83 Venture Bobber builds

[Bassett]

Hey guys and gals. Has anyone bobbed a venture and had good success with it? How'd they drop the back with the tank and shaft? Venture handlebars are weird too! Any way to modify them?

[cowpuc]

There's a varmint in our Club named @zagger who did an AWESOME job of Chopping one, Zag's bike has a custom front end and some top notch - one off - very creative other features too.. I have always been a long bike Chopper fanatic myself, built a number of them (never a Venture though - always wanted to but never took the time) from Harley's and 750 Honda's - just never got into the bobber end.. Thinking you may find dropping the back end fairly easy by building a set of custom mono linkages - still be able to have rear suspention.. Of course, hard tailing is always an option.. Tank wise, with the bike already wired for a fuel pump - you could literally move the tank anywhere you wanted.. Pull the sub frame, remove the stock tank - open that area up and put a drop seat on springs down there in the hollow. As far as bars go - you can put "clip ons" on anything with forks or,,, a simply swap out to conventional bar mounts looks way doable to me.. Personally though - I have really come to like the custom look and design of the stock Venture bars (1st Gen).. Cleaned up and simplified a little so the pivot joints and major engineering designs of that piece work can easily been seen would look AWESOME on a Bobber IMHO... Ditch the fake cover over the battery, move the battery down below, disgard the airbox and either run pods or stacks.

Built a set of drag pipes for one of my Ventures one time. made the pipes out of thin wall chain link fence pipe. took some tin - drew out a set of "fish tails" on it - cut it out and welded the fins together - banged the ends of the pipes in a little and welded on the fins - "tuned" the pipes by bending the fins together to get a little back pressure. Was amazed at how well they tuned out in the end = bike sounded AWESOME!! Even the Sturgis Harley riders were jealous of that beat up ol 200k mile Venture when I pinned it and they could hear it over their Big Twins!!! NOTHING sounds sweeter than a small block v-4 revving out when it is opened up so it can breath!!!

Loose the front fender and you can get a LOT bigger tire on there.. Not gonna anything on the back end though by loosing the rear fender - swing arm space is limiting factor BUT - you will end up with pretty much a matching set of larger (150's maybe) tires by loosing the front tire.

Ditching the fairing is gonna be somewhat challenging cause of all the lectrics happening under there.. aint no where near enough room in a headlight bucket to hide the stuff.. Also gonna be challenging swapping out the dash board cause a lot happening there too.. Thinking if it were me, I would build a custom electrical box with all the goodies in it - maybe mount it forward on the frame like to look like an old oil cooler like we had on our shovels.. Could also do something similar for a fuel tank - those tool boxes on the WLA's could be redesigned - enlarged and end up with a fuel bag that would look like a tool kit from the day....

I gotta a massive collection of Easy Rider mags from days gone by - lots of custom scoots in em.. I get a chance I will thumb thru em and see if anyone has done a bob similar to what your talking.. Most of that stuff is Harley based but hey,, ya never know!

If you do decide to go forward with a bobbed Venture, you may wanna consider joining us as a club member here!! Lots and lots of really sharp people with many years of experience on the Yam V-4's.. Probably find this bunch of misfits an invaluable wealth of info for what your about to do!! Either way though, glad you found us, good job of for a first post and WELCOME to VR!!

Puc

[Bassett]

There's a varmint in our Club named zagger who did an AWESOME job of Chopping one, Zag's bike has a custom front end and some top notch - one off - very creative other features too.. I have always been a long bike Chopper fanatic myself, built a number of them (never a Venture though - always wanted to but never took the time) from Harley's and 750 Honda's - just never got into the bobber end.. Thinking you may find dropping the back end fairly easy by building a set of custom mono linkages - still be able to have rear suspention.. Of course, hard tailing is always an option.. Tank wise, with the bike already wired for a fuel pump - you could literally move the tank anywhere you wanted.. Pull the sub frame, remove the stock tank - open that area up and put a drop seat on springs down there in the hollow. As far as bars go - you can put "clip ons" on anything with forks or,,, a simply swap out to conventional bar mounts looks way doable to me.. Personally though - I have really come to like the custom look and design of the stock Venture bars (1st Gen).. Cleaned up and simplified a little so the pivot joints and major engineering designs of that piece work can easily been seen would look AWESOME on a Bobber IMHO... Ditch the fake cover over the battery, move the battery down below, disgard the airbox and either run pods or stacks.

Built a set of drag pipes for one of my Ventures one time. made the pipes out of thin wall chain link fence pipe. took some tin - drew out a set of "fish tails" on it - cut it out and welded the fins together - banged the ends of the pipes in a little and welded on the fins - "tuned" the pipes by bending the fins together to get a little back pressure. Was amazed at how well they tuned out in the end = bike sounded AWESOME!! Even the Sturgis Harley riders were jealous of that beat up ol 200k mile Venture when I pinned it and they could hear it over their Big Twins!!! NOTHING sounds sweeter than a small block v-4 revving out when it is opened up so it can breath!!!

