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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

This past Monday I picked up a used 2021 Can Am Spyder RT Limited. It was well maintained an in EXCELLENT condition with only 362 miles on it. A fine older gentleman and his wife had a pair, and he sold his due to neck problems. I am very lucky to find one in this condition for a decent price.

I call this Surtur's Dog. Drone shot in WNC.

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.

Beautiful Machine..... I'm Jelly.....

Looks great. Hope you get many years of pleasure.

...and they lived happily ever after. Congrats on the CanAm. If I were you, don't worry too much on mpg. Focus on the good times. Ride safe.

Well, we pulled the trigger and bought a CanAm for the wife. We were vacationing in Roundup MT with our son and his family and my wife was checking the FB marketplace for CanAm’s and one popped up that was in Billings, an hour away. It was what we had wanted but were not looking to buy one 1200 miles from home. The price was right and God orchestrated the details, so Monday at noon, we were leaving Billings with a 2017 CanAm in the family! It does kinda stink that the car gets 20 mpg more than the bike! Now all we have to do is teach her how to drive it since she has never ridden her own!

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!

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.

My sister and I headed out on my 1999 Honda Valkyrie Interstate crossing the boarder at Port Huron, destination- northern California. We allowed ourselves 6 weeks for this adventure but ended up completing it in 32 days. We drove up the east side of Michigan to Mackinaw City and across the Upper Peninsula and across the northern states. I learned that the Mississippi River headwaters are in the upper part of Minnesota-never knew that before. The landscape started to get interesting once we were in South Dakota as we toured the Badlands, Custer State Park and Mount Rushmore. We bought a national park pass at the insistence of the park ranger which is good for one year and it more than paid for itself as we explored multiple parks over the trip. We headed to Billings Montana and the next day drove the Bear Tooth Pass-that was spectacular. Full concentration and eyes on the road when going up the pass and the views were amazing. Stopped several times to take it all in. Spent 3 days in Gardiner and used the Travel lodge as home base as we explored Yellowstone. Kept my eyes open to get a picture of Kevin Kostner for my wife-but didn't see him. 😁 My wife told me later that he was killed off in season 2 anyways. I think it was the perfect time of year to be there as the crowds were not too large yet and it was plenty warm. We saw some majestic landscape as well as pronghorns, black bear and cub from a distance, bison and elk. We said goodbye to Yellowstone after seeing Old Faithfull and drove to Idaho Falls and had a down day as we found a nice Best Western right across the road from the river and some green space. They even had peddle bikes we could sign out, so we explored the market and the restaurants along the river. This was a cool hotel as the GM was the one making omelets in the morning at their continental breakfast-a nice touch. The hotel had been in her family for over 50 years. We met a group of young people while sharing a beer at one of the local outdoor patio's. The one gentleman was an Evie Knievel fanatic and insisted that we go to Shoshone Falls and see where Evel Knievel tried to jump the Snake River. We never considered this attraction but glad we checked it out as the falls were spectacular. From here we made our way to Craters of the Moon National Monument. This wasn't on our list of things to see but we were driving right by, it looked interesting so decided to stop. It was amazing to see all the small flowers blooming amongst the old lava flows indicating the resiliency of nature finding a way to flourish in this desolate environment. I didn't realize how desolate parts of Idaho and eastern Oregon are and also very desert like. I made sure to fill up at every gas station in these parts and also carried a small jerry can which fit nicely in my saddle bag as it had a tapered fit to take up less room. We literally drove hundreds of miles without seeing a home and the one's we saw looked like they had been abandoned, a testament to the harsh conditions of trying to make a go of it as farmers in this area. It appeared that the successful farmers need to use spray irrigation-otherwise there would be not much of a crop. Headed to Oregon and Crater Lake National Park (got to use my park pass for the 6th time) to check it out. Well worth the ride in. Still snow on the sides of the road as we got higher in elevation. Beautiful water, almost purple in colour. No water gets in from external sources and it's not spring fed, so there's no silt at all in the lake and has this amazing colour. Also, the deepest lake in the USA (thank-you Google) as a result of a volcanic explosion. From here, on to northern California to see the redwoods. Toured Redwood National Park and then up the coast of Oregon. The Oregon coast was beautifully rugged and was cool and overcast for several days so we decided to have a down day in Bandon. (It's helpful the iPhone records the location of most pictures when recalling names of places). This was my sister's favorite part of the trip on the Oregon coast. This was probably my least favorite part because as the driver, this was the most challenging for me, following Hwy 101, fully loaded pulling a small single wheel trailer through the twisties and up and down was tough. Also, made the mistake of not checking tire air pressure enough and my tires could have been pumped about 4 lbs higher so there was some wear starting to show. Made it through Washington and crossed into beautiful British Columbia. I'm convinced that there is no part of BC that isn't beautiful...at least the parts we saw. Stopped to see my nephew in Kamloops for lunch. The best part of ride for me was from BC to Banff Alberta on the trans Canada hwy. The bike was easier to drive on this hwy and the scenery was just amazing with snow covered peaks around every corner. From here it was the trans Canada all the way to Winnipeg, then south and crossed over once again into Minesota and back to where we started. When we crossed back over into Canada the boarder guard asked, "so where are you coming from"...I smiled and said, where do I start? Made it safely back having travelled 11 K kms. All in all a great trip...and my sister and I are still on speaking terms😀 Bucket list ride completed. Mark

