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Showing content with the highest reputation on 02/16/2023 in all areas

  1. I have to pretty much agree with what everyone has said so far. Is the next Generation not into motorcycles, or is it that they can't afford it? With the cost of living and the cost to live ( the cost of mortgages/ properties, Insurance, cost of vehicle repairs, etc.) And don't mean recently but in the last 7 or 8 years. I know my wages haven't gone up like everything else in the last 7 yrs. Or am just in the wrong business! I bought my 2008 RSV new for $18000 CAD, and at that time I could justify that kind of money for 4-5 good months of riding in our area. I think an Ultra at that time was around $25-$28 CAD and a Gold Wing and/or BMW RT was right up there too! I couldn't justify those higher priced bikes. Now a full touring bike is no less than $30000CAD. Is it possible for the manufactures to build a good basic inexpensive touring bike? For me and a lot of others, I've discussed over a cold one with. Do we need all of the electronic goodies? ABS Yes. Large screen TV No. Cruise Yes. Nav. I have it on my phone! Good stereo Yes (for me). I don't think CowPuc's wish list is too out of line! Do we want/ need all those goodies? Or are the manufactures saying that we need/ want them? With a few tweaks to the RSV and not a lot of retooling. Could Yama Mama have kept a good following? Could fuel injection have been added without to many mods? Other up grades like Gauges in place of the cassette, Keyless bags and trunk. A Strat style front wheel, for a little more bling. The RSV has it's own unique sound, when you throw a set of Monster Oval style mufflers on them. Like Harley has their unique potato potato sound! Harley's been tweaking their big touring bikes for years.
    2 points
  2. I'd like to thank @skydoc_17 for sending me the upgraded fuse kit last year. This was finally installed but not by me. I met @Marcarl at one of the southern Ontario gettogethers this past summer. Also, Carl was the first guy to reach out to me when I joined the club in 2019, He pointed out that my bike was leaking some oil. Since owning it from new, an 84' purchased in spring 1985, amazingly it had never leaked oil. I had progressive springs installed the previous fall as well as having the rear brake line replaced with braided. I said yup, I need to take it back in, in the off season. There was a small leak in the front forks as well as one from the rear, maybe brake fluid. He mentioned there was a shop just up the road that does good work. I thought I new of all the shops in the area but apparently not this one. Well, guess who's shop? Something he said stuck with me, in that, if he found something that needed replacing or fixing, he would replace of fix it. That's quite different from the motorcycle shops I had previously visited as they typically only fix what you point out needs fixing, as well, many shops in our area have told me that they won't work on bikes of our vintage any longer. I can appreciate their concerns in the sense that parts are hard to come by and our plastic is getting brittle with age so its easier to say no. So...thanks to Earl and Carl. Mark
    1 point
  3. Wife's youngest brother had a 90's Chinese knock-off CT70 when he was younger. It had been sitting in the back of the parents shed for 10+yrs when I asked him if he was just going to let it rot away. He tells me "You can't get parts for it! It's worthless." He had ridden it like any 12-yr old would and smashed it against trees, left it in a creek, etc etc etc... I knew of a shop in Michigan that specialized in Honda mini-bike restorations, said they could get me parts that were MOSTLY a match but would take a bit of fabrication or re-wiring to be totally correct. $300 in hand controls and misc parts later its a fully functional 4-spd centripetal clutch runner. In the Chicagoland area real Honda 70s & 90s go for upwards of $3k.
    1 point
  4. Don's recent thread about Yamaha's future in touring bikes and ,indeed, the very future of large touring bikes got me to thinking. I still cant help but imagine hybrid GAS/ELECTRIC being the future. After having put a fair amount of riding on our E-Bikes I truly do think if Mom Yam would come out with a Hybrid Touring Bike that would get a consistent +100 mpg and not have to stop for recharging like a full electric vehicle has to that the youth of today would support it in sales. What do you think? As it stands right now, I think the large touring bike days are dim. I hope not cause those were some great years.
