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Hey guys! Friday I took off from Omaha, Nebraska and road down Highway 75 to Tahlequah, Oklahoma. I then went southeast to Van Buren, Arkansas, and then from Van Buren to Crescent Iowa on I40 to I49 to I29. (I went to crescent because I was going to be about 8 miles short for the full 1000 miles). I took off at about 3:15AM and got home a little after 10:00PM. It was 102 degrees in Omaha that day, and low to mid-90s in Oklahoma and Arkansas and muggy. I could have done it a little faster, but I took more breaks because of the heat. I had a tremendous headwind going south and an even stronger tail wind going home. If you've never been on I49 coming north from Fayetteville, it is a beautiful stretch of interstate. The 1988 Yamaha Venture, of course, performed flawlessly. I got poor mileage on the way down and great mileage on the way up! My start mileage was 104,331.8 and my ending mileage was 105,344.4. I still have to get the paperwork sent in to be verified

Congratulations. I did one in 2019, started and ended at a gas station 8 miles from home so 16 miles farther than the GPS showed. Never did send in the paperwork since the patch didn’t interest me since I don’t wear a vest. I was recovering from shoulder surgery and bored out of my mind not working so as soon as the therapist said I could ride I really rode. Probably the first and last time, I have done some 850 mile days since then.

I would stay away from the high output stators, I put one in my first 1999 venture. I replaced the engine after only about 10,000 miles and when I checked the stator it had burned half of the stator, looked as bad as the one that I replaced with at least 70,000 miles on it. Higher output equals more heat.

I have ridden 2 175-mile trips in the past week and did really good with the Venture. I'm going to keep riding it solo for a while but want a Spyder to ride with the Wife. Going to look at one Sunday and I'll share how that goes next week.

Some camp at Vogel state park, some rent cabins at the park. Most of the others stay at seasons inn in Blairsville. The events are riding curvy roads during the day and hanging out in the evenings. There is no sign up or fee. What it cost depends on where you stay. It's just a bunch of laid back folks who like to ride and enjoy some comradery. Hope to see you there!

Did mine in August of 2020, had it planned for a few years but life kept getting in the way.... Covid shut-downs and nothing much to do so 2 buddies of mine figured lets go. Left the south side of Lake Michigan at the IL/IN boarder and headed up into Michigan, up and over into Green Bay, WI, pushed out to Madison WI then back south into IL. I don't wear a vest, but I wanted to nice certificate to hang up in my office. Everyone asked why, or that sounds like torture... but hey, bucket list item checked off.

Hey guys! It’s been a little bit since I posted, but I just wanted to give an update. My first son was born May, 11th on Mother’s Day. My lady’s water broke in March at 27 weeks and she was stuck in the hospital for 7 weeks until Little Man was 34 weeks. At 34 weeks they performed a c-section and William Alonzo Umberger-Valencia was born at 5lbs 6.4oz and 18 inches long. He has been doing really well and hasn’t needed any oxygen or any extended care. He spent about three weeks in the NICU and we finally got to bring him home Saturday. He’s a sweet little boy, and we are so grateful that he’s going as good as he is and he is as cute as he is!

@Chaharlyactually the event is well behaved even with at least 3 major Bike groups including Hell's Angels to name one! Lots of police presence every where! Not as many having the riot guns and body armor like some past times! Every one seems to get along as like the area is neutral ground! You don't bother them,They don't bother you!

Yes I'll have the coffee ready

I'm still riding the Venture but going to look at a Can Am Spyder Sunday for making trips with the wife. I'm planning a trip to the Northeast states soon with the Venture. I need 7 states to get all of the lower 48 on a motorcycle and I don't want to count any of them on a Trike. I don't want to stop riding just cause I've gotten old...☹️

We’re looking at one this afternoon for the wife.

Well I'm a bit late posting this as it occurred on this past April 19th, and on that day, I replaced the standard manual petcock with a vacuum operated petcock. Got tired of remembering to get up and go shut it off hours after parking the bike. But also on that same day I did something that some may consider controversial if not downright heretical - I removed the fuel pump from my 2nd gen 2001 RSV. I've only ridden 675 miles since then. With no issues. Many of those miles in the twisties of the Blairsville, GA area including hwy 129, as well as high speed interstate cruising. Gravity seems to work just fine! So if you're on the road and your fuel pump gives out, just re-route that fuel line directly from the petcock into the carb inlet and cruise on!

IMHO there should be a washer between the gear and the aluminum case

I got mine out and found a crack on the right side fairing on my 89 VR, so I patched it with with ABS cement and it seemed to hold but when I took it out for a nice ride, about 100 miles, the fairing recracked and ended up braking the attachment points on that side. Seems for some reason the 36 year old plastic got brittle on that side. Heading out to the Motorcycle junkyard down the road a ways to see if I can locate a solid replacement. They have a lot of Venture parts out there and hopefully I can find one that isnt in too bad of shape. Rick F.

