Leaderboard

Finally got out yesterday for a few hour for the first ride of the season....and the first real ride of more then an hour for a few years. The bike purred like a happy kitten and I was smiling the whole day.

Guaranteed my rear brakes won’t lock up. I changed the oil recently and left the drain pan in front of my bike in the shop, a few days later some circling wind decided to relocate my shop roof into the woods out back. Two days of downpours followed raining into the shop overflowing the drain pan into a nice big slick on my floor, the falling rain splattered the oil all over the bike including I guess the rotors. Without really thinking about it I took it for a test run the next week, I quickly realized at the end of the driveway no matter how hard I stomped the pedal there was absolutely no chance of lockup. I can’t really recommend this design of antilock brakes though as the stopping distance is exponentially increased. 🤬🤬🤬

My father carried an electricians knife with him for most of his life. It was a tradesman's style and was sharpened so many times that it was worn down to a narrow blade..lol.. When he passed, at the funeral, I put it in his pants pocket so that he'd have it on the other side in case he needed it; I miss him.....sniff....

I think it was Luvmy40 that recently posted about knife collecting. I am not a big collector but there is one style that I buy when I can. They are getting hard to find. My preference is Fight 'n Rooster and Bulldog but a couple others also. Here are most of my small collection.

Dennis Kirk usually has a good selection. I order my fronts there but use a car tire on the rear.

I still ride my 1988 daily and on big trips. My mom who's 69 years old went with me to the Olympic National Forest last fall. She took her 2005 Goldwing Trike and we put on about 5000 miles in ten days. My old bike rolled over 100k miles on that trip. Since we got back in the second week of September, I've put over three thousand miles on her since then. We are looking to finally upgrade after eight years of ownership to a 2021+ Goldwing. Certain parts are getting hard to obtain, especially in decent condition. My rear spring is starting to get pretty soft, and its hard for me to trust buying one off of Ebay that I have no idea the condition of. I don't have room to have multiple parts bikes laying in the garage right now. I do all my own maintenance, including tire changes and balances. I'm pretty meticulous with my old Venture. I didn't have to touch a single tool on that last road trip. After we get the Wing, I'll keep the Venture and still ride the crap out of it, but I'll take my lady with me on the Goldwing on big trips. The Venture has been and continues to be one of the most consistent, reliable and solid aspects of my life. I've been through alot in the last 8 years (haven't we all??) and the Venture has been reliably by my side then entire time. We have our first baby on the way, due in June, so it'll be a slow riding year this year, so I'll focus on plastic repairs and keeping it running in tip top shape. I'll share a few pictures of our Washington Trip for proof.

Beautiful Spring day forecast for the rest of the week in our area in SE York Pa. Been riding since Monday running errands and commuting to and from work. Nothing big, but it is so nice to be on two wheels what ever the occasion it may be. Ride safe.

happy easter to all!have a great day!

Many use a rear tire mounted backwards on the front for that reason. Rears are a different compound so they last longer on the front. I can’t say from experience but I can’t see a front tire mounted backwards would last any longer than correct rotation.

Between London and Brantford Ontario Canada and getting weather you guy's are sending our way. Rain ,cold yesterday so no riding since Monday! Heavy freezing rain,hail and snow again plus very cold,so no riding today also! Supposed to be high of 15deg.cel. tomorrow. More rain etc. then chance of rain all weekend then chance of SNOW again Mon. and Tues.!!

It’s a few days of the best riding you could ask for, not to mention the time setting around the fire hearing and telling stories. Some of them even true!!! I’ve made the last 4 years and it’s a ton of fun with some good people. I recommend the trip if you can.

Hi Carl, the bike is in great shape, especially for it's age. Plastic is all excellent although previous owner reinforced some pieces of the fairing but looks good. All the extras still work, radio, cruise, air controller. Next time there's a get together I'll bring this one down so you can have a close up look, Mark

got an '84 and '86. '84 is a bastard bike -- all 1200 parts on an '88 frame, and the '86 has over 120k miles on it, and was featured at the old Venture Days shows in the 90's.

Been able to get out a few more times this past week ! Weather is still sketchy lately with high winds and rain but will have some great ridding ahead!

@Chaharly Glad to hear you are able to work on your passenger backrest. Hope you are able to ride more, now that we should all see a warming trend on all states. Rain here and there is ok with as long as I keep a close eye on doppler and extended forecast. So glad for better weather reporting and technology. Ride safe.

