Had My First Motorcycle Accident Today

[superscouser]

Ouch ... good to hear you are in one piece. Our prayers are with you and all riders.

 

Be Safe out there.

 

Regards,

David

[Blooz]

Glad you're alright man. Get well soon!

[Dmnordin]

Friday I got a $1600 check from Progressive, and yesterday I borrowed my brother's truck and trailer and bought the 83 parts bike & 1300 engine (still in the frame).

 

I'm getting into the mode of this new project - I'll swap the 1300 into the new parts bike (which has a brand new rear tire!) with hard engine mounts and then swap stuff off of my wrecked bike onto my "new" bike. This way, my "new" bike will have a clean title (instead of a salvage title), and it just doesn't make sense to move chassis parts onto my crashed bike when they're already mounted on the "new" bike.

 

My mechanic friend had traded the new parts bike toward a different venture; he was going to ride it since he didn't have a touring bike at the time. He took all of the plastic (except for the fairing) off and was going to have it all fixed up, but the guy that was going to fix up the plastic disappeared and my mechanic friend lost interest.

 

Hopefully it won't take too long:Venture:.

 

Does anyone have a good source for valve cover gaskets?

 

Doug

[Squeeze]

skydoc_17

 

or

 

www.Partshark.com

 

Some say the 2nd Gen Gaskets are better to work with but if the Bike is Kind of Bare, it shouldn't make much of Difference.

[paysaw]

I am glad you got to tell about your accident.You sound like a good driver.This is one of those events that you need insurance.Take care and ride safe.

[Aussie Annie]

And don't over-stress the injured wrist or elbow:yikes:

[petekadish]

Hi Doug!

 

Wow, sorry to hear about your accident, but glad to hear that you came through it pretty well considering ...

 

I'm almost surprised that I hadn't noticed your previous posts or met you yet. Orem is small enough that I tend to notice Ventures in town. I'm not sure how much help I can offer, but it's always fun to meet other members from this site.

 

I have been riding with the SLC STAR Chapter #152 for about four years now, and have some association with those in the Provo as well. I ride a 2007 Midnight Venture and have put almost 40,000 on it so far - so, I do a fair bit of riding for living in this part of the country. Before my Venture, I road a '96 Royal Star.

 

Are you on FaceBook? I have found that to be a good way to get to know people, share pics, information, etc. It would be fun to connect and to share stories. Please feel free to check me out on F.B. or to send me an E-Mail.

 

Be Safe!

Pete.

kadish@byu.edu

[Dmnordin]

I went to the orthopedic guy for a follow up appt this morning. No broken bones. He said it would take 6+ weeks for the tendon attachment partial separation on my elbow to heal up, and about the same for the stretched ligaments at the base of my thumb and in my wrist.

 

WooHoo! No Cast for 6 weeks.

 

Now all I need to do is tear down these 3 parts bikes & put the good one together! And then hit the road! Actually, it will probably take me a few Saturdays to do the mechanical work. I did work on pre-pulling the 1300 engine tasks for about 3 hours on Saturday, and my wrist was pretty sore after that.

 

Doug

[Dmnordin]

I just heard from the girl's insurance company that they are accepting 100% fault for the accident!!

 

I'm going to pursue getting reimbursed for my helmet damage, Blackberry cell phone damage, and lost massage work money due to my wrist & arm injuries (It will be a couple of months worth of several hours per week of work - can't pay all of my bills without it).

 

Doug

[utadventure]

Doug-

 

Glad to hear of your good news on both the medical and financial fronts!!

 

Dave

[Dmnordin]

Thanks, Dave!

 

I forgot to mention that my insurance agent told me that my rates shouldn't be affected since Progressive will be reimbursed.

 

 

A note to everyone; I encourage you to check your motorcycle policies to see if you have any PIP/Medical coverage, and if you do, how much do you have.

 

I learned that it is not required for motorcycle insurance coverage to include PIP/Medical coverage, and that many times it is not even mentioned when buying bike insurance! Heck, some companies don't even have it available as part of their bike insurance policies!