Loose the front fender and you can get a LOT bigger tire on there.. Not gonna anything on the back end though by loosing the rear fender - swing arm space is limiting factor BUT - you will end up with pretty much a matching set of larger (150's maybe) tires by loosing the front tire.

Ditching the fairing is gonna be somewhat challenging cause of all the lectrics happening under there.. aint no where near enough room in a headlight bucket to hide the stuff.. Also gonna be challenging swapping out the dash board cause a lot happening there too.. Thinking if it were me, I would build a custom electrical box with all the goodies in it - maybe mount it forward on the frame like to look like an old oil cooler like we had on our shovels.. Could also do something similar for a fuel tank - those tool boxes on the WLA's could be redesigned - enlarged and end up with a fuel bag that would look like a tool kit from the day....

I gotta a massive collection of Easy Rider mags from days gone by - lots of custom scoots in em.. I get a chance I will thumb thru em and see if anyone has done a bob similar to what your talking.. Most of that stuff is Harley based but hey,, ya never know!

If you do decide to go forward with a bobbed Venture, you may wanna consider joining us as a club member here!! Lots and lots of really sharp people with many years of experience on the Yam V-4's.. Probably find this bunch of misfits an invaluable wealth of info for what your about to do!! Either way though, glad you found us, good job of for a first post and WELCOME to VR!!

Puc

 

 

thanks Puc!

 

Any my suggestions on simple speedos?

[Yammer Dan]

Remember one somewhere on changing Venture to chain drive??

[Bassett]

Remember one somewhere on changing Venture to chain drive??

Cool nice.

 

Any sugestions on gas tanks?

[camos]

This page might be helpful in you quest for ideas:

http://www.kloppenberg.us/chopper.html

 

This links to zaggers Venture chopper but all the pix are missing. Perhaps they can be recovered by the boss or one of his elves.

[Yammer Dan]

Take a look at frame and what you will need in the way of mounts. Get fresh in your mind. Then Scroll on E-Bay.....

[snyper316]

That is strange because I looked at zaggers bike last month when I was thinking about getting rbig1 bike, Actaully I still want to but looks like it might be a minute before I can.

[Bassett]

This page might be helpful in you quest for ideas:

http://www.kloppenberg.us/chopper.html

 

This links to zaggers Venture chopper but all the pix are missing. Perhaps they can be recovered by the boss or one of his elves.

I've lived on that page for the past two weeks lol

[zagger]

Hey guys and gals. Has anyone bobbed a venture and had good success with it? How'd they drop the back with the tank and shaft? Venture handlebars are weird too! Any way to modify them?

 

Hi - here are a couple of pictures of my 83. More of a chopper than a bobber. Fuel tank is stock (under the seat). Lower section of the handlebars are basically stock but the ends are custom. Battery is mounted horizontally under the engine. Added Vboost from a Vmax (doubles air and gas by connecting each intake to two carbs) but it is operated with a bicycle shift lever mounted on the end of the left handlebar. Bike has very low CG and good handling. The leading link suspension for the front wheel reduces the trail dimension down to 3", about what a sportbike might have. I first tried extended hydraulic forks but the handling was very slow (long trail dimension) so I built a new front end with a custom leading link. The clear cover over the clutch lets you see the parts whizzing around inside. I had so many people ask if I had used Harley components, I welded up the mounting of the headlights using an old primary chain from a Harley - but it turned out that the joke was on me since few Harley riders seem to know that their engine uses a primary chain to connect to the transmission!

 

zag

Edited February 5, 2017 by zagger

[Bassett]

Hi - here are a couple of pictures of my 83. More of a chopper than a bobber. Fuel tank is stock (under the seat). Lower section of the handlebars are basically stock but the ends are custom. Battery is mounted horizontally under the engine. Added Vboost from a Vmax (doubles air and gas by connecting each intake to two carbs) but it is operated with a bicycle shift lever mounted on the end of the left handlebar. Bike has very low CG and good handling. The leading link suspension for the front wheel reduces the trail dimension down to 3", about what a sportbike might have. I first tried extended hydraulic forks but the handling was very slow (long trail dimension) so I built a new front end with a custom leading link. The clear cover over the clutch lets you see the parts whizzing around inside. I had so many people ask if I had used Harley components, I welded up the mounting of the headlights using an old primary chain from a Harley - but it turned out that the joke was on me since few Harley riders seem to know that their engine uses a primary chain to connect to the transmission!

http://www.venturerider.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=108264 http://www.venturerider.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=108265

 

zag

Awesome job!!!

Electrically speaking, what do you have hooked up?