They sold the RV a good while back. I think they were living in Tennessee.

I did send him a text. I actually hand carried mine to him as I was already going to Dallas on business at the time. I have LOVED mine this whole time. Did 2 Saldde Sore 1000's and probably 20 800 mile days on it, butt never bothered me. I just saw an almost new set on ebay for 200. owner took them off at 10,000 miles, so I bought them and can move on with life.

It won't be long, she'll be "riding into the sunset' and you'll be left alone by yourself at home. Just kidding... Glad to see she has a sweet smile on her face. That CanAm is a perfect match for your wife.

First day of riding (in a parking lot for my wife). She has never ridden by herself and only been a passenger behind me for 7 years! But she’s game to learn to ride! I’m very proud of her!

Steve you still thinking about going to Vogel?

Very nice! Congratulations!

Thanks for the reply! Had great but very hot and humid day but didn't look like it was going to be as it it rained so hard last night that it was hard to see even with wiper on high(making sure signs I distributed were still up) wife said we made $110 dollars, which she doesn't think we will have another sale again! Got really windy around 1pm as we were getting ready to put things away (both sun shades we had set up were blown over) ended up taking 2 car loads of stuff to Good Will so they can distribute to needy! Have to wait till tomorrow to pickup bike from oldest boy's garage as I kept it there so it was out of the way! Will get out tomorrow!

I'll be there Tuesday afternoon.

Dan and I are at Seasons Inn

I hope it isn't so. Don will always say...

I don’t know, I didn’t read the whole law. What I saw is that they have annual inspections and it’s an automatic failure to have a car tire. My wife asked me the same question and my only answer is that we’ll find out if they stop me.

say it isn't so, I have two car tires on mine. 😊

My guess is that there would be slightly more on the front than on the rear.

Yes I'll have the coffee ready

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

Black Cherry got her yearly bath this morning. A little late this season, but I've been on the road a lot this year.

I have the LS2 and I love it. I like the way it fits and the way the chin bar flips to the back so the wind does not catch it. Also the cheek pads are removeable in a emergency should you have a accident The built in sunshield is nice. There is a switch you can slide forward or back to raise or lower it.

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.

I went and put 1000 miles on mine, over 6/19 thru 6/22, had great fun touring the lower part of Iowa. 100 degree heat index and some 50 mph wind gusts. Just have to get on and go!

Funny you mention that. This past weekend the wife and I were at the VJMC gathering in Blairsville, GA. Long story short, I did drop the bike on its left side in a parking lot incident - barely moving - and the wife fell splat to the ground helmet slapped the asphalt. She just got a little scratch out of the deal thank the Lord - he was watching over her - no headache at all. Not a scratch on the bike that I could find...not even a reflector out of place - the guards did their job!

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.

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 !

Getting Closer and Getting Excited!

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.

Thank ya! It's something I can cross off my list, though I'm really not a fan of riding at dark, so it'll probably be a one-and-done!

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.

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.