 

My policy only has $1000 coverage! That's totally pitiful! I have increased it to $25,000 (the max available with my policy), and it'll cost me a mere $125 extra per year.

 

That still isn't enough in my opinion; In 1990, both of my legs were broken when a girl drove into my Blazer door, closing it on my legs since I was about to climb into the Chevy. Life has been hell since that incident - 5 years ago I received a new knee, so life is much improved since then. Anyways, my medical expenses were $98,000, and that was in 1990. I got an insurance settlement between both auto insurance policies of $110,000. I couldn't work for several years, and after I could work, it was very limited how much I could work. It is interesting to note that the type of Femur breaks I had are usually acquired in motorcycle accidents.

 

I've been wanting to post this for a couple of weeks about all y'all checking your policies.

 

Doug Nordin

[Dmnordin]

I've decided that the insurance game just plain stinks.

 

When I was talking with the adjuster from Progressive, he sounded very happy to replace my helmet, blah, blah, blah ... when the rubber hit the road, the "accessory coverage" that was supposed to cover that, and my blackberry that was damaged, was part of the $2000 "agreed value" of my bike, and I got $2000 agreed value - $100, - $300 salvage bike value = a $1600 check (which wouldn't replace the bike, thus I have to build a bike from 3 parts bikes if I want to keep riding). So, all of there happy, happy talk at first about taking care of me was a bunch of,"well, coverage & limitations are only...blah, blah, blah" ...

 

Now that the girl's senior insurance claims rep lady decided that the girl is 100% at fault, - they will pay the lowest internet cost for replacing my helmet because it's safety equipment, but my blackberry will only be paid out on it's current, used value. Did I ask this girl to u-turn in front of me & break my Blackberry? I want it replaced, but that's not what will happen because of the same bunch of, "well, coverage & limitations are only...blah, blah, blah"...

 

I can't wait till we start talking about lost work because of my wrist being injured....

 

Very disappointed & ticked off,

Doug

[Sylvester]

Don't you just hate it when this stuff happens? You are still with us and that is all that is important. After 51 years on a motorcycle, I still hate to hear of accidents. God be with you.

 

[ADC]

Glad you're ok,hope the bike is not too bad,things could have been much worse.

Arthur

[Poledar]

Good on you for not getting hurt anymore than you did! Keep those morning prayers up....sounds like a great idea, especially with those four wheelers on the road! Hope your healing process is short!

POLEDAR:301:

[Dmnordin]

I called "the Advocates" the other day & talked with a Lawyer to get a feel for that route. Apparently he wouldn't make much money from my case; he advised me to follow the course with Farmers and see what happens with the lost wages when my medical portion is closed out, and if things look like they aren't going too good at that point, to call him back.

 

I think this accident thing must be like an traumatic experience in life - you go through different phases/stages. Last week I was very discouraged, depressed and ticked off. This week was much better (even though I got less for the broken blackberry than I would have liked).

 

Thursday morning, on my way to work, I stopped to get gas (in my Subaru Justy) and decided to check my bald tires that I haven't been able to replace for the lack of funds - steel cords worn through on my front left tire. I decided it was too dangerous to drive to Park City on it, so I borrowed some money from my son & wife, went to Big-O in and had Steve (the manager & long time buddy) put on four 175/70R13's for $180 - the Farmers check was in the mail & would have to cover it.

 

Yesterday, my "build my '83 Venture day/increment of plugging away at it", was pretty productive despite the heat - Thank heavens for a garage & a fan! I finished pulling the engine out of my original '83 (which went better than the other two engine pulls since I removed the thermostat housing & starter first this time), and I also dis-assembled & pulled my front forks. The forks on my '83 chassis bike I bought are junk - the chrome is pitted & would eat up my new fork seals in no time, so I'm going to have my bent fork tubes straightened.

 

I'm thinking about taking a day or two of vacation so I can make it go that much quicker. One silver lining to re-building pretty much everything on my bike & taking it down to the frame is that I will know my bike very intimately.