[Freebird]

This page might be helpful in you quest for ideas:

http://www.kloppenberg.us/chopper.html

 

This links to zaggers Venture chopper but all the pix are missing. Perhaps they can be recovered by the boss or one of his elves.

 

I think that I got all those pictures restored.

[zagger]

Awesome job!!!

Electrically speaking, what do you have hooked up?

 

Digital tach (cable driven speedo was from some other bike), headlights (two pairs actually, one pair to act as high beams and one pair to act as low beams but got a ticket for not having my "headlights" on so I put lower wattage bulbs in the upper ones and keep all four on when riding), double tail lights which also act as turn signals, front turn signals, and one puny little battery operated LED light to shine on the license plate. The rear brake lights/turn signals actually came off a British Landrover and were never intended to handle both functions on a bike so I had to rebuild the guts of the lights to handle different bulbs. I tried to minimize the housings around lights and yet have them be watertight. This pushed me into using non-motorcycle parts. The stock Venture radiator is short and wider than the current bike - so I used a Honda VTX radiator (mounted upside down) and built a new mount for the fan. I don't have any warning lights (high beam, temp, whatever). The key switch is just a simple industrial on/off switch turned by a simple plastic "key" which can be removed. Almost forgot, there is also a powered mount for a Garmin gps near the air filters.

zag

 

PS The pictures recovered (above post) are the very first ones I took. The current front forks with leading link suspension are completely different. Straight extended forks give very slow handling.

 

Edited February 5, 2017 by zagger

[Bassett]

Digital tach (cable driven speedo was from some other bike), headlights (two pairs actually, one pair to act as high beams and one pair to act as low beams but got a ticket for not having my "headlights" on so I put lower wattage bulbs in the upper ones and keep all four on when riding), double tail lights which also act as turn signals, front turn signals, and one puny little battery operated LED light to shine on the license plate. The rear brake lights/turn signals actually came off a British Landrover and were never intended to handle both functions on a bike so I had to rebuild the guts of the lights to handle different bulbs. I tried to minimize the housings around lights and yet have them be watertight. This pushed me into using non-motorcycle parts. The stock Venture radiator is short and wider than the current bike - so I used a Honda VTX radiator (mounted upside down) and built a new mount for the fan. I don't have any warning lights (high beam, temp, whatever). The key switch is just a simple industrial on/off switch turned by a simple plastic "key" which can be removed. Almost forgot, there is also a powered mount for a Garmin gps near the air filters.

zag

 

PS The pictures recovered (above post) are the very first ones I took. The current front forks with leading link suspension are completely different. Straight extended forks give very slow handling.

 

http://www.venturerider.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=108286http://www.venturerider.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=108287

so it begins!

[Bassett]

Finally

[cowpuc]

ROCK AND ROLL!!!!!!!!!!!!:thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

Hey Bassett = if you dont mind - please take a few notes and pics about how/what you are able to loose on the scoot in this process and how you bypass any electrical stuff.. Personally, I LOVE where you are headed and LOVE your "minimalist" approach to bobbing (IMHO - thats what bobbing is all about)!! Anything - no matter how small may be helpful to others my good man!! LOOKING GREAT THIS FAR!! Carry on brother!!

Puc

[Bassett]

ROCK AND ROLL!!!!!!!!!!!!:thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

Hey Bassett = if you dont mind - please take a few notes and pics about how/what you are able to loose on the scoot in this process and how you bypass any electrical stuff.. Personally, I LOVE where you are headed and LOVE your "minimalist" approach to bobbing (IMHO - thats what bobbing is all about)!! Anything - no matter how small may be helpful to others my good man!! LOOKING GREAT THIS FAR!! Carry on brother!!

Puc

Thanks Puc.

 

I like your your idea of throwing all the electricals in a can. Any further ideas on that?

[Bassett]

More progress... I stripped the bottom bolt head on the right fork so I will be needing a new one. Debating on keeping chrome rotor covers... thoughts? Powdercoating lower tubes this week. Any ideas where or how to stuff electrical?

[snyper316]

Yeah my thought on chrome covers, If you don't want them for some reason let me know. I been trying to find a decent set.

[Bassett]

Yeah my thought on chrome covers, If you don't want them for some reason let me know. I been trying to find a decent set.

Haha. Ok I'll let you know!!

 

I have A LOT of parts for sale. Keeping hard cases, and side fairings. But everything else is for sale!

[zagger]

Any ideas where or how to stuff electrical?

 

I packed all everything into the area just ahead of the carb intakes and made a cover for the stuff. I did eliminate about 90% of the electrical wiring, relays, and whatever - kept just the necessary things and made new wiring that was short and clean. If you try to keep all of the stock wiring (picture below) then you will have a real mess.

zag

 

 

[Bassett]

More pics soon to come!

[Bassett]

Here we go!

[Bassett]

Fun in the sun.

[Bassett]

Shorty