Leaderboard

I feel the same way in my field of work I'm always learning, yes I'm licensed and love teaching the younger guys the tricks of the trade but I will always be learning and trying to become even better at my job and be as valuable as I can possible be. You older guys have tons more experience and I will always respect you guys for all that you have passed down to us guys. It is alot of information to take in at times i re read the case for fogging and realized I didnt do it right at all and alot of that was me being impatient and wanting to get out on the damn thing lol. And I am new to this hobbie and love working on bike. Lots of trial and error and wish I had found this site sooner. You all have made everything easier for me and im constantly fixing issues. This site will be valuable for many years, it was such a good invention and so much dedication and hard work put in by members to make it easier for new guys like me. As I get some more experience on bike I would be able to provide more input on what I like and dont like about it. So far it's been a blast. Riding 2 and doesnt even feel like a 2nd rider on the bike, I few times I had to reach back and make sure my woman was still on as I thought maybe I dumped her out around a turn lol

Wait a MINUTE!!! The First Gen. Yamaha Venture Royale is NOT a Sport Bike!?!? I beg to differ. Let us not forget that the MKI Venture was introduced a YEAR BEFORE the VMAX!! With the introduction of the MKII in 1986, you had a 1.3 liter, 800 pound road carver with a FIXED Fairing and NO Chain to worry about! (Plus who could forget the High Performance Cassette Deck that came stock! LOL) With a few addon's like solid motor mounts, which make the engine and frame a solid fixed mass, Progressive Springs and the removal of the Anti-Dives firms up the front end, in my opinion, and if you drop in a VMAX Final Drive, well, now you have a respectable curve machine. I am NOT even going to debate the Linked vrs. De-Linked Brake Issue, Both of my MKII First Gen's. are De-Linked and have the R1 calipers on them because I too like to "touch" the rear brake when I am positioning my bike to carve a sweeper turn. I find the bike heels over much better with a little back brake magic. I have also found that having two matched calipers up front, both engaging at the same time, by a single Master Cylinder stop the bike quicker and Straighter than a set of mismatched front calipers being activated by two different Master Cylinders by two different body parts! (Yes, the MKII front calipers have two different caliper piston sizes) Now, don't get me wrong, my 87'VR is NO Yamaha R1! It doesn't have a 6 speed tranny, and it will never see 200 MPH, but at the end of a 500 mile riding day, let's see who gets "beat up" more. I think Yamaha created the perfect riding machine with the introduction of the First Gen. Venture Royale. It's a rolling piece of Art in my opinion. There are bikes that go faster and lean further, but their claim to fame is just that one thing! With the Venture, you get enough of ALL of the things you look for in a motorcycle, in one package! The other thing I like about the First Gen. Venture is that you can mod this bike to your liking. My 89'VR is bone stock except for the De-Link, the R1 brakes, the VMAX Final Drive and a Fuse Box Upgrade. I use this bike to pull my camping trailer. Now my 87'VR is a different animal. It has the De-Link with the R1 brakes, a modded FJR Final Drive, 150/80/15" rear tire, Extended FJR Swing Arm, VMAX Heads, Cams and Valves, Progressive Front Springs and deleted Anti-Dives, 100/80/18" front tire, the Fuse Box Upgrade, a Crankcase Vent Filter, S.S. Brake and Clutch Lines and NOS! This bike is not for the faint of heart!! I personally am at a time in my life where I could own pretty much any production motorcycle I could want. And every morning when I go out to my garage, there she sits, the motorcycle I really want, my 87'VR. I consider myself a VERY lucky man! My thought, for what they are worth! Earl