It is also possible if you havent change out the brake fluid in the past number of years, you might have some moisture in the system and just need to flush some fresh fluid thru the whole system. Dont forget the the left front rotor and caliper is part of the rear brake system also with an additional bleed located up near the triple tree. Check the service manual on the correct bleeding sequence for the bike. Hope this helps. Rick F.

Paul they’re leaving out a big part of the info:FOOD. Lots of good eating and a nightly run to the ice cream stand. After all many refer to us as an eating club with a motorcycle disorder.

Paul, this usually a small group of folks, and is a very laid back get together we talk about where we are going to ride and go. We welcome everyone no matter what you ride. Trina and I will be camped out at Vogel State park.

Paul, It's always a good time, good riding and good food. This has been going on for nearly 20 years.

It occurred to me that you might check the rear brake caliper also. Its hidden and your leak might be there.

You've got a leak. That white crusty stuff in your picture is dried brake fluid. The up side is you have a master cylinder that looks to be in good condition. The rebuild kits are on e-bay for a reasonable price. Pull it, clean it, soak the circlip in oil for a day and free it up. The rebuild is a breeze. XXX steel will used gently will smooth the corrosion, if any, on the inside. A small wire brush will get the big stuff on the outside. Check the tube to the reservoir for leaks, check the o-ring on that black plastic spigot the hose connects to. Clean carefully, degrease, blow it out with compressed air and paint with rustolium or some such to protect the aluminum. You'll be good to go. You can reuse the copper seals by heating them bright orange and quenching them quickly in cold water. Let us know how it goes !

Stators always put out full production, it's the voltage regulator/rectifier that controls the flow.

You can always change it out in the back yard of the air bnb at 1:00 a.m. right? 🤣🤣🤣

I am pretty sure Gary sold Tweety Bird and Sylvester, not sure if he ever finished Sylvester or not, he was riding a Goldwing the last I talked with him, you may find him over on the GL Forum, but he never did post to often.

Yes. He went by Dingy and has name is Gary Dingus. Haven’t heard from him in years.

I will assume you are referring to your 2008 RSV. On your first question, there should no voltage on the rectifier of a motorcycle with the ignition off. Which makes sense to me and you are correct. There are members here that are subject matter experts on the RSV electrical system and they should chime in soon. Explain to us what seems to be your problem.

When I 1st joined there was a guy on this forum, Tweety, with a bright yellow 1st gen that was hopped up with v-max parts. If I remember the engine fit just fine but it was a mater of the air box (vboost?) from the vmax that was hard to get resolved.

I will agree on avoiding high-output stators. I got like 5k miles on mine. I was then frustrated and bought a 30 dollar one from Amazon and got like 20k or more miles out of it. Now I'm running a Rick's stator. 10-15k miles on it so far and working good. We'll see how long it lasts.

RM stator used to have good reviews, don't know if they are still around though. https://www.rmstator.com/

Here is a link to one article about one of the converted Royal Stars, but not a Venture model. https://www.motorcyclecruiser.com/custom-yamaha-royal-star-with-heart-v-max-from-archives/

No, I will stick with this.

stay away from the chinese crap! your better off to pay a little more for us stuff or mother yamaha stuff. i've not had much luck lately with china crap! just my opinion!🤔

Good morning to all. Today, Friday, may be the best day to cut my grass after all the rain we've had over the last few days. Weather forecast has stated that our first heat wave is coming our way starting this weekend and throughout of next week. With that said, my consolation is that I get to ride again to and from wherever my destination is. Ride safe.

Did you get to see our Murray State Racers in Omaha this week? Little school making some big waves in college baseball.

Well I hope at the very least you can get out in the morning and enjoy some of the cooler weather. Planning on an Iron Butt this weekend. Omaha to Tahlequa and back. Gonna be about 97 here in Omaha

Went for 200klm(125ml) ride last Friday. Went to Port Dover to the only Friday The 13th this year!(get together for all kinds of bikes(mostly Harley)and motorcycle riders from all over Canada(some from Manitoba,Alberta,Quebec, and some from US)Estimated to be around over 100,000 bikes. And as usual there were a few accidents on way and home for a few riders.(around 6 that we know of,luckily no deaths)

Morning guys. Got to go out for a Father's Day ride yesterday. About 230 miles. Fiddled with the bike on Saturday, messed with the pilot jets and realized that the lower hose that connects the breather box to the crank was disconnected. Rode about 67mph with a light crosswind from the south and got 41.25mpg on the bike. I'm pretty impressed with that. Thinking about doing an Iron Butt this Saturday. I wont be able to go on any long trips with the kiddo at home, but I talked to the missus and she's fine with me disappearing for a day to do one. Going to ride from Omaha to Duluth and back is the plan!

I had the Dunlops on mine. Local shop said they're unavailable, so I'm going with a set of Metzlers. They're more expensive, but I figure there's other places I can save money. Tires are pretty important.

I second the option to go to Linux Mint. I have dabbled in some Linux versions before and got frustrated with how much tinkering it takes to get it to do what I want. So far Linux Mint seems to work pretty good out of the box and still running strong on an old computer I got from a neighbor that was released in 2012.

Carl.....play nice!!

Very nice write-up! I sent my leaking shock to Dave in 2021 when I bought my 2012 RSV and its been great ever since. Been in the back of my mind that at some point I may have to replace the o-ring in the future since I plan to keep my bike long-term, so appreciate the detailed write up being available here.

Great to hear you are back on the saddle. I've been riding as well over here since Monday after all the rain over the weekend. As far as your pilot jet issue is concerned, some may say to run seafoam through and hopefully the rough idle 'I assume' will go away. Ride safe.

I'm perplexed! I lost my highway lights, so checked fuses, ok. Took lights apart and while there is power to the slave (left) light, I can't get a power reading on the right, switch side. What confuses me is if there is no power at the switch, how come there's power to the slave? I'm thinking bad switch. Thoughts and thanks.

Have the carbs been synched? It will cause a vibration under load if they’re unequal.

If you want to play with Linux, I've found one of the easiest to install and has similarity to Windows is Linux Mint. If your hardware is old, there's a 'light' version of Linux Mint. You can also try before you commit to it by creating a bootable Linux Mint USB using a Windows app called 'Rufus'. Yet another option - buy a new hard drive and use the bootable Linux Mint USB to install it to the new hard drive. Keep your Windows drive hooked up in the computer, and you will be able to browse the old drive.

Congratulations! Happy to hear mom ans baby are doing well. It doesn't take long, my 3 year old grandson is already riding a 2 wheeled ebike on a dirt track! He's s actually pretty darn good at it.

At 40 years on, they're getting rare ! Wasn't me ! Still enjoy mine. Gotta get that 4 brush starter motor, though. The original just won't spin it hard enough anymore.

Thank you sir.

@Barnacle442 check these out https://shinkotireusa.com/product/sr-999-long-haul-tire/342485

Gear position Indicator upgradefor standard Ventures (Non-Royales) I have installed a gear position indicating system on my 1983 Venture. This is the stock model without the dash readout from the factory. This is the second Venture I have owned. The first one was a 1984 Royale. Two of the things I really miss from that bike were the gear indicator and the cruise control. The cruise control is coming later. I have all of the stock parts now needed to install it. I obtained a Neutral Switch Assembly from a 1984 Venture Royal through an Ebay auction for under $10.00. This assembly will exchange with the stock neutral switch assembly from a standard Venture. The neutral switch assembly is located between the back end of the stator cover and the front of the middle drive. It sets back in about four inches and is difficult to see, but is accessible. Removal of the middle drive cover is needed to access. To indicate what gear the bike is in I mounted three LED lights in the gauge cluster above the volt gauge. The left light is lit it indicates 1st gear. The left light and the center lights lit indicate 2nd gear. The center light lit indicates 3rd gear. The center light and right lights lit indicate 4th gear. The right light lit indicates 5th gear. The neutral light works as normal. In neutral none of the LED’s are lit. I could also use five LED’s, using one for each gear, but I like the 3 light system as it is easy to see and once familiar with the pattern, it is very easy to determine what gear I am in with a quick glance down at the gauges. I initially used a red, green and amber LED’s but the green and amber had poor visibility in the daytime. I replaced with all red ones. I also painted the part of the LED’s that are inside of the cluster with black paint to keep the light from the instrument cluster from bleeding through the LED’s translucent housing. I used four diodes and three LED’s from radio shack for the light logic circuit. Four IN4004 rectifier diodes. Price $.99 for two Three Red LED assemblies. Price $1.99 each The new Neutral Switch Assembly has a six pin plug on the end that sets in the same area that the stator and rectifier plugs are near the fuel pump. I had two spare diode assemblies that I have obtained in the past and used the plug from one of these to mate up with the plug on the Neutral Switch cable. I had to take one extra wire connector from the second diode assy. As the diode assembly plug only used five wires. You do not need to use this connector if you do not want to though. I retained this plug as I will be replacing the wiring harness when I install the cruise control. I put the diodes in the circuit near the plug connections on the end of the neutral switch assy. I then ran three 18 gauge wires up to the instrument cluster. I used a trailer four conductor plug I had to make a connection at the instrument panel. I have attached a PDF file with pictures and a wiring schematic to install this.