Chaharly Posted January 23, 2015 #1 Posted January 23, 2015 Well as you may remember I recently added a post about the first ride of the year. I was seeing mom and dad off to texas for 9 days as we were loading up their goldwing I decided to take a ride and it definitely didnt help extinguish my riding fever! So here it is thursday and as promised I went home to work on the bike. Not like I had a choice though, I need to take mom's cat out every other day. So i got home and got to work. I approached my old, stripped, but never self concious Royal Star Venture with what I could only describe as a gut feeling for glory (or last nights burritos) I walked to her left side and pulled the choke and within a second she fired right up. She still doesnt want to run on the front left cylinder with the choke on, but really that doesnt concern me too much. I let her warm up As i made some final adjustments. Put the right front cowell on. Fastened the gas tank and the front seat on. After she warmed up and was purring on all fours I shut her off and did the final try on the back tire. Put the washer back where its supposed to go and threw the side bags back on. Man I gotta tell yah that I really missed seeing her with her bags. Definitely just doesnt look complete without the bags! I lowered my dads bike lift (he's spoiled I know) thew the new antanna on and straightened her out in the garage. I excitedly ran to her left side eager to plop my but on that old familiar seat but when I did, something just didnt feel right. I scratched my frazzled hair the frazzlyness of which can only be matched by my frazzled brain and wondered why it felt so weird. Clearly somebody was tampering with my bike, and then suddenly like a light bulb it came to me. Some fool raised the back end an inch higher off the ground and boy what a difference that inch can make. So once I came to terms of my new butt position. It was time to ride. This next part is for Puc because he wanted to hear my opinion of dark siding. One word for you Puc... Different! When i first got going I decided to kind of swirl around the road like i usually do and with the new leveling links along with the car tire. I had to learn to re-ride my bike. Kudos to whoever came up with this whole leveling link idea by the way. With the new tire, leveling links, and relubed suspension it almost rivals my 85 in handling now. I'd have to say the most different thing about it is sharp back and fourth cornering, but I also didnt get to play with my air pressures much. I'll probably wait until a 40 degree day to do that! As far as traction goes... Gobs and gobs of it, I even have proof! Notice that nice fat Tread mark on the back... Now notice the skinny one in front of that? Yeah even with the back tire broke loose the front still couldnt hold it still. Now thats traction! (probably also a good indicator that my bike is running stronly) What made me happiest of all though, is that when I installed my new to me OEM slip ons. It had a terrible backfire. Nearly as loud as a gun and would scare the crap out of me. I decided I didnt want to plug the AIS because to my understanding it works like a check engine light. If a cylinder dies she'll tell you with a LOUD bang. Took her on her first run. Rode it nice and rodded the piss out of her and not a single back fire. All cylinders run at idle, light throttle and full throttle. I even held it at about 4000 rpms in first gear to see if i could feel any cylinders die out while feathering the throttle and nothing. COULDNT BE HAPPIER!!!! So I'm nearing completion of my bike and i'm getting more and more excited for an amazing summer! When i get it done I need to put on about 200 miles and double check for any loose bolts!!!
cowpuc Posted January 23, 2015 #3 Posted January 23, 2015 THAT is flat out BAD TO THE BONE CHA!! Sitting hear listening to the music as I type!! Thank you for the write up and AWESOME pics!! YOU DA MAN!!! Wonder if you might have a weak plug or even a bad plug cap (high resistance) causing your dead cylinder on start up!! MAN I love the looks of that hole shot!! Wish I could find a darksider for Tweeks, I would LOVE to try it - not just for better traction but to gain some mileage while touring in the desert.. Be nice to get over 5k out of a rear tire for once - this wearing out a tire on the way out west and then another on the way back get old.. I LOVE the look of your 2nd Gen in "Bagger" mode!! BEAUTIFUL!! Not sure I am quite ready to bite into the idea of of a bike handling as good as a 1st Gen (I am a spoiled 1st Gen carving brat) yet BUT - I am always open to new ideas,, once it gets warm out and you really get a chance to do some board scraping and have some write ups with clear opinions,, I will pay attention!! THANKS FOR THE READ AND THE 'S BRO - GOOD JOB!!!! Puc PS - I do LOVE IT WHEN A PLAN COMES TOGETHER!!
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