I've been riding off and on all year, some of those mornings were in the mid 20's going to work, but around 50 on the way home. Mind you, I only live about 5 miles from work, so it's not intense by any means. I was finally able to get the passenger backrest mounted on the trunk this weekend, so it felt great after not being able to ride for four weeks. Grass is looking green here finally too and we're getting some rain.

Already on my 2nd cut and applied fertilizer on half of the yard. TBC fertilizing this weekend.

Happy Easter to All! Have a safe ride.

Finally got the chance to remove the front wheel and take it to the shop at 4 pm yesterday before they close in 1 hour. Today, I’ll mount and go for a ride to the local hardware store.

Received a notification that Asheville KOA reopens Memorial Day, those that know will know.

That is fantastic news. Never thought they could reopen so fast. I would love to see pcs or tour to see what survived the storm.

Front wheel alignment. Had that issue when I bought my 2014. Front wheels need to be aligned with the rear wheel, not the body necessarily. It's been about 6 years since I did this and it's not on-line anywhere that I know of. Hopefully I remembered all the steps I took. A little understanding though might be needed. Also, this is not how Canam does their alignment, but they did it 3 times and 3 times they failed. Concrete floor, flat and level. 1) install and set the belt for the rear wheel. 1A) set and fasten the steering gear in perfect center, measure well, set snug. 2) set a target behind the bike about 1' behind the tire to use for marking on, 1x3 works great, pasted to the floor. 3) using a laser mark the rear wheel outsides on the 1x3, not the tire, the wheel. 4) now you can measure to mark the center of the bike on the 1x3. 5) make 2 identical inserts to fit the front wheel hubs so that you can set a laser on them and rotate from floor to rear. Identical, very important!!! I made mine with some brass and a speaker magnet glued to it to hold the laser. 6) shoot the laser to the floor at the tire and make that mark on a piece of masking tape pasted on the floor. 7) roll the bike ahead and measure the distance between the marks, make note. eight) now shoot the laser to the 1x3 from the front wheel and make that mark 9) both marks should be the same distance from the center mark from the back wheel. 10) check to see how the measurements work out compared to the front measurement. 11) you can now adjust the tie rods so that the front tires have a 5 to 10 degree toe-in. As you drive they will automatically toe-out a bit to come straight as they should. 12) a crowfoot wrench is very handy to get at the inside nuts.

Touchy stuff, there is a real reason for the arrow on the sidewall, not sure if it means anything but it's there for a purpose. For most everything may go just as planned until the plan flies out the window and then it means all hands on deck but one or two hands were tied up elsewhere. You might get away with it, and then again you might not. Figure first what it might save you and then consider what the savings amount to.

Order a whole bunch, they're only $1.59 ea. A screwdriver is not a special tool, you will bust the basket, you need to hold the basket at 2 points minimum or do as I did and just rattle the nut on and then stake it in place.

Very handy and useful. I used to carry one similar.

Thanks. I was an electrician for about 20 years and the sheepsfoot and wharnecliffe blades just worked very well for stripping wire and etc. They just stuck as my favorite.

I have always Run Metzlers on my Ventures and generally got around 20 to 22,000 miles out of them. The rear tires I may get 11,000 if I make sure I keep them inflated properly.

I hate rememberer malfunctions!

Trying to remember the science but certain tires years ago on cars couldn’t be reversed or belts would break. Bias ply maybe??? Once you started them one direction you only rotated front and back on same side. Any body with input on that or is my rememberer malfunctioning again?

I don’t know if I will do it, I just know that rotating the tires on my car is well worth the effort!

My take on this is that...are you really going to be able to save some money down the road since you still have to unmount and remount the front tire based on what you had mentioned. It may save some money, if you are able to do your own mounting and balancing. In my case, I have to pay a shop to get it mounted and balanced. FWIW, it is a great idea.

It'll make that first cut feel so much more impactful when it comes time to finally do it!

we may ride over while we are at Maggie Valley and see how it looks.