And that’s why we are where we are today.

[h=2]Submitted by BongoBobNY Electrical Trouble Shooting Results/Help **UPDATED INFORMATION***[/h]OK, time for me to TFU (Test For Understanding)... You may be over testing, all you really need to do is first unplug the stator from the wiring harness located near the fuel pump, and arbitrarily label the 3 white wires A, B, and C. The stator end is the plug that heads down to the bottom of the bike, not the end that heads up to the wiring harness. Now, using an ohm meter on the highest scale, first read the resistance from each wire individually to ground. All 3 wires should read infinity ohms to ground! If there is NOT an open circuit to ground then one of your windings is shorted to ground and is defective! Next, with the ohm meter on a lower scale, read the resistance of all 3 combinations of wires, A to B, A to C, and B to C. All 3 readings should be almost equal, say within 1% of each other. If they are NOT almost equal, then one of the coils has a shorted turn or two and should be discarded! It is very important that these tests are done with the stator disconnected from the wiring harness!!! Of course, the bike should be turned off as well. The above is known as static testing, which should be done first. The next step is to dynamically test the stator! With the stator still unplugged, switch your multitester to AC volts using the 200-volt scale. The output of a stator is AC volts, just like a generator because, in essence, that is exactly what it is! You are going to be measuring the voltage between the 3 combinations of wires just like you did when you measured the 3 coil resistances, NOT each wire to ground! Start the bike, and measure the voltages at idle. You should see some arbitrary voltage somewhere between 10 - 20 volts AC on each combination of wires, and they should all be approximately equal. Next, increase your RPM's to say 2000 RPMs. Your AC voltages should be much higher, say around 50 volts AC on each combination of wires, and should all be still pretty much equal. Increasing your RPMs to 3000 or higher should give you voltages closer to 100 volts AC. The point being, the voltages should all increase uniformly with increasing RPMs! It is also important that these readings are done with the stator disconnected from the system as there could be the possibility of a defective R/R dragging down the readings when connected! I am going through this detailed information to make sure you, and any others reading this, are PROPERLY testing their stators operation! I would hate to see you condemn a stator if you did not test it the right way! I also need to mention a somewhat uncommon but possible failure with stators, and that is a thermal problem where when cold, the varnish on the wires acts as an insulator, but when it heats up the varnish breaks down and shorts out the windings either to itself or to ground. The result being your stator tests fine when the bike is cold, and you go for a ride. Sometime later the varnish breaks down and you loose charging to the battery once the bike heats up! So, what you have to do is warm up the bike considerably and then while still warm, repeat the above testing! OK, so if your stator is both statically and dynamically function properly, AND you have tested your battery with a load tester and you are absolutely sure it is good, then the last test is to determine if your Regulator/Rectifier is operating properly. With your multimeter now switched to DC volts this time, measure across the battery. You should see somewhere around 12.5 volts give or take. Now start the bike, and at idle you should see a little more voltage but not much. When you increase your RPM's the voltage should increase as well! At 2000 RPM you should see maybe 13.2 volts, give or take, and at higher RPM's you will see more voltage up to around 14.5 volts at high RPMs. There should be a point where with higher RPM's the voltage will no longer increase but remain the same regardless of how much more you increase the RPM's. This maximum voltage is what your regulator is set to regulate at, and no two regulators are exactly the same! I would discard any regulator that does not regulate at a minimum of 13.8 volts, and also discard it if it regulates anything higher than say 14.8 volts! The last test of the R/R is to test if it is rectifying properly! What a rectifier does is converts the AC voltage coming from the Stator to a DC voltage that the bike's electrical system uses. Rectifiers can go bad or worse only half bad, where they will sort of convert to DC but will also have some AC riding along with it! To properly check this you need a device called an oscilloscope, but you can effectively test this with your multimeter turned back to AC volts on a lower scale and put it across the battery with the bike running at a higher RPM. You should see darn near zero volts AC at all times and all RPMs! You may see some tiny amount of AC voltage that could be coming from anywhere, but it should be below 0.1 volts AC! If you are seeing anything like 1 volt or more, there is a chance part of your rectifier section of your R/R is defective and should be replaced!! Hope this helps you, and others out!!!