 

Doug

[Dmnordin]

I've been going to physical therapy mainly for my elbow thing, which feels pretty OK most of the time, but the stretches were killing my wrist. The exercises bothers my wrist as well. I have another appointment with the orthopedic Dr. next week. Still not doing any supplemental massage work which sucks when it comes to paying all of the bills.

 

The bike rebuild is coming along slowly but surely. I'm working on it 12+ hours on Saturdays . I've started to work 4 10's at work so I can spend 2 days/week on it.

 

last Saturday I got the 1300cc engine into the frame. I replaced the stock rubber engine mounts with solid engine mounts - this bike is going to be tight between the engine mounts, progressive springs (had them before) with beefed up fork brace.

 

It had taken 3 days of working on the engine to replace the seals/gaskets & clean it up. It had had a couple of pretty bad oil leaks so it was very oil+grime dirty all over the engine. I also put the (stronger) clutch out of my '83 1200 engine into this engine and made a couple of modifications to the clutch with some parts from the second '83 1200 engine's clutch to improve it's performance. When I took off the stator cover when I was cleaning up the engine, there was a corner of a blue paper shop rag stuck in between the bottom of the cover & the engine case http://www.templeriders.com/members/forums/images/smilies/eek.gif which was the source of one oil leak.

 

Before all of this activity on the rebuilding project, I took the 3 bikes down to the frames, rebuilt my bent front end & put my progressive springs into the new/used/straightened front end, and repacked all bearings. I cleaned up & painted part of the frame - road rash & wear from gravel & such. I also switched my '83 wiring harness into the second '83 frame; this is the frame I'm using.

 

This past Thursday I cleaned up, repaired, & hooked up the engine wiring to the chassis wiring harness. I made a couple of modifications, such as soldering the high output stator wires to the wiring harness after cutting out the connectors.

 

I also went through my '83 starter on Thursday. I modified it by adding an internal hard wire ground to the brush plate so it has a solid, good ground - I saw this in a post by someone - Thank you!. I also made a 6 gauge wire connection from the case to the engine to improve the grounding there. I cleaned up & painted the starter housing. These improvements are time consuming, but now is the time to do them while the bike is dis-assembled like it is, and when I'm done, It'll be one fine running machine!

 

I replaced the thermostat housing, thermostat, o-rings, and cleaned up & painted the associated bottom housing, hard lines, & drain area. There was a surface layer of corrosion buildup there - it looked pretty bad, although it was functional. These original parts came from my '83 which had the lowest miles out of the 3 parts bikes. Now it looks new.

 

Yesterday, I did the 4 gauge starter & main grounding wiring mod. I had to buy a small butane torch at Harbor Freight so I could solder the copper ends to the wire. It took me 5 stops and several call to find Butane re-fills to use! I also finished up some wiring and got the exhaust headers & collector installed. I installed the radiator/hoses as well. It's starting to take shape as a motorcycle finally! I have water temp, oil pressure, & ammeter gauges to install, and there's a bunch of other things to install.

 

I'm hoping to get a lot accomplished Tomorrow - there's a ton of things to do & I'll probably make a small dent in the list; I'm going to start with installing the swing arm and rear end. I still need to rebuild the carbs (new diaphragms, floats, and 135 jets - I'm planning on keeping them on the rack), cut down my air box (Vboost installed), modify/open up my exhaust, build my little LED gear indicator circuit and install it, install the instrument cluster, install my HID lighting & fabricate mounting arms for the two new housings, do some wiring in the fairing after it's installed, ...

 

My sons have been a huge help with some things. They are sick of helping poor old dad after rebuilding & going through my '92 Subaru Justy this past winter (I now have a new, used 4wd, 32mpg, awesome sub-compact commuter car for about $3500), and now this bike rebuild.

 

It's been a bummer to not to ride this season, but I won't have to do much of anything to the bike other than ride it for quite quite a while when I'm done.http://www.templeriders.com/members/forums/images/smilies/sunshine.gif

 

Gee, maybe I ought to hang out a shingle, lol...not really- my wife would love for me to start on her honey-do list again. She makes comments like,"oh well, I guess this won't get done for a few years...":whistling:

 

Doug

Edited September 5, 2010 by Dmnordin

[dingy]

Isn't it fun though rebuilding one of these. When you are done you will have a machine that will last for a long time and have the knowledge that of how everything works in it.

