Long distance touring on an XJ

I’m looking at around 6 hours of riding for the CNYCC in a few weeks, and I feel woefully unprepared. I’ve only been riding street bikes for about a year at this point, and I have never attempted a ride longer than maybe 1 hour each way.

Does anyone have tips or pointers for long distances on these bikes? Specifically I’m worried about long highway stretches. Without an overdrive gear on my XJ650, I have to hold the throttle about half open to reach 75 mph. My hand and wrist get tired of that pretty quickly.

 

I've used something similar to this on my KLR when I have to do a long highway stretch. Probably used it on the XJ750 Seca too during my 1800-mile ride to Iowa, but I don't remember for sure. Cheap, easy to store, and easy to take off and on. (mine is a different brand that I got many years ago so I can't speak to this exact one)

https://www.amazon.com/Yourkar-Throttle-Assist-Acceleration-Accelerator/dp/B0D9JGHCHV

Biggest issue will likely be your butt though. I have yet to find a seat on any bike that is comfortable for more than an hour or two. Take frequent breaks.

The 75o took it all in stride though. It was perfectly happy cruising at 75 all day long.

 

Back in the day I did an iron butt run from So Michigan to around the Woodbridge, VA area. Bike ran great, lots of stops and coffee along the way. I was in great shape back then (Service member) but still was feeling the ride for some three days later. as @co.dirtbiker linked, that throttle assist will really help with grip fatigue.

Depending on how long the trip is, you will get the tingling feeling in your arms from the XJ. That is only imho. Good luck and be safe.

 

Interesting, I had been on the fence about getting one of those, but I think I’ll give it a try. The grip is the most worrisome part for me, especially since the stock XJ650 grips aren’t very.. “grippy” compared to modern grips. With the leather-on-plastic friction of my current gloves, I have to squeeze annoyingly hard to hold the throttle open so far. And I certainly agree about the seat. I love the soft seat on my Maxim, but after an hour it still feels like I’m sitting astride a log.

The tingling is an interesting one, Timbox. My XJ has this harmonic frequency with the engine, where it will get super buzzy between 4500-5000 RPM. That’s around 60-65 mph in top gear, so cruising at that speed makes my arms tingly in minutes. Fortunately it seems if I go faster or slower than that, it is much smoother overall. Will have to try and keep to comfortable speed ranges on this ride.

 

You will find that using that device will help with the tingling if you use it right and loosen your grip on the throttle. My problem is I return to gripping the throttle automatically after awhile.

 

The snap on throttle assist thing definitely helps and its a 5 second install. For trips that long, I'd look at a throttle lock. I've tried the Atlas and the Atlas-China-clone, and they are ok. The work by wedging between the grip and the kill switch control box. A better model has a torque arm that fits around the throttle cable exit. Vista was one brand, but I don't know if they're around anymore.

The biggest benefit to the lock is taking your cold throttle hand off the grip on a chilly ride and grabbing a cylinder head for a minute to warm it up.

 

Another grip idea. I use tennis racket grip tape on my motorcycle grips. It is very slightly softer, thicker and provides a "grippier" surface without being too much of any of those. Cheap at WalMart, or at least is used to be. Not real durable as it only lasts about a year but much better than Grip Puppies.

 

Since you're talking about being prepared, make sure you have decent rain gear too. That will guarantee no rain. However, if you don't have it, you'll get rain the whole way. ;-)

Also, an extra set of warm waterproof gloves, even if you think the weather will be nice. Surprising how quickly your fingers can get cold if the temps start to drop.

 

Well, I tried a trip from Pittsburgh to Akron and back (about 4 hours of road time round trip). It was mostly on the interstate, which isn’t what I’ll be doing on my way to CNYCC, but I still got a feel for longer distance rides.

I got a crampbuster for the throttle, which was exactly as helpful as you all said it would be. No more buzzy hand, and I could use a relaxed grip on the bars the whole way. I also packed rain gear, though didn’t wind up needing it.

I did not anticipate how sore my back would be after hours of leaning into the wind at 75 mph. I also learned that my gas mileage is substantially worse at those speeds.. ran out and had to switch to reserve just 88 miles after filling the tank. Will have to keep that in mind for long highway stretches.

 

Something doesn't sound right. I've run my Seca 750 at 75+ all day long and still get at least 45mpg. That usually gets me to at least 160 miles before reserve. I think the tank is around 5 gallons.

 

Interesting. Any idea if the 750 is geared taller? In top gear, 75 mpg corresponds to 6000 RPM. I wasn’t surprised that my mileage got worse when the bike was screaming like that all day. I’ve also colortuned and synched the bike recently, so I’m fairly confident it’s not running too rich.

Edit: oh yeah, and the 650 Maxim only has a 3.4 gallon tank. 2.5 gallons until reserve, so I was getting around 36 mpg.

 

Oh. Didn't realize the tank was so much smaller on the Maxims. That makes more sense then. 36 still seems kinda low for a 650 though. Does it seem like it's running rich?

 

My 900 routinely averages 45mpg (Imperial), so about 40-ish US and it's not driven gently.

 

I think I figured it out. Filled the tank today, after riding about 85 miles on the last leg of my journey yesterday. I easily got 45 mpg across that stretch.

Earlier in the day, it was super windy. I checked my phone’s weather app when I stopped for gas on the way, and it said wind was gusting up to 30 mph. At times, I was definitely fighting a full headwind. I think that’s the reason my mileage was so bad. Kind of amazing that, without that wind, I could get 45 mpg rocking 6k RPM the whole time.

 

Ah yes, that can do it. My KLR 650 normally gets around 55mpg, but I was on a ride once with a long section of highway that we happened to get to during high headwinds. I got the worst mileage ever on that bike of only about 35mpg. Almost ran out of gas because I wasn't expecting so low. I can ride the gnarliest trail and get 50+, but a windy highway sucks it down like crazy.