cowpuc

Tip and I are thinking about catching the Buffalo roundup in South Dakota while heading west to visit the kids in California and the roundup is usually in a similar time frame as your ride/meet/greet/adVenture/camp fire/eating contest/telling stories time at your place Or. Due to health issues no plans are written in stone yet but if everything lines up we will stop and camp in Trooper (our Ioniq hybrid mini-mtr-home) and enjoy some refreshing catching up with all you lop eared varmints. Please keep us all posted as you proceed with the planning for another one of your most excellent outings my friend and I will continue to follow this thread. Love you guys!! Puc,,, and Tweeks n Trooper and of course Tip!

Look familiar

Years ago, before Mom Yam revealed her failed attempt at producing a new Venture that "will turn the touring upside down" and would "set a new benchmark for all touring bikes in performance, handling and comfort" @Freebird started a thread called "let the discussion begin" here on VR. Many many of our club members responded and most of the club echoed the same "wish list". I am going to post here my response in that thread only because I still stand by it. I, like most here, followed the new Venture from start to finish and I even chase it to the unveiling at Lake George with MUCH excitement. Tweeks, TIP and I went out to Lake George for the unveiling with cash in hand and ready to buy/order that new 1700cc 175 hp shaft drive machine that I was SURE Mom Yam would be unveiling. I know for fact there were others on site that day at the unveiling with the same hope/dreams and intent, I spoke to many of them. @videoarizona was actually on the phone with me (or texting, cant remember) and clearly heard my response as soon as they started the 1st bike (they had two) hidden behind the curtain and I heard the familiar sound of ANOTHER FREEKING HD CLONE V-TWIN. I think my response was something like "ohhh crap". Like many others there, I had no interest in buying one after that. What a shame,, I am 100% certain that had Mom Yam actually completed her promises stated above there would be one in my garage right now as well as MANY others here. At the unveiling I actually heard Mom Yam's competition LAUGH and watched them walk away saying "no competition here thats for sure". I know for a fact that at least 4 of those people who said that were Honda Reps. I was so disheartened,, embarrassed, I had NO INTEREST in even test riding one then BUT, after a few months of reading promotional's, Tweeks/TIP and I did cave in and went to Sturgis that year for test riding and to ask questions concerning some other promises Mom Yam made about the bike. I took my infra red temp gauge and video camera along with a list of questions from fellow club members and we headed out on Tweeks. At Sturgis I asked the Yam Factory Reps about the question of air cooled V-Twins being HOT and how Yam solved that issue as I could not see any indication of such on the exterior of the bike. I also asked permission to take some temp readings.. They refused to allow me to take ANY temp readings on the Demo bikes and simply said YAMAHA FIGURED OUT THE SECRET TO SOLVING THE HEAT ISSUE WITH AIR COOLED V-TWINS. From that point on I was told to write Yamaha for any more answers to the questions both the club members and I had. While I still 100% believe the new venture could have been a REAL DEAL trend setter and could have been a real boost for Mom Yam and our sport and they would have sold like Hot Cakes had they of just listened to the faithful Venture riders of which I am one, I am still not quite sure what happened to the (supposedly) huge backing from the V-STAR RIDERS I met at Lake George who stood on the stage there and claimed they had designed the bike. It does not appear that even that group took a liking to the new bike. When they rode the bike up onto the platform at Lake George my first response to Tippy was "I SEE POLARIS VICTORY WRITTEN ALL OVER THAT THING! I WONDER IF ARLEN NESS LEFT POLARIS AND HAD HIS HAND IN THE DESIGN". Strangely enough, it seems the Polaris Victory riders ended up being the main supporter of the new Venture from what I see but even they didnt have the numbers needed to keep the steed in production. Fact is, IMHO, chasing Harley Davidson is/was NEVER a good plan. HD riders are in love with HD,, the sound, the vibes, the ride, the clothes, the QUALITY in both paint and looks.. I have owned and ridden MANY Harleys and LOVED em all so I get it BUT,, its wayyy to late in the game to even think about challenging HD, thats not possible. Their piece of the pie is theirs alone, they somehow survived the ages and have EARNED respect and honor in the Industry for doing so. Mom Yam should have forgot about chasing HD and focused on fulfilling her promises leading up to the unveiling,, I am still very very sad that she didn't. Here is that "wish list"/response to Freebirds thread entitled "let the discussion