How many riders are skipping 2nd gear?

[venturesome]

I'm interested to know who is skipping 2nd gear, what year is your Venture, for how long, and do you plan to fix it?

I have an 84 Venture that seems to run fine without 2nd gear, and I don't know if it is worth the time and money to fix.

(I'll bet Puc will jump in on this one!)

[blaine1]

i have a 85 mine skips in 2 gear 96000 km works ok have no intention of fixing if cowpuc can ride no 2 gear why cant me blaine just because i am 70 no way

[blaine1]

if you read cowpunc info on 2 gear it will save you a lot of work he has a lot of experience and that is who i listen to with a lot of other members on here i find they have a vast amount of experience working on the bikes and where to get the parts blaine

[Doug royal86]

I skipped 2nd gear all the time with no problem. Then I got an 84 and did it with out thinking and 2nd gear was ok. Creature of habit.

[Scotiangold]

Mine does it. Skips under load. Just bought it yesterday knowing this for $350 so I'll ride it till it quits, babying 2nd gear or skipping over it al together. I'd like to know long people drive like this before the tranny gives up the ghost. If I get a couple of years of easy riding, I'll be happy.

[Flyinfool]

@cowpuc has about 200K miles of hard riding with no 2nd.

The problem with 2nd gear will not take out the rest of the tranny.

[cowpuc]

I'm interested to know who is skipping 2nd gear, what year is your Venture, for how long, and do you plan to fix it?

I have an 84 Venture that seems to run fine without 2nd gear, and I don't know if it is worth the time and money to fix.

(I'll bet Puc will jump in on this one!)

 

Dont know how I missed this one,, 4 speed Ventures are my specialty I am currently finishing off 1st Gen Mk1 number 5 (Tweeks is her name, she is a little spoiled but we love her anyway) with no 2nd gear. I have chased em all out to over 200k, 3 of the others with no second gear either. Tweeks is currently a ways over 300k miles with 260k of those miles with no second gear.

2 of the others I bought REAL cheap cause they were already second gearless and the owners didnt want to spend the big money and have them fix. I basically bought them as "parts bikes" and kept them from going for scrap, tossed in a battery and such and rode em out till they were done. Had one that lost its crank bearings at just under 250k, that one I was extra hard on, ran it all over the country with homemade straight pipes on it and I had a bad habit of taching it out just to hear it sing.. Others just got wore out and got real tired - Tweeks is almost there too - they get really "loose" all over the place when they get alot of miles on em BUT - their 4 speed trannies are solid:guitarist 2:.

Its really strange cause NONE of my 1st Gens have ever had a catastrophic failure caused by running them with no second gear. I also gotta say that having 2nd gear missing has really not been that much of a problem.. I know lots of folks talk about needing to keep these V-4's revved up but I have always been amazed at how torquey they can be.. Only place I have ever really missed 2nd has been off roading in the mountains BUT, even then - it has also kept me slowed down crawling along in 1st gear which, when I think about it,, was probably not such a bad thing out there on those snake trails:missingtooth:

I have had a really wonderful life of riding low dollar no 2nd Gear Ventures all over the country and would do it all over again - it has been a match made in heaven in my case. I actually am glad that it was 2nd gear failure and not a different gear that was/is the issue, I dont think any other gear would be as easy to live without. I LOVE the freedom of riding a 500 dollar bike to far off places and having that feeling of freedom that comes with knowing if it breaks and I cant fix it I can give it to some poor Indian kid as a yard ornemant - hitch hike home and buy another one (crazy thing,, never have had to do that,, close a couple times though knock on wood)..

One other thing,, I do HIGHLY admire folks around here who have spent the time to actually correct the second gear ailment. I have split my share of cases thru the years in bike repair and KNOW first hand how much effort it takes - it is time consuming. Doing so has just not been what owning these old Ventures has been about for me - in my case it has been more about giving an old scoot with problems a chance to have a completely full life and having fun in the process..

 

Here is a short real life video of Tweeks showing off here 4 gear capabilities - notice how happy she sounds knowing that she is in the hands of two people who love her inspite of her disabilities..

Edited March 14, 2016 by cowpuc

[stanG]

I rode mine for 2 seasons skipping 2nd then finally decided to open it up and fix it. The bottom line here is that skipping 2nd gear is acceptable but being able to bang it into second and lift the front end is a lot more fun!

 

Of course you have to tear down nearly this far to get er done!

 

 

[Kiwiroyale]

G'day my early '83 has 35000 miles on the clock and not a sign of any problems with 2nd gear (until now I bet!!!!)

 

When it does (probably next week now I have jinxed it!!!) I will repair it as I want my bike to be fully functioning and original as possible (maybe I should'nt fix it then...).

 

Steve

[venturesome]

OK, I'm convinced. I'll ride this one and continue to work on the others. It has faded paint and aint too purty, but runs good. Maybe I could find a few dozen stickers.... or has somebody already done that?

[syscrusher]

Why would I skip second, how could I get around my hilly (or is it hillbilly?) neighborhood without second?

[Flyinfool]

Why would I skip second, how could I get around my hilly (or is it hillbilly?) neighborhood without second?

 

A very good reason to skip 2nd gear is if you don't have a second gear, in which case the hills really don't matter.