I watch this video the other day and I got to thinking of an old post some years back. I think that many of us old timers have techniques that are more reflex then we or I can explain and put into words. My son does not enjoy a touring bike period. He is very much a technical rider and simply does not the like weight and slow response of the setups touring rider enjoy. The 2 MKll we ran were different then stock setups up front. The 91 was the most difficult for me to get to my liking and so I used springs and shims along with air pressure to hit my marks. Before doing so I found the 91 to unpredictable, for me. I like a quick ride and I enjoy the end of the line the most, standing her up again. So some years ago I noted in a post I favor the rear brake leaning in to, then during I count on ratio and throttle for pulling it thru and maintain my predicted line. But why the rear and not the front brake? Rowling mass and momentum (s) this is where touring bikes are different then the sport bikes in a lean. If I slip my rear wheel, I simply keep looking thru, if I slip my front I'm in trouble. I have of course needed to use the front brake at times to slow the energy up front but, if you are running linked brakes then that rarely an issue. Of course if you are pointing your right knee the peddle is a hard reach but that thru the curve not before. Thru the curve we have ratio and throttle to adjust our leans, something we have in common with sport bikes because that's the physics. Exploring the rear brake a bit further: picking a line then using the rear we tend to stretch the bike out, making it tighter. Why, all the joints, bearings and bushings. Next up is the rake. These front fork on this kind of rake with the long reach add a hard to understand added flex. Setting your bike for a line thru is more time and effort. That spells a slower speed thru it. I think that is acceptable for a touring bike. Remember we are down shifting and braking with a long reach more weight and more forward moving mass so inertia and that is all the moving parts taking time to sync up. Progressive as in the type of coil are slower acting than non progressive, non progressive are more trying on a touring bike. Tire pressure matters. We tend to max them on touring bikes for tire life. But have any tried to lower that till you find a sweet spot. Lower tire changes the patch contact area, also reduce vibration throughout the fork, so it acts as a damper. Tire selection. I enjoy sticky vs. twice the tire life or what ever that turns out to be. Same for my cars, not worth the savings in my way of thinking. Genll all I know is what i see, I'd rather ride ahead or keep them far enough ahead that I don't see them pushing and scraping thru too close to the yellow/white lines like their heads are replaceable. My Cade is the heaviest I've ridden and shes solid when on her line, but I would not keep up with a MKl or ll. Trying to would make a fool of me, so I make up for the gap by beating it to the next curve;) snooker move Anyways I'd enjoy reading the clubs thoughts and tips for tour riding.

two most common spots are the two covers on that side front one is the stater cover the rear one is the middle gear cover. the gaskets are very narrow on those. Also check the bottom bolt on the rear middle gear cover it should have a copper washer under the head or oil will leak from there. Another thing to check is the clutch slave seal were it mounts to the engine. it is behind the the second gear cover over hang between the stater cover and the middle gear cover. If none of these appear to be leaking than you need to look higher up.

Ouch I hope you did not turn the engine over yet. @YoungWaynetake a vacuum cleaner or better a shop vac to it before you remove the housing or disturb anything else. Then carefully remove the housing as suggested and wash well. if you have a small enough nozzle try to suck what you can from the carbs. Another thing you can do, is remove the plugs, then slowly rotate the engine by hand. If you look up valve set in the manual it will show you how to rotate by hand. Rotate until you have a cylinder on its intake stroke (intake valve should be open ) then with the carb in wide open throttle position, blast compressed air into the spark plug hole you should feel air coming up through its connected carb. The idea here is to blast out as much dirt as possible back up and out through the carb. Repeat for each cylinder. Then after doing this rotate until the exhaust is open and blast air through it again (you should feel air coming out the exhaust). The idea here is to blast out as much grit as possible. What you do not want is grit residing in the cylinders and causing undo wear on the the cylinder and pistons. Although if you already attempted tarting it or doing a compression test this may be of small use by now but still cannot hurt. . Personally I am surprised someone would store a bike with no filter or at least some form of cover over the carbs.

When so many people were laid off with great benefits, they repaired their motorcycles. I was told by a guy at partzilla that they were working 7 days a week trying to fill all the orders. I suppose that combined with the virus has caused a backlog for many things. The chip shortage among other things has caused a low inventory of new trucks. Even RAM is giving tiny discounts now and you will probably pay sticker or more for a toyota truck.

Best bet is to take it off and clean it up with hot water and dish detergent(Dawn) or Simple Green, Puprple power, etc. You want to take a look at the breather hose anyway.

AllBalls is almost entirely Chinese stuff, they do make steering head race/bearing sets for our bikes that is made in India, but I think thats about it. Chinese fork seals are widely known to fail prematurely regardless of how impressively they are packaged and marketed. I highly recommend discarding the AllBallz items and instead using OEM Yamaha. If it's already together then do grab a set of OEM Yamaha seals and keep them in a saddle bag with you. Trust me on this one haha.

Hey Marcarl, I have to admit, I have rarely seen you post about something that has you scratching your head over it, so this will be an honor to add my two cents to the mix! With that being said, The guide bushings that keep the upper fork tubes in the center of the lower fork tubes will wear out just like the fork seals. In fact, if the guide bushings are excessively worn, they will cause a perfectly good set of fork seals to start leaking! Because of the "Rake" of the front fork tubes, (angle of the tubes in relation to the center line of the motorcycle frame) the guide bushing inside diameter will become "egg shaped" over time. When this condition increases to the point where the lip of the fork seal no longer contacts the upper fork tubes, leakage will result. There are usually two guide bushings in each lower fork tube, try replacing those. Earl

Yes, the Ventures have a clutch safety switch. They should start in gear, side stand up, clutch lever pulled.

even if part of it was in the rain. still grounded