    1 point
  5. Because then we will all have to have skinny jeans and a man bun🤣🤣
    1 point
  6. To be honest, I have no use for an electric touring bike. It may or may end up NOT being the future but it’s certainly not MY future. For me, the sound of the engine and many other things are part of the riding experience. An E-Bike for cruises in the local parts and etc. might be fun but not as a replacement for a motorcycle.
    1 point
  7. There was time not to many years ago the club would a had a lot of fun with this one Earl LOL..
    1 point
  8. Try this Vulc.. @skydoc_17, maybe Earl doesnt know your looking for him...
    1 point
  9. Fact is we, our "club", was in the minority and had a very small footprint in the touring world (other touring riders had no idea what they were missing, our V-4's ROCK/ROCKED!) and the Yam V-Twin lovers in the STAR RIDERS side of Yamaha had a bigger voice in the matter. The V-TWIN Yam's were (and still are) an excellent machine and had a nice variety of air cooled V-Twins for wayyy less $$$ than HD to get people riding. Personally I LOVED the Strats n Raider. I also LOVED the smaller air cooled Yam V-Twins and worked on many of them. They were great bikes! I spent a TON of time on my nephews Strat and was always impressed. I could have bought a brand new one CHEAP (about 1/3 the price of a comparable HD) but knew it would sit in the garage and wait for me/us to take time away from our 83 Venture touring to ride it so I passed. I do understand the STAR RIDERS push for an air cooled, big bore touring bike. I highly doubt though (and my doubts are proven because very few them bought the big twin Venture they asked for) they understood what they were asking for and really didn't understand the grip HD has on the BIG TWIN touring market. If they, and Mom Yam, would have did a little more research into the matter I am 100% sure we would ALL be riding 1700cc V-Max motored, shaft driven, water cooled new Ventures and I would have the fastest one LOL. I love the looks of the new one and still see the missed opportunity Mom Yam made by not stuffing a detuned 160 hp V-Max motor in exactly the body that they came up with. Those fake intakes just scream BAD TO THE BONE and ready to be the real deal intakes. I timed out of the touring bikes long ago now but if we were still riding I would be looking at, and probably own one of the new Wings. That's a lot closer to what I was picturing as the touring bike that would "turn the touring world upside down" that Mom Yam was telling us was comingi and the very reason I went to the unveiling ready to buy in the first place, minus a bunch of HP of course.
    1 point
  10. I hope you don’t mind if I chime in here? As a previous owner of a 91 Venture Royale and a current owner of the new Star Venture with over 76k miles on it, I may have an interesting perspective. Granted anyone’s perspective is personal and subject to dismissal. I loved the heck out of my 91 Royale. It was my first touring bike and was beyond anything I’d imagined. It had the best “tech” of the time and I really liked the easily adjustable air ride suspension. As far as power goes… it was indomitable! Even sport bikes refused to tangle with it. It did great for many multi state trips my wife and I took and never gave me a problem except ONE and that was the clutch. The motor was so strong and the only weak point was the clutch. I found a fix on line though that all you had to do was ADD a second concave clutch spring ring to it. It was much harder to pull the clutch in but when you revved that motor and let the clutch go there was no place for the power to go except lifting the front end up! Did it many times. In a way, the old Venture was like having a luxury sport touring bike. Fast forward almost 13 years… I was shopping for a bike and truly there was nothing out there that truly fit the “touring” model except the Goldwing. I did not and do not like the upright seating position. It feels like you’re riding ON the bike and not in it as a part of it, however the wing was my only option for reliability and performance. I was just about to pull the trigger on a stage 3 2017 wing when Yamaha debuted the SVTC. As soon as I saw it I KNEW that’s what I wanted. It didn’t look like a cookie cutter bike like every other manufacturer out there. It was unique, had its own badass stance and was factory loaded with almost every tech you could imagine. I even went so far as to purchase the bike sight unseen! Had never seen or sat on one nor taken one for a test ride until the day it was delivered 29 Dec 2017. Now, having had the bike for over 5yrs and putting