Lunch Time Fun

[coreyhill]

Just wanting to tell a story and see what other stories people may have. I got my 1st VR 1200 by trading a back pack, shower tent, 10 MRES, and 100$ cash. It was (and still is) a running bike. My 2ed VR 1200 I got it on trade for a 30.06. rifle. Its a project bike but it had almost all the parts. Minus the crabs and seat. Just thought it would be fun to see some other cool buys/trades people have got for their lovely VRs. Just for fun.

[zagger]

Got my venture from a website: https://www.crashedtoys.com/

It had been rolled and a lot of the plastic was smashed. But since I planned to strip it down, I really didn't care much about the plastic bits. In the end, quite a few of them were ok and I sold them online. My venture proved to be a very fast bike which I've been riding for quite a few years. Some of the guys in the Slimey Cruds motorcycle gang liked it so much they asked me to join their bunch.

Gonna head out to drink beer with them tonight.

zag

Edited February 6, 2018 by zagger

[luvmy40]

The acquisition of my first(only) Venture was a bit of a "pain in the buttocks". I answered a Craig's list add and and took a short road trip on my '82 Yamaha Maxim to see the "nearly mint" '83 Yamaha Venture posted for sale with the asking price of $2500.00. We met up at a gas station some 60miles from my home and right around the corner from his. I watched him ride it in and listened to it run for a few moments while giving it a good visual once over. It sounded good to my uninitiated ear and did not look too bad(though very far from "near mint"). I told the guy truthfully that I was interested as I need a more comfortable long haul ride for my wife and I to take on weekend trips, but I wasn't going to make any decisions until I looked at several other bikes, including a much newer Wing and an Aspencade.

 

Several days later after having been completely underwhelmed by everything else I looked at, in cluding a a couple more Ventures that were not in as good condition cosmetically, I called the guy back on the Venture. It was still available but for some reason we had a terrible time meeting up. He didn't have it registered or there wasn't a notary available or he couldn't find the hard copy of the title. For several weeks there seemed to be reason after reason after reason that I could not get another look at the bike.

 

One day he called me and said that he could load it up on a trailer and bring it to me with the notarized title in hand but he'd only come if I was dead serious. I told him I was very interested but there was no way I'd pay $2500.00 for it. He said he'd not go any lower than $1000.00 so I told him to bring it and if I could ride it around the block I'd take it for $1000.00. He did, I did and that's when I started learning about the Gen 1, MK1 XVZ12TK.

 

A couple hundred(ok, 4-5 hondos) in parts and many hours of wrenching and I know have a great running touring bike that will blow the chrome off any Hawg I've ever owned.

[Venturous Randy]

My story to a Venture started in the Bahamas, kinda. I went on a cruise with my now ex and we were scheduled to go snorkeling. When we went to the meeting spot, we found out it had been cancelled. We looked around and ended up renting a scooter for two days( I had not been on a bike in over 20years). When we got home I told my dad what a blast we had and he told me he knew someone that was desperate to get rid of a bike. Went to look at it and it was a beautiful Yamaha 850 Triple Special with hard bags and fairing. I ended up buying it for $800 and putting a clutch cable on it. The bike was fun and pretty quick, but very tall for me.

Then one day in 1996 I ran into three guys on Ventures(I had never seen one) at a gas station and asked if I could sit on one. I was hooked. I then went looking for one and found three. One was at best a parts bike, another one wasn't much better and the other one was a guy that had bought it a year earlier and had put 109 miles on it and his wife was tired of making payments on it. It had 23,000 and I paid $2,100 for it. I then sold the 850 for twice what had I paid for it.

For the next twenty years I had a love affair with my 83 Venture and put 150,000 more miles on it. One day at work I had an idiot back into it and knock it over, which they denied, but a company parking lot camera showed different. I ended up settling with their insurance for about $3,600 and me keeping the bike and never did get a salvage title. The sad part is the bike is now sitting on the car port covered up and has not been started in over two years.

I guess with my Yamahas I have done a lot of free riding.

Randy

[coreyhill]

Wow!! Awesome Stories Guys. I love my VRs. I got my 1st one about 2 years ago and have been in love ever since. Like I said I got mine on trades. 2 years ago when I 1st saw the 1985 Venture Royal for sell for 400$ with very bad tires and the 2ed gear problem. I had to have it. and with some dealing, I got it. Since then I've been on the hunt for theses bikes. I have only seen two come up for sell in the past two years. I have both of them. lol

[bongobobny]

The story of my 1st gen goes back to 2004, and actually back to the 80's when they were new! Back in the day when the Venture came out, I fell in love with them both because of their looks and by their performance and specifications. They were light years ahead of the competition, but at the time all I could do is stare and dream every time I saw one! All I could afford was a used Yamaha XS500 that I got an excellent deal on! Fast forward several years and another bike later, a Honda CX650 which was a fun bike for several years but also was in a minor accident (3 broken ribs and a rotator cuff injury) and was neglected for a year and finally got blown over in a windstorm off of its center stand. I gave that bike away to a coworker and was in search of another bike. The wife gave the OK to get another one only if she was comfortable on it as the CX650 left a lot to be desired after riding for more than a 1/2 hour. Well, there was a guy I worked with who had a neighbor with a "big" bike for sale. I went to look it at it, and it was a 1984 Venture Royale that the original owner bought, added a bunch of aftermarket accessories, and proceeded to die! The bike had less than 8000 miles on it! The wife never got around to selling it for over 25 years!! The guy I bought it from got it running and put a few miles on it, but his wife didn't like it, and it was just too big for a solo bike, and he managed to drop it at the end of his driveway getting the mail, so he wanted to sell it. I went with Becky and took it out for a test drive, and I fell in love!!! Becky liked it but had some minor buffeting, but she had a half helmet and the windscreen was cut down, so I figured a full face helmet and a taller screen would fix that! The guy wanted $3000, I had cash, so I ended up getting it for $2700 which at the time was a super deal!

 

Wel, over 10,000 miles later we had the great wiring fire of 2009 and afterwords Becky said "Why don't you buy a new one" and within 24 hours I test drove a couple of new bikes and came home with a brand new 2009 Royal Star Venture S model for $17,300 and the rest is history! I still have "Goldie" and I have been restoring her to better than new since then. Right now I am patiently waiting on PCW Racing to finally finish a 1300 cc motor I dropped off along with VMax heads and a few other performance parts, and it is coming back bored out 0.030 and will be a 1350cc VMaxified monster!! I have also replaced every bearing and piece of rubber with new stuff!! Only problem being with my limited balance I might not be able to balance it anymore so I might turn Goldie into another trike.

 

BTW before it got the name "Goldie" its name was "BIG!!!"

[cowpuc]

I was born with a deformed/twisted mind that, since day one, had only one thing it wanted to instruct me to do and that was think about motorcycles.. Even girls took second place.. When I was in Kindergarten my teacher would scold me for not playing with the other boys out in the play ground as all I wanted to do was draw pictures of Choppers as my mind wandered off in dreamland thinking of the day when that would become reality.. I was a mess..

By the time I was 9 I had destroyed more than one good bicycle attempting to put a lawnmower in it so my Dad made a deal with me that if I would save up some Blue Berry pickin money he would split the cost of little motorcycle with me.. It wasnt long and my first bike, a 1959 Sears Allstate Moped came into my life = $50 cut in half = $25 out of pocket!! Beside the fact that it had two wheels and an engine that was installed at a factory instead by using my hacksaw and hose clamps something else that REALLY sold me on that old moped was the fact that it actually had a hand clutch and the coolest 2 speed tranny selector up on the clutch perch that anyone had ever seen!! I still have the frame from it downstairs and have been collecting the parts to put it back together.

Tip knew of my twisted mind when she married me because at that time, besides my MX bikes (was racing Honda CR250 Elsinores back then) I also had a new 78 HD Low Rider that she actually enjoyed riding on even more than ripping around in my 1970 Fast Back 351 Cleveland 4 speed Mach 1 = definitely my kinda girl!!

By the time the Ventures were born we were already well on our way into raising a family and I was regularly pondering taking each one of my kids cross country with me one at a time to feed my insane need for biking that Tip knew I had before we were married.. As each one of my kids started to show some of the same inclinations I had concerning bikes,, I knew it was just a matter of time before we would be found out CTFW, sleeping in cemeterys and all that crazy stuff..

In 1987 I was at an Estate Sale and there,, sitting in the corner of a garage was a Blonde, 1984 Venture with 28k miles on it.. The owner had passed away leaving it to his daughter.. His son in law told me that the bike had problems and his father in law planned on fixing it but had passed away before he had a chance to.. IT WAS GORGEOUS! His son also told me his Dad had paid just over $5000 for it brand new and I was shocked when they offered it to me for $900 as is..

I put a new upgraded Stator in it and found out 2nd Gear was gone in it.. The kids fell in love with that great bike and starting calling it "Big Girl" which soon change to "B. G." which soon changed to just "Beeg".. The kids and chased Beeg out to over 250k miles while exploring everything from searching for Tidal Bores out in Nova Scotia to panning for gold using Hub Caps in the Black Hills...

Beeg was the 1st of 6 1st Gens that we have owned and worn out and actually the newest one (all others have been 83's) and our only Royale.. Beeg's side covers have been on every 1st Gen we have had and now have over 1 million miles on them.. Those side covers are beat up, cracked out and tie wrapped together or held together by stickers and are not for sale = to us, they are priceless...

Edited February 7, 2018 by cowpuc

[VanRiver]

A total of FOUR 1986 Yamaha Ventures have come into my life over the years....as I'm a rather "thrifty type of guy", all have been purchased on the cheap and paid me 1000000000 fold in fun, learning and adventure!