 

You mentioned putting in a vboost system. One thing I believe you will need to modify on the carbs is the pull cable mounting. I talked with Rick Butler at Freebirds MD this year about doing this to mine. He said that due to the carb rack being raised from the new intakes, that the pull cable had to be changed when he did his. You might want to talk to him about this while you have carbs off. His user name is Rick Butler .

 

I ended up using the clutch pack from my 88 donor bike on my engine. Unlike you, I felt the diaphragm spring setup was superior to the helical springs on the MKI's. With the diaphragm spring setup, there are three levels of pressure setups available. First is the stock setup, which, as it comes from the factory, is not sufficient. Second, there is the PCW mod which Skydoc is selling in the classifieds. Third, there is a mod where two stock diaphragm springs are used. This is the route I went. It makes for a hard pull on the lever, but I have seen no slippage. The coil spring setup on the MKI's is a little harder to increase the pressure. There is a Barnett coil spring upgrade available for it, but I talked to the seller, and he said the springs were the same specs as stock, more of a replacement kit than an upgrade.

 

I found that when I put my progressive springs in , that the front end went from spongy to like a rock. I took the short PVC spacer out that came with the new springs and it is much better. I may at some point put the spacer back in, due to I have heard after some time the progressives break in and become freer.

 

You said that you were going to rebuild carbs and keep them on the rack. You won't be able to do much if you do not split them in half at least. You can't pull fuel bowl cover off with rack intact. You can split it into two pieces (right & left and be fine. If you did not get a complete rebuild kit, I would suggest you do not remove the housing that holds the main jet from the carb body inside the fuel bowl. The gasket there will need to be replaced.

 

 

Gary

[Dmnordin]

Hey Gary, Thanks for your comments & suggestions.

 

I had read Rick saying that the pull cable mounting will need modified - I've been meaning to get to addressing this and haven't gotten to it - thanks for the link for Rick - I'll contact him.

 

Another reason I went with my lower mileage '83 clutch pack is that it had the least amount of wear. I did replace the half discs with full discs for a better engagement - I understand this will also shorten the amount of clutch engagement pull when it hits. I did replace the springs w/ the barnett springs, and I wondered about the rating when I did that, as they sure looked & felt the same. I liked your idea about using 2 springs w/ the MKII clutch pack. I'll see how this '83 clutch pack & go from there. One issue I have with the MKII clutch pack is that there is extremely uneven wear on the friction discs that were in my '86 engine (the friction discs are also pretty much worn out).

 

Last year I installed Rick's (Buckeye Performance) progressive spring kit & ran 3 PSI with it, and I bought a beefed up fork brace from this site (one of the left overs from a group buy). I was very happy with the improvement, but wanted more, so I'm excited about Rick's solid engine mounts. My last bike was an '83 Honda 1000 Custom - I miss the quick power from that engine, and some of the zippy handling characteristics of that bike, and I'm hoping that I'll get some of that from this Venture between the solid engine mounts & Vboost. As far as the suspension goes - I like my rear shock set @ 4 with 70 psi with just me riding (210 pounds, 5'8")

 

Last year when I tore into the carbs & did some repairs, I was able to get the bowl covers off while they were on the rack - it was tricky. I don't know if I'll be able to change out the jets like that, though. I did get new bowl cover gaskets from Skydoc - he's been a great help through this whole project.

 

I'm using my 32mm 1200 carbs, and I have the stock 1300 heads (engine, for that matter) - so I'll suffer from not having the 34mm 1300 carbs, but they didn't come with my used engine. First, I'm going to the 135 main jets, and I already have the needles shimmed to go richer from last year (I'm at a high altitude) - I'm sure that the new diaphragms will make a big difference. I thought I would start out at 2.5 turns on the idle screws (new assy's from Skydoc will be going in) and adjust out from there as needed. I wanted to wait on the air jets behind the diaphragms - I don't want to change everything at once, so I know what each change will be doing.

