

[buildit]

Get a gold wing like so the old lady can sit in the recliner on back. Seriously, two up, normal sized Americans with luggage going long distance? Goldwing. There isn't another bike out there set up for creature comfort like they are. At least not that I've ever seen.

[wicked94s10]

The fjr is the perfect middle for me, tons of power, speed, can hold its own in the corners. But ill say if you just want a two person long distance bike the gold wing tops all

[IN_NO_OH]

You think the fjr is setup agressivly? What are you an eighty year old lady? Have you owned or toured on one?

Now back to the subject at hand what kind of seat do you have that makes a huge difference when touring

I'm someone who's accurately comparing the FJR to other sport-touring bikes suitable for 2,000 mile trips. That would be in keeping with the OP's question at the outset, or, as someone else might say, the topic of the thread, or the subject at hand. I'm not sure what age or sex someone has to be to read an internet thread about motorcycles with good understanding, but presumably you're well within the range. So, I'm at a bit of a loss. All I can do is write an answer; I can't read it for you....

The FJR's got a seat that's narrower than, say, the BMW RT, or a GoldWing, or a Harley Street Glide-- again, bikes that are the paradigm of the long tourers the OP asked about, or are his own make/model-- and the seat slopes forward unlike the perches on these other bikes. The pegs are a bit higher and the bars more forward than on these other rides. Among these bikes-- themselves primary members of a class, again, that would be set by the topic of this thread-- the FJR is set up pretty aggressively, yeah.

That's not a knock on the bike, by the way, or I don't mean it as one, anyway. It's a note to consider about the bike. Which is why I, well..., noted it above.

The FJR is a very strong bike. It's certainly faster than an RT, or the Goldwing, or a Harley, or the Honda ST. If someone and his passenger were comfortable on it, it would be an awesome touring ride.

I have ridden one, but not in a way that taught me anything much about the bike. A couple guys I know who have ridden the FJR a while, though, were impressed with it.

If you're seriously asking about the BMW RT seat, or in case anyone else cares, I have to say I don't know what to make of the seat by itself. It's all right, just the stock seat that was the 'comfort' option in earlier years. It's good enough that with the RT riding position I've been comfortable on 500-mile days. But then, it's imperfect enough that I think it might be worth buying another.

Anyway, OP's doing the Harley suspension improvements on the SG, in the end, and, again, I think that can work out for two-up comfort as well as anything.