Joined the 100,000Km club today!

VanRiver · May 15, 2016

I had a Historic ride today, my black 1986 Venture Royale rolled over to 000000 KM again today. Thought I would pay tribute to this great scoot with a short video and some brief history on the life and times this Bike has had.

My Bike's name is "Walt", short for "Walt the Black Parts Bike". And yes, "Walt" is a "she". She is named after it's original owner who was kind of a local celebrity here in Calgary and a legend in the Canadian Motorcycle community. His name was Walt Healy, and was one of the first Indian and Yamaha dealership owners in Canada (ran it for 70 years before he passed away) and rode motorcycles up into his late 80's including still performing his trademark stunt of crashing through a burning "wall of death" on his motorcycle. Here is a great article about his life and how he got into the motorcycle business (Indian Motorcycles) because the local Harley dealer screwed him in a deal on a used bike back in the 1920's. Here is a great article about this true motorcycle legend:

http://www.gregwilliams.ca/?page_id=193

http://www.motorcyclemojo.com/2016/03/walt-healy/

Anyway, fast forward to 1986 and Walt was the Yamaha dealer here in Calgary, and he liked to take long road trips on his bike. So his obvious choice of motorcycle was of course a Black 1986 Venture Royale with a side car (in his later years he only rode with a side car....but remember this was normal for him back in the 1920's and 1930's he was delivering pianos on his motorcycle and flat deck sidecar rig!) From what I have been told he took this MKII Venture all over Canada, the USA, and even a trip down to Mexico with his girlfriend. Here is a pic of him fully decked out riding in the dead of winter here Calgary Albert Canada......He was Hard Core!:

Although Walt owned 1000's of bikes in his life time, I've been told he was always partial to his comfy first gen Venture. So much so when he passed away in 2002, our local News Paper "The Calgary Herald" published a tribute article and photo of him on his trusted machine:

After Walt's passing, the Black 1986 Venture and Sidecar changed hands several times. Unfortunately it was neglected over the years. It had been dropped several times.....Parts, pieces, and chrome were removed. The side car was taken off and sold, and the bike was destined to never see the open road ever again.....Until the fateful day I saw an ad on the internet that read "Yamaha Venture Parts bike for sale...Offers". I responded to the ad and met a great guy who actually had Two 1986 Ventures for sale, one "complete" 1986 Brown Venture Royale and this "Black parts bike that I could use to get the Brown one on the road again" as the owner suggested. Since I like to tinker I said "Sold" and bought them both, but with intention of having two ridable machines, one for me and a matching 1986 to get my Dad back on the road with me. So the restoration project began, and the research into confirming and learning the History of "Walt's Bike" also started! And yes I was able to locate and talk to a previous owner that confirmed that this truly was Walt's personal bike and the one in all the pictures. Yippie!

The day I took possession of the "Black Parts Bike" she was renamed to be forever known as "Walt", and this is what she looked like Day #1 :

After a lot of work and great guidance from the SUPER HELPFUL people on the VentureRider.org forum, I got "Walt" running, tuned, and looking pretty again! And of course lots of money spent on Ebay replacing the broken and missing parts that were taken from her over the years! Here is what she looks like today. Back to her former Glory (with a few plastered bugs on her after a nice mountain ride). I'm now proud to ride "Walt the Black Parts Bike" Anywhere, Anytime, and any Distance without a worry it will let me down! Here is a pick of both Bikes I bought, but after the restoration, "Walt" and "Browney" (and my Dad in the background).

Anyway, Walt Healy (Wherever you are), thanks for taking care of this bike and passing it down the line to me.....I love it, and have loved the wrench turning process to get here. Although the odometer turned over to 000000 again today I still have no idea if that is 100, 200, or 300 hundred thousand Kilometres on this bike....but I don't really care as I know "Walt the parts bike" has a bright future of cruising as long as she is part of my life.....and maybe to be passed on again to the next generation of VerntureRider member someday. As we all say about these bullet proof Ventures, "She is just barely broken in!"

Well after a whole lot of blabbing....here is the Video I promised y'all! Please note, this has been filmed using the classic camera style of Mr. @cowpuc He makes it look so easy!!! Trust me it isn't while you are riding!!!! Puc, I'll still keep working on my technic!