things to look for

[jeff2053]

Ok i'm looking at buying a Venture my first I',m looking at a 1999 with 46000 and a 2000 with about the same is there anything that I should look for before buying are there any typical problems with these bikes that I should be aware of or look for before buying i know they are used bike and not new but i can't afford to buy a bike and then have to stick a bunch of money into repairs so I was hoping that some more experienced Venture owners might share some of the problems they may of had.

Thanks for any help

Jeff

[Eck]

Go grab a cold one and read up on it here............

 

 

 

http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1067

[ahoutzer]

1999 was the first year of this model. Those early models sometimes developed cracks in the trunk. Yamaha fixed this by changing the way the trunk is mounted, and they issued an upgrade. So look for cracks especially around the mounting bolts (lift the pad in the bottom of the trunk) and try to determine whether the mount was upgraded. The upgrade was just a set of metal plates under the trunk and on top of the rack, with rubber pads on the plates. These just spread the weight and shock of hard bumps over a wider area.

 

Early model antenna mounting was weak. After these ten years, there is a good chance that the antennae have been replaced, but just check those out.

 

Rear shocks have a tendency to fail. A test ride is the best way to check this out. If the bike bounces like a pogo stick, you will need a new rear shock absorber. Otherwise, it's okay, but just be aware that this has always been a weak point on this bike.