over 76k miles on it I feel uniquely qualified to comment on it. It’s 964lbs but is incredibly nimble at slow speeds and is extremely predictable and steady when you throw it hard into corners. Myself having taken it at 75mph into a corner marked 40mph, and I have the scrapes down both pipes to prove it. It’s super comfortable on very long rides and there something relaxing about that sound of a v-twin low unhurried rumble at 70 mph and about 2600 rpm. Is the bike “underpowered” , I don’t think so. I was looking for a touring rig not a full dress racing bike. There’s more than enough torque to move the bike 2 up loads and with a loaded trailer. No problems passing either. Yes, the 4750 rpm limit took some learning to adjust to but that’s MY issue not the bike. And since having had the Ivan’s flash tune to the ECM, the bikes performance is vastly more impressive. Actually more in line with what I’d had expected straight from Yamaha but that’s neither here nor there. The fact is the performance increase IS available. I don’t know about you gentleman but when riding and especially long trips, having an excellent sound system is very important. The Harmon Kardon Surround system on this bike is truly spectacular. As good as some I’ve heard on other bikes who spent a couple thousand dollars for and this one is stock! Add to that the DUAL audio where the passenger can listen to what they want at their own volume levels regardless of what you’re listening to and you have a system that provides customized enjoyment for BOTH people. Every single volume item.. CB, COMMS, NAV, MUSIC, PHONE. Each one has its own volume control INDIVIDUALLY customizable by rider and passenger. Again, they had each person in mind when they did this obviously. Now the electronic “quirks”. Yamaha was made known about many of these issues but never addressed them. 1. When CB was ON and you used COMMS, what you said between the two of you was also broadcast over the CB. Yeah, not good. They needed to separate it so that COMMS were VOX control (like the Royale was) and CB required you to push the transmit button. The NAV system worked well BUT was only limited to 5 way points and your destination so 6 total. Some of us however found a way around that by utilizing a gpx1.1 with POI and were able to get it to accept routes with as many as 27 way points! Of course another issue is that you could not save any address as a “name”. You could only save the address. That was frustrating cu I may not remember where “Robby’s Ribs” are but I remember the name. So you see the issue. Another tech piece I like is the VOX control of all functions. I just tap a button and it says “say a command”. Everything from placing a call to volume control or source selection etc… THAT is very nice cuz I don’t need to look to see what I’m doing. Sure Park is great! Honda has only reverse but this has FORWARD & REVERSE and trust me, riding 2up loaded with a trailer and trying to maneuver in gravel, sand or loose whatever, this is a true lifesaver! Another complaint said often is about the “heat”. The Royale was water cooled true, but when the cooling fans kicked in where did that heat go? YEP ! It got blown but up on you the rider! This bike is air cooled. If you’re stuck in stop and go in the summer YES it’s gonna be hot. I have found since the Ivan’s ECM Tune that the bike runs cooled. I have a hunch that these bikes were factory tuned lean to meet emissions standards hence the heat issue. Even when stuck in traffic with 10’s of thousands of bikes like the last Rolling Thunder in DC which I attended, the heat was still bearable but I’ll admit not by much. Has the bike has some issues, yes. Has Yamaha stepped up in every issue except the software… YES. IMHO, Yamaha made the most awesome v-twin touring bike available but you can’t get past peoples stereotypes and people don’t think v-twin when they think Yamaha. I think their poor marketing and initial release are to blame for much of the poor sales. Another big part of it is the many here who just cannot envision the name “Venture” and v-twin being in the same sentence let alone the same bike. TRUTH! See, the “stereotyping” exists on all sides. Would I have loved to see them stuff thw 1700 VMAX motor into this? HECK YEAH! But I also know I would not be getting 42mpg with that NOR would the bike have a 6.6 gal tank for range because of the down draft design of the VMAX KOTOR. There’s always gives & takes. This current design in the SVTC truly is the best “touring” package available. That’s my 2 cents… well maybe buck fifty. 😁
    1 point
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