I too met FJ at the SW rally in '11. My first impression of him, after we shook hands, setting at Dwight's dining room table behind his laptop was he truly is the smart mouth geek I thought him to be. We did a Fri. ride with a few people and he stayed right on my tail all the way through the first curves coming out of Prescott with that rental Harley of his. Coming back we stopped at a bar and he gave me a hard time about how slow I was going. Which was true as many here can attest I ride at my own comfort level.
The next day we were getting ready for the big ride and there were a few people around the Harley trying to help him take the back part off the toe to heel shifter be cause he wasn't used to it. You know one of those times where there's about 3 or 4 people trying to do one small job. I asked if the Harley was a rental (I know I'm of those people who sometimes ask stupid questions) and he said in his typical smart reply " No...I bought it just for this rally" But before the rally I also had some contact with him through pm's and I knew his way. That's what made this forum so interesting and fun back then, you never knew what to expect from John but you were sure it would be interesting and sometimes even controversial. He never put up with much BS on the site and would delete your thread if he knew it would insult people or cause hard feelings.
Along with being a pioneer on this site he was also finding ways to improve his TBA. First he had it painted a kind of burnt orange and then he was the first, I believe, to convert it to a belt drive. When he had some problems with the drive he converted it back to chain drive. I know someone has some pictures of his '02 TBA.
I remember how excited he was when the new R-3's came out. He was always talking bout them and was proud when he finally got one.
Friar John was one of a kind and will always be missed here.
