Leaderboard

So true or the ability to walk away and give the steam build up in your head a chance to blow off before you turn a minor set back into a major disaster. Then come back after a few beers ......I mean after you cool down. My wife can sometimes be a savior here. When she sees I am starting to ride the edge, she will suddenly call me in for coffee and cake or pie (sorry no beer this time) than as we sit down she will begin to chatter away like a blue jay about anything that does not revolve around bikes or whatever I am working on and before you know it I am back in the garage with a better frame of mind.

The local Indian and Royal Enfield dealer had test rides going today. First I rode this: It rode really nice, but I didn't care for the really wide bard and the backrest sucked. Then this one: The 116 is a beast! Really liked everything about this bike. Then this little Royal Enfield: It had stupid-loud pipes that I hated and the mid-controls made it hard to ride, but it was fun and with forward controls I could ride one around as a local bike (I'm 6'3" with long legs, so a lot of bikes don't fit me). Finally, I took this one out: It was crazy fast and very fun!

I can tell that the people that I have talked too on this forum are a bunch great people , who have a faith in God ...I do know that God looks after what belongs to him ..God has been good to me over and over again

At the beginning of April, I rode my '07 Venture to KC to help my brother out after having back surgery. Due to a variety of unforeseen circumstances, I ended up leaving the bike in his barn and fly back home to San Jose. Fast forward a month and my son wrapped up his 1st year of college in St. Louis and wanted to drive home and see some of our National Parks along the way. We threw together a quick plan, made some reservations and my wife & I jumped on a plane to KC to pick up the bike and meet my son to start the journey. As it turned out, my wife never got on the bike with me as we only packed warm weather riding gear for her. There were only two days that would have been appropriate for her riding with me. I was extremely tired from a long hike on the 1st day and the 2nd was a miserably hot day going into Vegas. So, the trip highlights, in order: Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs (highly recommend!) Royal Gorge Bridge (cool to see, but not my favorite) Highway 50 from Colorado Springs to Montrose (2 of the best days of riding scenery I've ever had....at this point...) Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP Arches NP (amazing! Did a nice hike to Delicate Arch) Bryce Canyon NP (pretty cool, but not something I would make a trip just to see, but I was also wiped out from the ride there.) Zion NP (Wowsers of all wowsers!) We did the Angel's landing hike on day 1 but I chickened out of the last mile which required holding on to chains as you climbed up with a straight dropoff 1500' down! 2nd day we hiked the Narrows @ Zion, best hike ever! We rented water boots/socks & poles as the hike is up a river in water that ranges from ankle to waist deep. We got very deep into the slot canyons & had to climb up a couple of small waterfalls, fallen trees, boulders, etc. It was quite an adventure! Was completely wiped out at the end of the day. Las Vegas - hmm, I actually don't have a lot of good to say about Vegas itself, the strip is way overbuilt, overcrowded and apparently a favorite hangout for pot smokers (to each his own, its just not my thing and I don't like to be around it - and it was inescapable). But, the highlight from our day in Vegas was at the Vegas speedway. My son & I each took 5 laps behind the wheel in a 760HP Shelby GT500 Mustang! That's an unreal amount of power and one intense experience. And now, the favorite part of the trip for all three of us: The drive down highway 128 from I-70 to Moab (on our way to Arches). By chance, we met a couple from Ohio the day before who recommended taking 128, even though every mapping app does not tell you to go that way. We said what the heck, let's check it out. OMG! And I say that with all due respect because the one thought that kept popping into my mind on hiway 128 was "This must be where God goes to hang out on his day off..." If you ever make it westward, hiway 128 is an absolute must see. Its ~40 miles and will take an hour to drive. I hate to oversell it, but I am not ashamed to admit that the beauty of this place literally moved me to tears. Perhaps my expectations were so low that they were easy to exceed. Perhaps its some weird manopause hormonal thing I got goin on that made me tear up. Perhaps I need to get out more. But in any case, after a little over 2,000 miles in 9 days, 4 National Parks in 4 days, it was the favorite part of the trip for all three of us. Highly recommended! And my love of my Venture just grows deeper! I got more than one "Nice Bike!" comment along the way.

Mike Eykamp offers a swap or will rebuild yours if you don’t want to dive off in it.

Happy to help in any way. Just don't leave us hanging. Everyone here loves to see the progression of this kind of project. Living vicariously through others and all that.

You guys have been a real blessing to me esp lately. Keep up the good work guys ive really enjoyed reading the various posts and theres no end to how creative you guys are with the different projects. I like this site way more then any other ive been part of over the years and its thanks to guys like you.

The proper pronunciation down here is “all y’all”.

Yes some lucky guys can have wives that can be like that !

Look in the read only tech section at the ignition bypass, that should give enough info to be able to check it without drilling it out. I installed the bypass relay and keep parts in my kit to totally bypass it if it dies on the road.

I'm Chris. Been on here for a week or so. Just trying bro learn how to use this site. I like motorcycle women and food. I think I like motorcycles the most. I own 2 rstd an 05 and a 08. I'm from the frozen north east. Vermont🤣😂

Just ride it faster than that. 😁

Any trip on the bike is way better than in a car. I sorely miss my yearly trips with my friend Lynn. RIP buddy

You will find this site becomes as much a family and friendship forum ( had to throw that second part in cuz not all family's get along ) as it is a motorcycle forum. That is why you will find members who started out owning Ventures but stayed even after switching machines to something other other than Ventures. Often times friendships get formed here on site that continue to grow off site. Now I will have to admit the jury is still out on @cowpucbut we are just such darned good folk we let him hang around anyway

An easier way to test for the voltage drop. Attach the positive voltmeter lead to the battery positive. Use the negative lead to probe each connection as you follow the power from the battery positive on out. This way the meter will read the actual voltage drop so you do not have to do all the math. a reading of zero is perfect but not realistic. Wire has resistance and every connection will have some resistance, resistance causes voltage drop, the goal is to have the lowest number possible. As you move out from the battery and find a connection that has a big voltage drop, fix it and then continue on.

