I did about 250 miles on an FJR1300 rental yesterday, and it's definitely an impressive ride. The bike I'm on is a 2004 and I definitely noticed a difference between the throttle return springs on it and the 2008 I demoed. That was my only complaint for the day, the sore wrist I had from trying to feather the throttle on and off throughout the day. I took it on some nice twisty roads, with the wife, and a solo ride after I dropped her off at Dwight's house in Prescott. It does take a bit of effort to get the bike to lean over in the turns, but definitely not as much effort as my Speedmaster. The 85 ft/lbs of torque the FJR has makes the bike easy to ride in top gear. Just roll on the throttle at 3,000 rpm and the bike responds.
Another highlight was how stable the bike is at speed and in a crosswind. Up in the mountains it was blowing about 20 mph, and although you could feel the wind, the bike didn't twitch at all.
There definitely would be some changes I'd want to make to the bike. There's an easy fix for the throttle spring on the FJR website that eases the tension on it. I'd also add highway pegs, some kind of back rest or top case for my wife, plus some other touring odds and ends like a cruise control.
I thought about the ST1300/Pan European, but Honda still hasn't done anything about the heat coming off the motor and cooking the rider. Yamaha made some changes to their bike in 2006 to get the heat away from the rider. There's also enough complaints about high speed wobbles of the Honda with a top case on, that it steers me away from the bike. Besides, the magazine comparos done with it up against the FJR sees the Honda losing nearly everytime, especially when it comes to performance. I like to ride the twisty roads, and the FJR is a better bike for that from all I've read. It also helps that the FJR uses regular unleaded, while the Honda requires premium.
