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Some of you may have followed my effort to sell my Goldwing, after it sold I wondered what I would do to fill the void , well about a month ago I figured it out and went and bought this, just spent the whole day washing , clay baring and waxing it. Certainly gave me something to do and it is fun to drive. I am sticking around monitoring the forums, hoping I can still be of help from time to time.

Maybe so but she'll never be as smooth as a Venture going triple digits 😉 besides I can't afford 2 of those women things we can't live without. Or should I say I wouldn't survive 2 of them. LOL

Do NOT fill any gas bottle to the top. When it warms, if it can't expand the pressure inside the bottle goes up dramatically and could cause rupture. Leave an air pocket that will compress as the gas expands to keep the pressure lower.

With my 1st Gen 89 MK2 I actually went back to a PIAA hi output Halogen bulb after trying three different LED's. Although the LED was brighter I found it lacked projection, proper focus and definition of road objects with 90% of the light cast being directly in front allowing for much less reaction time. It is my belief that the reflector and lens design is not well suited to the proper focusing of the LED bulb. On the other hand if you can replace the entire headlight with a self contained LED sealed beam as you would be able too with the MK1 83-85 and other bikes that use a sealed beam or were the headlight can be replace with a complete sealed beam unit, it would be very effective since the LED Lens and reflector are designed to work together. PIAA extreme white halogen https://www.piaa.com/store/p/1003-H4-9003-Xtreme-White-Hybrid-Twin-Pack-Halogen-Bulbs.aspx some examples of sealed beam LED headlights. https://www.grote.com/white-light/forward-lighting/led-sealed-beam-headlights/ On the other hand recently some have tried the LED by super bright and have stated very satisfactory results. Here is the link https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/motorcycle-high-beam-and-low-beam-headlight-bulb/motorcycle-h4-led-fanless-headlight-conversion-kit-with-compact-heat-sink-2000-lumens/3930/8566/?make=105&model=3743&scc_id=1940&year=2009 Then others have gone to HID, but some have experienced issues such as stater overload or dropping out when you hit the starter, though the later can be overcome with a slight wiring modifications.

The one behind it.

Something like this?

I hate to think about it! If I couldn't do 2 wheels, I'd certainly go to 3. My 1st love before bikes, are vintage muscle cars, I just can't afford one right now. I definitely like your new toy and would do something like that in a heartbeat, enjoy your new ride 👍

Something that hasn't been mentioned: check the seal on the gas cap if you find water in the tank.

I've had this identical problem with both of my 1st. Gen. bikes. The first time I had it, is was on a trip and had ridden most of the previous day in rain. After a bit the bike ran real rough, but if I gave it full throttle, it would run better for a little bit. I put up with the poor running all the way home, and by after about 300 miles it was better. Then I was going into work at 3AM and it got real bad. I fought with it and by that afternoon I was pretty convinced that it was water in the tank. I pulled out the fuel filter and blew it out putting the contents on my driveway and you could see the water separated from the gas. I pulled the petcock from the tank and drained the water out of the bottom of the tank. Then I opened the carb. drain screws and drained the carbs. Once again I could see water in the gasoline drained from the carbs. Put it back together and it ran great. A couple of years later, I got caught in a gully washer, and the bike began to run rough again. When I got home, I had to drain the water again. This was before there was 10% Ethanol in gasoline, so water would just lay in the bottom of the tank until it was drained. I figured the only way for rain water to get into the tank would be through the vent. I traced it's path and saw it was right in front of the rear tire and as gas was drawn out of the gas tank, a vacuum would form and it would draw some of the water that was was in front of the tire, which would go up into the gas tank. I cut a slit in the vent hose so that a strong vacuum wouldn't form at the lower end of the vent hose. I never had problems again, until I purchased the 89. I hadn't had this problem for so long that I never did anything to prevent this on the new(er) bike. My wife and I were on the way to Maintenance day and on the Ohio Turnpike it rained hard for a bit, and the bike started missing. I knew what was wrong but couldn't do anything where we were, so we just soldiered on. Now the gasoline was mixed with ethanol, and could absorb some water. After we filled it up with fresh gas, it got better. After the 2nd fill, it was mostly cured. By that night it was fine. After we got home, I cut a slit in this vent hose also. To verify if you have water in your tank, pull the fuel filter, hold it vertically with the filter element up, and then blow through it (using a hose) on to a hard surface. Look at what's on the ground and if you have water in your tank, you should see some mixed in with the gas.

We did get a couple group pics I’m sure somebody will post up soon.

Somebody had to take the picture. Tons of great roads and got to put some more names to faces. Had a great time, just got landed back home.

Hey Guys (and Gals) lets crunch some numbers for a moment and see if we can come to the same conclusion I came to about the front forks of the First Gen. Yamaha Venture Royale. With the VMAX weighing in at around 579 pounds, and having 40MM fork tubes, and the Venture Royale weighing in at 785 pounds, and having, (you guessed it) 40MM fork tubes to say that the front end on the Venture Royale is on the "Light Duty" size is, in my opinion an understatement! Now Yamaha attempted to deal with this issue with the introduction of the Yamaha Royal Star Venture, but at 41MM the front forks on the Second Gen. are laughable at best! Of course, the riding style of the Second Gen. is different from the riding style of the First Gen. (In my opinion) A set of 50MM front fork tubes on a First Gen. would have suited me just fine. (1 9/16" vrs. 1 15/16") Considering that the First Gens. used the same fork lowers that were used on the XS1100 (which were 39MM lowers) Yamaha had enlarged the fork tube bore in the lowers as far as they dared to go in the 80's, early 90's. If they would have gone to a 50MM upper fork tube (as they should have, given the increased weight of the bike) that would have required the recasting of the upper and lower triple trees, the lower fork tubes, not to mention the increased 50MM upper fork tubes, which at the time, would have been the largest fork tubes that were ever used on a production motorcycle in their product line. (And still is to this day!) Plus you would have added 10 pounds to the weight of the bike, with ALL of it being on the front end. With my own personal riding style being that of "I am only vertical when I am at a stop light", I have learned to embrace the "horror" of the sloppy front end of a First Gen. in those sweeper turns where parts of your bike that should not touch the ground sometimes do. I have often though of adding a "Mid Brace" between the top of the lower fork tube travel and the bottom of the triple tree to see if that would firm up the front end. If there was some interest in this from the other forum members, I may try to introduce one as I plan to retire in early 2022 and will be able to turn all of my attention to my "Little Shop By The Creek". Feel free to comment on this upgrade that I plan to at least make for my 87'VR, and if it pans out, I will add one to my 89'VR as well. If you are so inclined, maybe I will add one to your bike as well. As a Machinist, I have lived my life making my bikes "Better". If the upgrades were solid, I offered them to the other forum members. Many have used them, some have not. If there was another front end from ANY other motorcycle on the planet that would improve the high speed handling of a First Gen. I would have figured out a way to adapt it to my 87'VR. (And believe me I have looked!) ALL of the sport bike front ends are WAY to short, and can't handle the extra weight of the First Gen. So, short of adding a totally custom Olins, multi-thousand dollar front end to a bike I paid $800.00 for, "I am stuck with what I got", so to speak. I hope I didn't steal this thread with this post. These were just my thoughts, for what they were worth. Earl