 

On my mufflers, I'm planning on gutting the stock baffles except for the last 2. I bought some 18" long, 2" (ID) tube baffles on Ebay (kindof like the inside of a glass pack muffler) to quiet it down a little. It looks like if I put the mounting bolt to the rear of the pipes, the little cutouts through out the inside diameter face backwards to the pipes - aren't they supposed to face forward to catch some of the pulse & re-direct it into the baffle packing?

 

Doug

[Squeeze]

If i'd be in your Shoes, i'd buy a Set of Vmax Carbs. Most of them are 35mm, and they already come with a fairly fitting Jetting if you plan to sport a V-Boost Setup.

 

Plus, if you don't have a good Battery, get Vmax Battery Box and the respective Battery. It's (only) 17 Amps, or 18 Ah with the newer Batteries, but it's thinner than the Venture Battery and would allow you to use a Vmax AirBox, which would be a good Improvement over the VR Box too.

[oldschool]

Glad you walked away from this one. Give me a list of parts you need. I have a few I'm willing to sell. I know I have a set of forks in the garage.

[Roadhand]

Any wreck you walk away from is a VERY GOOD THING!

 

Glad to hear you are OK.

 

Ride safe

[dingy]

 

Another reason I went with my lower mileage '83 clutch pack is that it had the least amount of wear. I did replace the half discs with full discs for a better engagement - I understand this will also shorten the amount of clutch engagement pull when it hits. I did replace the springs w/ the barnett springs, and I wondered about the rating when I did that, as they sure looked & felt the same. I liked your idea about using 2 springs w/ the MKII clutch pack. I'll see how this '83 clutch pack & go from there. One issue I have with the MKII clutch pack is that there is extremely uneven wear on the friction discs that were in my '86 engine (the friction discs are also pretty much worn out).

 

Doug

 

Doug,

 

The clutch steel plates & friction discs are the same from the MKI's into the MKII's, I didn't check all the way through to the 93's though. The parts fiches for every year are on the site here somewhere, or I could get them to you.. So you could use your good set from the MKI with the MKII setup.

 

The clutch boss's have different numbers. The main unit, the primary gear is the same, so you could use either one. You would need to use the MKII pressure plate.

 

Someone on here would have an extra diaphragm spring as a lot of people have went to the PCW setup. I had one member give me his for shipping cost.

 

So all it would take, assuming you have an MKII clutch main parts is getting another diaphragm spring.

 

You mentioned a problem with your wrist I think, this setup is a harder pull than a stock 83 has, but it doesn't slip. I reused my 88 plates and discs as they all measured within spec. I used one full disc from my 83 clutch to replace the half disc.

 

I start getting engagement when I let the clutch lever out about a 1/2" inch from full pull.

 

Gary

[Dmnordin]

If I did this, I would also have to change out the clutch push rod since the head is different. Do you know if the lengths of the pushrod sections are the same between the MKI & MKII? I'm thinking it would be easier to just change out the short section of pushrod & not change out the long sections. I'm sure the ballbearing is the same size. I have everything I need except for an extra diaphragm spring and another cover gasket.

 

Anyone have a spare MKII Clutch Diaphragm spring laying around you don't need?

 

Thanks,

Doug

[dingy]

If I did this, I would also have to change out the clutch push rod since the head is different. Do you know if the lengths of the pushrod sections are the same between the MKI & MKII? I'm thinking it would be easier to just change out the short section of pushrod & not change out the long sections. I'm sure the ballbearing is the same size. I have everything I need except for an extra diaphragm spring and another cover gasket.

 

Anyone have a spare MKII Clutch Diaphragm spring laying around you don't need?

 

Thanks,

Doug

 

Doug,

 

The long push rod shows the same part #'s from MKI's to MKII's.

 

The outer push rod is different, I missed that. P/N is 36Y-16356-00-0. Part shark has them for $7.57 + shipping.

 

You probably have one if one of your parts bike was an MKII though.

 

Here is a link to the clutch mod. Known as Double D mod. It is detailed for a Vmax, but is the same setup in a Venture.

 

http://vmax.lvlhead.com/tips/clutch.htm

 

Gary