Only ever other year

I Remember great times

It's been quiet on here. Thanks for keeping this going! I'm not very good about the daily check ins, so sorry about the absence! I wont be riding for awhile. My lady's water broke at 27 weeks so I've been staying at the hospital with her after work. She and the baby are healthy, we're just playing the waiting game and hoping to keep him in her for another 7 weeks.

not for the 1200's. it says to warm up the bike, shut it off then check. regardless, i still did a static wet check. two carbs were smack on, the other two were way off. Fixed them aaaaannnnd....nothing changed. checked spark plug boots. Found one of the resistors had a carbon track on it, bypassing the whole resistor. Changed the boot aaaaaaaaand....nothing changed. So, this scenario is very unique to me. I have found the issue for my bike. You see, I wasnt running almost any of the plastics due to them being mostly smashed or cracked, and me wanting to be stupid and do adventure riding with it. Which means the air box is out in the open. From a hunch, while on the highway when it was surging, I decided to cusp the air inlet on the box to help stop the wind shear blowing across it aaaaaaaand...the surging stopped. Removed my hand, surging started again. So, I went back home, reinstalled the fake tank lid, and what do you know, that was it. Turbulent air was causing my lean surge. At least I can ride the bike without the annoying lean surge. Also threw on the messed up side covers. Makes it look like a big Seca~

If we get to go we’ll stay there too. Right now 100 miles is about my limit, we’ll see in a few months.

My local Yamaha dealer orders my Metzlers for me. I run the 888s with good luck and just replaced the front one last week.

i currently have michliens on my bike. i just typed in motorcycle tires on ebay and the size's , and scrolled till i found what i wanted. dunlop should wake up with the elite 4's, i know we're not the only one's with that tire size! there were good tires!!!!!

I have michlien tires on my bike. I think i got them from Dennis Kirk. I love them.

The “audio” button is also the power button for the system. If it’s been turned off or battery unhooked hit it to turn on. Not trying to be funny but sometimes the obvious escapes us, wait til the kill switch on the bars gets you like it has the rest of us.

I talk to him occasionally but it’s been a while. Last time I did, he indicated that his riding days were pretty much over. He had bought a couple of electric bicycles and was enjoying them.

I thought it was funny my Dad lives in north Florida so he calls us up and says he coming north to central Alabama to get away from the snow 🙃 SMH.

Sorry but the Stebel harness was not one of my products. It should be a very simple harness. Connect the OEM plug to a relay to energize the coil and run a fused line from the battery to one side the Normally Open (NO) contact of the relay and connect the input for the Stebel to the other side of the NO contact. Push the horn button and the relay closes making the horn blow. The tricky bit is making sure the relay is rated for the current needed for the Stebel horn, size the wire and fuse accordingly for the current needed by the horn. I could build one, but not having a Venture around to determine what connector is needed or estimate the length or wire needed, I would need some help in the form of pictures of the horn connector, and estimate of length of wire needed to get from the battery to the new horn.

Earl @skydoc_17 is still active on this forum and still, as far as know producing his excellent delinking kits on demand. I would message him again. He's probably just taking a break or otherwise busy right now.

Fuel will drain past the pump. If you have a stuck float needle, fuel will drain into the combustion chamber and likely hydro lock the engine. There have been some ruined engines because of this. i had this happen once but was very lucky, the cylinder with the raw fuel happened to have the piston at the top of its travel. When I hit the starter it was locked rather than starting to turn over and slamming that piston into uncompressable fuel and busting the piston,, rod and or block. I took the spark plugs out,and turned over resulting in fuel spraying all over. The crankcase usually fills with fuel too. Now I absolutely never shut my bike off without turning off the petcock. I don’t even think of it as it is now such a habit. The reverse when starting - turn the fuel and pull the choke out

This was me coming thru a tunnel on the parkway last week. I had hit the airhorn to see how much the wife would jump at the echo, laughed at her and exited the tunnel to find carnage. Three cars, two bikes, and a hiker in a pile, parts scattered everywhere. The first car upon hearing the horn and seeing a single yellow light thought he was meeting a freight train panicked, locked the brakes and lost control wreaking havoc. Three cars, two bikes, and a hiker in a pile, parts scattered everywhere. Luckily no injuries but it took two days to figure out which parts went to which vehicle. Lawyers are recommending I add more lights to look less like a locomotive. The best news out of it was that me hitting that broken truck bumper shook two lost 10mm sockets from somewhere in the motor and landed on my floorboard.

Finally done with all the painting! It came out really well, and definitely gets a lot of attention now! We added a bunch of shiny butterfly stickers to really capture the "9 year old with a barbie jeep" vibes it's got going on lol: