I'm a two timing sassinfrassin son of a gun

[JohnT]

Yesterday I went into work with my pocket full of my (small amount) of mad money. After work I was going to go look at an old but nice Yamaha wave runner. Never had one, never ridden one, and always wanted to ride one. Well, the best laid plans and all that. One of our sales guys came up to me and said, "Johnny, do I have the bike for you. I took it in trade and figured you might want it. He shows me a (can't hardly get this name out) Kawasaki Voyager XII. Yes, I know. It's a Kamasaki. Did I mention she is a 2003 and has just 8300 one owner miles on her? And the price offered to me was ridiculously low. One of the fringe benefits of the "Harley mentality" is that some stuff gets sold for near scrap prices.

Before I knew it I was writing a "get ready" for the bike. With me as the new owner. One nice thing about working at a dealership, other than the occasional SCREAMING HOT BARGAIN is that by the time I was done work it was registered and insured and I had to park the VR in the storage barn so I could ride the Voyager home.

100 cc's less, a bit lighter, and 17 years of technology improvement may make for an unfair competition between the 2 bikes. (My VR and my Voyager that is) 50 miles, no real twisties, and one on ramp roll on is leading me to believe the Kawi might just be faster than the VR. And so far I think the VR carves corners better but must reserve judgement on that till I get the feel of the Kawi. They handle differently it seems but time will tell.

The Kawi sits lower at the saddle. Corbin by the way. Not sure I am impressed, have to give the comfort nod to the VR stock seat. But the lower height is nice.

Clarion AM FM cassette with 4 speakers works just fine. But that will see improvement.

No on board compressor for the air ride, but easily reached valves to fill the shock and forks.

Cruise is not working, not powering on at all. Hoping it is just a fuse.

Front brakes are mush.

One can of Sea Foam and a tank of fresh fuel (compliments of the used bike get ready) and 50 miles and it now idles like a kitten at 800 RPM.

I have ordered new brake pads, 2 oil filters, and a fresh set of Michelins for her. And so it begins. The resurrection of yet another neglected touring bike.

And before anyone (Puc) reminds me of the value without pictures. I snapped these at the shop. Not cleaned, not shined, and just the way I bought her.

 

[tufftom4]

I had 3 VR's and now I have a Voyager and love it and the cruise only works in 5th gear.

 

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[XV1100SE]

The Kawi Voyager is a nice looking bike ! Enjoy the ride !

[Yammer Dan]

Lighter and lower in the saddle?? Want your money back???We could tell the Warden I was just trying to help.....

[stickhandle2]

Nice pick up..... good lookin bike

[djh3]

Allways kind of liked the looks of them. The motors are a pretty solid piece on those to if I remember right.

[BlueSky]

I looked at a 2002 Voyager back in 2009 a co-worker was selling, $4k, 34k miles I would have bought it except the transmission whined like crazy. I couldn't tolerate all that noise from the tranny. Then I test rode a 2006 Goldwing and fell in love. Couldn't afford love though. The one utube video I've seen with someone riding a Voyager XII , that Voyager had a noisy transmission. Maybe it's like the second gen Venture and only some of them have noisy trannys.

[Condor]

Lowell... 'Wildhair' aka 'The Ambasador', wore a couple of those things out when he was tearing up the highway. That was after he wore out a couple of Ventures.... :-) I think he lived in the saddle...

[cowpuc]

I LOVED those bikes, matter of fact, if they were a closer fit to my body size, I would have kept one of the ones we had and still be riding it today - just way to cramped for me in the cockpit. FANTASTIC fuel economy scoots!! I know the HP numbers are almost identical to our 1st Gens but they didnt seem to pull as hard, different type of delivery without the "come alive feeling" at 4 grand like they good ol Yam's. Definitely a worthy machine though!!

Tell ya one thing, ANYONE who has a short inseam and is looking for decent older model of a scoot to go touring on - the Voy 2 should not be over looked..

Also, conscerning the "whine",, on the lower right side of the engine are a couple of small shafts sticking out. Those shafts are adjustments for the balance shaft gear lash.. One of my Voy 2's came to me with a "whine" that could have easily mistook for tranny noise. I worked the noise out of it thru adjusting this.. A pretty cool feature on the Kawi I thought!!

 

CONGRATS ON THE FIND JohnT!! GORGEOUS SCOOT!!

[cowpuc]

Oh yea,, another really cool thing,, I rebuilt the bottom end of the red one posted, Kawasaki still stock ALL the parts I needed and everything was very fairly priced.. I think maybe it was because they made those scoots for so long (maybe 86/03?) that the parts never went obsolete.. Definitely a plus!!

Had a 85 Honda EFI Wing (rarer one year model) that all I needed was a pressure regulator for, could find one NO WHERE on the planet.. A frustration you will probably never realize with your Kawi John!

 

Just dawned on me here,, I think @Jrichard rides a Voy 2.. Maybe he will chime in with some good ol southern hospitable advice..

[JohnT]

Well, the reclamation has begun. Took the Voyager into work as usual but on Thursday I had a set of Michelin Commander II's mounted up. When my guy went on lunch I took advantage of the bike being on the lift to drain and add fresh oil to the rear. Then pulled the old girl off the lift and opened the front master cylinder. Not sure, but I think the substance in there was brake fluid at one time. Not going to swear to that though. Used the brake bleeder to suck the substance out of the master and then used brake clean, rags, and a utility knife to get the mess out of the master. It literally needed scraping.

I love air assisted brake bleeders. Hook the fitting to the bleeder, stand by the master, and pull the trigger. Watch for bubbles in the line to go away and keep the master full. I also cleaned up the pins the front pads slide on. Fantastic front brakes now. And I am reminded that I much prefer both my front discs be activated by my right hand independent of the rear brakes. Next up are the rear brakes and the clutch. They can't be in any better shape fluid wise.

About motorcycle tires. Just because they are legal and supposedly therefor safe doesn't mean I didn't need tires. Had folks asking why on earth I installed new tires. Was I made of money? Nope, I'm not. But my intermittent "head shake" is gone. 12 year old tires that spent most of their life sitting in a garage can have issues that legal tread depth have nothing to do with I guess. I'm not sure why that set of old tires sucked, but they just did.

Riding other peoples Harleys on a daily basis is a great tool in learning acceptance. Compared to a Harley the tranny on this thing is short throw, quiet, and shifts like butter. Just can't compare it to the way my VR shifts. The VR is way ahead in "butt comfort" as well.

But I can drive the Voyager SO much faster than I can the VR. (Venture still has that high speed shake)

[eusa1]

fyi @Solodadof2 has a vast collection of goods for the old voyagers.

[syscrusher]

I like that fairing and the rear speakers on the rack back there. You wouldn't want to sell me those rear speakers or know where I could get a pair, do you?

[eusa1]

I like that fairing and the rear speakers on the rack back there. You wouldn't want to sell me those rear speakers or know where I could get a pair, do you?

re-read my post really slow like lol pssst. it's above yours!