 

My first two were purchased in Canada.....great previous owner sold me a Black and Brown pair of bikes for $1000 Canadian dollars.....plus he delivered them to my house free of charge. At the time I had no clue about the pedegree of these bikes, I just wanted to add a big cruiser to my colection and the price was right so I took the chance and bought them. Sometimes it pays to be ignorant and in the right place at the right time. The Black one was deemed a "parts bike" by the previous owner but I fooled him and turned it into my main bike and rode her all the way from Calgary Canada to Phoenix Arizona and back last summer without a single mechanical issue. Here is a picture of "Walt" my Canadian Black 1986 when I bought it and after I finished "tuning her up"....also she is connected to my trailer which I pickedup for $100 bucks.....did I mention I was Thrifty!

 

 

Here is a picture of the Brown 1986 that came in the pair for $1000 CND bucks......I restored it and put a trike kit on it for my Father to ride.

 

 

My Next Venture purchase was a real steal! I bought it down in Arizona from a gentleman who had a wife that put her foot down one day and insisting the bike needed to be out of the Garage by the end of the week (it was in her way when she parked the car).....so he sold me this beauty for $250.00 USD.......yes that is $250 for a running, driving, and complete 1986 brown Venture Royale. Her name is AZZI as she is my Arizona ride when I'm down there. This picture was taken the day I picked her up before a polish and some "tuning".

 

 

My final Venture was a parts bike which I got for $100 or $150 USD....can't exactly remember. She was some guys failed attempt at a Chopper conversion. I wanted a spare motor for a V-max upgrade for AZZI my Brown Arizona bike......that V-max motor upgrade project is still in progress unfortunalty. But still kind of cool to see a Naked Venture trying to look like a chopper next to one fully clothed!

 

 

Love these bikes.......and I love the price point that you can still purchase them at! Thanks again Mother Yamaha and to everyone here that taught me how to "tune these bikes up" along the way!!!!

Edited February 8, 2018 by VanRiver

[cowpuc]

A total of FOUR 1986 Yamaha Ventures have come into my life over the years....as I'm a rather "thrifty type of guy", all have been purchased on the cheap and paid me 1000000000 fold in fun, learning and adventure!

 

My first two were purchased in Canada.....great previous owner sold me a Black and Brown pair of bikes for $1000 Canadian dollars.....plus he delivered them to my house free of charge. At the time I had no clue about the pedegree of these bikes, I just wanted to add a big cruiser to my colection and the price was right so I took the chance and bought them. Sometimes it pays to be ignorant and in the right place at the right time. The Black one was deemed a "parts bike" by the previous owner but I fooled him and turned it into my main bike and rode her all the way from Calgary Canada to Phoenix Arizona and back last summer without a single mechanical issue. Here is a picture of "Walt" my Canadian Black 1986 when I bought it and after I finished "tuning her up"....also she is connected to my trailer which I pickedup for $100 bucks.....did I mention I was Thrifty!

 

http://www.venturerider.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=111596 http://www.venturerider.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=111597

 

Here is a picture of the Brown 1986 that came in the pair for $1000 CND bucks......I restored it and put a trike kit on it for my Father to ride.

 

http://www.venturerider.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=111598

 

My Next Venture purchase was a real steal! I bought it down in Arizona from a gentleman who had a wife that put her foot down one day and insisting the bike needed to be out of the Garage by the end of the week (it was in her way when she parked the car).....so he sold me this beauty for $250.00 USD.......yes that is $250 for a running, driving, and complete 1986 brown Venture Royale. Her name is AZZI as she is my Arizona ride when I'm down there. This picture was taken the day I picked her up before a polish and some "tuning".

 

http://www.venturerider.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=111599

 

My final Venture was a parts bike which I got for $100 or $150 USD....can't exactly remember. She was some guys failed attempt at a Chopper conversion. I wanted a spare motor for a V-max upgrade for AZZI my Brown Arizona bike......that V-max motor upgrade project is still in progress unfortunalty. But still kind of cool to see a Naked Venture trying to look like a chopper next to one fully clothed!

 

http://www.venturerider.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=111600

 

Love these bikes.......and I love the price point that you can still purchase them at! Thanks again Mother Yamaha and to everyone here that taught me how to "tune these bikes up" along the way!!!!

 

Now THAT is what I am talking about!!! My goodness that Arizona Zipper (AZZI) is one GORGEOUS scoot!! I gotta say,, I TOTALLY agree with ya Riv,, it is endlessly amazing what can come about with just a little patience = WOW did that $250 scoot come out GORGEOUS - :thumbsup: to you brother!!

GREAT thread @coreyhill = thanks for sticking it up here!!! more folks notice it and choose to participate!!

[StarFan]

Got my venture from a website: https://www.crashedtoys.com/

It had been rolled and a lot of the plastic was smashed. But since I planned to strip it down, I really didn't care much about the plastic bits. In the end, quite a few of them were ok and I sold them online. My venture proved to be a very fast bike which I've been riding for quite a few years. Some of the guys in the Slimey Cruds motorcycle gang liked it so much they asked me to join their bunch.

Gonna head out to drink beer with them tonight.

zag

Geeezzz,,,,That Venture in the video is ONE SERIOUS BIKE to say the least Really like the intimidating look of it !!! What a great job you have done !!!