Clean all surfaces with brake clean then coat with a bit of green loctite bearing and bushing retainer prior to pushing it in.

So HD spent lots developing the HD tone. What I have seen tho are guys that pull baffles, that is an annoying racket in my opinion . A touring bike should have a getup and go sound but not so constant that it numbs us down the road. I personally enjoy quiet bikes with a soft rumble, the HD stuff is boring, "look at me mom" is ok for those that stay close to home; that way their mom knows they are still alive and not far (did i say that aloud:think:

Yep. I have stock pipes on my ‘07 ever since she had 1 mile on the odometer. To put in perspective, you’ll be able to enjoy your music as you ride. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

When you say "igniter" are you referring to the TCI module? If so, look at IGNITECH for an aftermarket, programmable ignition module. https://www.ignitech.cz/en/

What did you actually replace in the carbs? did you replace the main nozzle and needle, the jet blocks plugs at the bottom of the jet block for starters as the can get loose and allow gas to leak into the float bowl and act like a bad float. The main nozzle and needle will wear over time. The main nozzle can get to be an oblong hole instead of round as it should be with time. This allows gas to flow freely into the engine and will act like a bad float level. We have lowered the needle into the nozzle in the past and this helps for a while. When I first did this to my 89 VR, my mileage jumped up to about 45 MPH.. it has since dropped back to 40 MPH. Does your bike run better when the weather is cooler? Mine is like a different bike when the temps are in the 50's having better acceleration then when the temps are in the 70's +. This is another sign that the nozzle needs replaced. I am just being to get parts to completely rebuild the carbs and replace all of the wear items in them. I also order the carb rebuild DVD that Damon_Ferraiuolo@msn.com produced on rebuilding the carbs. He did it for the VMax but it is the same design as the VR carbs and is worth the money.. Send him an email and he will respond with prices and such. You can check out a bit of it on youtube also... I also found some information on Vmaxforum.net with rebuilding the carbs there. Lots of information there that relates back to the VR. Hope this helps Rick F. http://www.vmaxforum.net

For anyone who comes upon this in the future: You should not soak carburetors unless ALL the rubber bits are removed. This includes the seals on the butterfly shafts, which are not designed to be serviceable. Those seals are the reason we never soak carburetor bodies, instead cleaning with spray cleaner and compressed air.

Carburetor Syncing Thanks to Kenneth Branton (Kbran) for this excellent article. Thanks to George (kj5ix) for creating a .pdf file of this article that you may download and print. It is attached at the bottom of this article. First thing you'll want to do is get the bike warmed up and set your idle speed at 1000 RPM's. The next step is to access the four brass ports on the intake runners. They are located in the middle of the V ov the engine. If your bike is stock you will have two hoses and two caps to remove, one of each on each side of the engine. This is where you hook up the hoses from your carbtune II. I hang the carbtune from the right handlebar with the bars turned to the left so it is less likely to fall off. The next step is to hook up the Carbtune. I take the two hoses from the left side and route them under the carbs to the left side of the engine as you are seated on the bike. Left is seated on the bike and right is also seated on the bike. It doesn't matter which hose goes to what port. Take the two hoses from the right side of the Carbtune and hook them to the right side ports. Again it doesn't matter which port the idea is to have the left pair to the left cylinders and the right pair to the right cylinders. Another thing is don't worry about synching the carbs to get a specific vacuum reading. Just get them all even. Start up the bike and see what you have for a reading on your gauge. This is what mine looked like. If you need to do some adjusting here's what needs to be done. You'll want to adjust 1 and 2 on the left side and 3 and 4 on the right side of the bike (again, direction when sitting on the seat), These adjustments are made with a #2 Phillips screwdriver from the right side of the bike. Once both sets are done you will then synch the bank of 1 and 2 to the bank of 3 and 4. This adjustment is made with a regular screwdriver from the left side of the bike. Here is the adjustment screw for doing 1 and 2. It is accessed from the right side of the bike, looking through the V of the engine to the left side bank of carburetors. You will need a long #2 Phillips screwdriver to reach this one. It is located just above and left of the choke lever. Here is another picture. Go ahead and turn the screw a little bit in one direction. If the the carbs get more in synch, keep turning until it they are even. If they get farther out, you'll have to turn the screw the other way. Once you think they are good, rev the throttle or blip it a few times and see if they are sitll even. Once these two carbs are set it's time for the next two. Here is the adjustment screw for doing 3 and 4 (also accessed from the right side). Do the same here as the previous side. Once these two are set, it's time to synch the left side to the right side. \ Here is the screw for synching both sides together. It is accessed from the left side, just above the choke knob. This is a hex head screw with a slot for a screwdriver. When turning this screw you will see the left pair (1 and 2) move together as well as the right side (3 and 4) move together. Turn the screw which ever was is needed to get both sides even. Again blip the throttle and see if it stays. This is what I ended up with. Can't complain about that. Once everything is set shut off the engine and remove the synch gauge, reinstall your hoses and caps, and go for a ride.