Oldie but Goodie - July 1986 issue of "Venture Road" magazine

[VanRiver]

I found this to be rather interesting, hope you do too.....the July 1986 issue of the "Venture Road" Magazine. The Official publication of the Yamaha Venture Society. According to the article they had 5000 members back in 86!!!

 

This was back when we didn't have all this fancy computer stuff. It was Venturerider.org but delivered to your door by the friendly mailman!

 

Great articles and ads.....back when you could walk into any dealer and buy new Venture Line accessories....dare to dream!

 

http://mtariders.com/magazine/VR_1986-07.pdf

 

[Freebird]

You are right. They were once THE club for the Venture owner. I was a member for a few years and went to a few of their rallies. They published a nice magazine. There was a time when they were even sponsored by Yamaha and gave away a brand new Venture at their rallies during that time. A year or two after Yamaha dropped the Venture in 1993, the decision was made to change the name to the Motorcycle Touring Association. They started losing member during those years but put up a good fight to keep it going. After Yamaha came out with the Royal Star Venture in 1999, they changed the name again and it because the VTS/MTA or MTA/VTS, don't remember. Membership has continued to decline but they have still kept it going. They still have a website at http://www.mtariders.com I actually registered that domain for them and built the website there but it has been redone a few times since then. For a while after I first launched it and the forum there, it was a fairly busy site but has gone steadily down over the years and there is very little activity now. I check it every once in a while and often there are no new message from the time I was there before. They are still chugging along though and I wish them nothing but the best. I think that they still have the Venture Roads magazine but I'm not sure that they have a print copy any longer. I know that they were publishing a .pdf version but not even sure about that now.

[Larry1963]

Cool thanks I will have to go back and read all of it later. But I like the cover photo of all the bikes lined up. Next time someone has a big rally with all the bikes, we should line them up by year, looping around. Publish our own photo.

[cowpuc]

THAT is AWESOME RIV!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sure brings back some GREAT memories!!!!!!! Picking thru there was like,,,, hey,, I had one of those,, and two of those,,, and,, wait a minute,, I am still riding that one LOL!!

 

THANK YOU for posting this up - YOU DA MAN RIV!!

[Pegasus1300]

I was a member for awhile when it was still VTS and switched over MTA with them also. When STAR became the Yamaha vehicle for the new Royal Star/Star line they kind of faded away.They are still there but not much going on. I had a few issues of Venture Roads but when I moved they were lost. Very nice magazine and the Bench Wrench feature(How to) was really useful. I went to a regional rally they had in Colorado in the late 80's it was great fun.

[Venture n Dixie]

I probably wouldn't know the Venture existed if it weren't for that group. Early 80's I had surplus sunglasses to get rid of. My wife's cousin had cardboard cutouts of Dolly Parton, Ronald Reagan & a Polaroid camera. We went to Pigeon Forge TN for their rally. Don't know if it was V Daze or Family Affair. There were thousands of Ventures. He sold a lot of pictures. I sold a lot of sunglasses, but the memory that really stuck was the demo ride. I left my license at the room & had to ride shotgun behind by cousin n law. I was blown away that the bike never broke a sweat & rode like a Cadillac. Was hooked. 30 years later I have 2 in the driveway asking me why I've abandoned them.