begin",,, I still wish it!! LOL: """"""I have been a Yamaha enthusiast for many many years and they have proven to me over and over again that they are TOPS!! Owned a couple early YZ monoshock MX bikes way back and they were AWESOME!! My little RD350 and RD250 (remains still in my basement) were giant killers - proving Yamaha's superiority in R&D!! My 73 XS650 beat across the country with me on its back several times, chopped it and rode it many more miles until sold. Bought a brand new 650 Special, AWESOME "cloned" mini Harley that saw the west too!! My faith in mother Yamaha has been proven 5 times over by my continual riding of the 1st Gen Ventures starting in 1987 until present day with my 83 that has almost 300k on it!! Fact is, folks at Yamaha, I AM READY FOR THE NEXT PHASE!! All that said, here is my feeble wish list: 1700cc V-4 "V-Max" motor.. Detune it if you must (just like before) but please,, dont do another V-Twin - got enough of em.. You guys can do it,, I KNOW YOU CAN!! Shaft drive! EFI with a tunable tuner - even if its an add on - please provide one so we can tune it!! LED lighting. Engine guarding and saddle bag guarding. Adjustable bars like on the first gen. Factory tank and windshield bags. Fixed Fairing. Get the same Doctors who advised you on constructing the seat of the 1st Gens (cant remember what you call those guys) to advise you on this one - my kids, wife and I LOVE what they did!! Keep the seat height difference between the rider and passenger no more than 3 inches (2 is great) - raising the passenger higher causes weight imbalance and makes slow speed riding harder. Ease of removal of the trunk(s) for changing rear tire. Center stand. Forward boards with normal foot pegs located rearward so standing up while riding is still possible, shift and brake levers at both locations (no heal toe please). Hand warmers. Key removable rear trunk and bags. Grease zerks on all main pivot points. High output stator even though it has LED's. Double check the gear sets in the tranny and make sure they ramp up solidly. Oversized clutch to insure NO slippage in high gears with xtra weight. 42 millimeter front fork tubes with progressive springs. Imbed reflective tape (or use reflective paint) in paint lines (like pin striping) so all profiles of bike light up when grazed by car lights. Add a large foot onto side stand - tired of bending over to pick up stand plate after parking on loose ground. Explore which tire sizes are the most common and build around those standards so tire choices and finding them are easy. Remember those long grips you used on the first gens? Use those, I love bending them back onto my knees. Enclose the motor well to keep ANY objectional heat off both riders BUT - use lots of venting with plenums to act as heaters when needed. Windshield it so the rear rider remains in the protective air pocket - functional vents in shield and fairing to adjust air movement if needed (hey,, could be asking for servo operated shield but I dont care for more things to go wrong). 6 speed Over drive tranny. Use GOOD solder, especially with ECU pins. QC the daylights out of it! DONT go cheap and trust the Chinese!! Dont short us on wire harness leads so wiring is tight - xtra 1/4 inch really helps!! Make fairing panels easy to remove but not so they fall off. Supply printable shop manual disc and printed well written owners manual. Supply GOOD factory tire pressure guage. Chrome is out for me, I LOVE dull stainless (like the pipes on the "New" V-Max),, matter of fact,, build mine with no rustable chrome and all dull stainless!! Intercom, CB and radio would be nice.. Keep the tape deck. OK, if you REALLY are reading this and you like what I am talking,, PLEASE make mine just a little faster in stock form than anyone elses.. Not that I would ever use the extra pazzaazz but I have buddies that I gotta compete with and just KNOWING I have the fastest one would be worth an extra grand to me:big-grin-emoticon: I KNOW you can do it!! Keep the faith mother Yamaha - I AM!! Puc"""""

You are welcome on the input Braun.. I would put your adVenture in the Water Hole myself, sounds like a good time ahead of you. Of course pics would be fantastic! Pics are worth a thousand words! Looking forward to it my friend!

I can soooooo relate brother!! I get it 100% and am praying for you!! Puc P.S. - now wiser words have ever been spoken = My message to you that can still ride is to RIDE! Ride all you can, when you can because you never know when your health will turn for the worse.

laughing with ya you lop eared brother varmint of mine!! can tell you how many times thru the years I made that comment LOL

EXCELLENT THOUGHT EARL!!!

and he would top that off with "that thing is Hardley Ableson" LOL... Dang I miss DanL'! Hey Skid,, my neighbor just bought a new HD Milwakee 8 114inch Fatbob.. GORGEOUS BIKE! After breaking it in his first stop was down here to my home to see if I "wanted to run em". Of course, Tweeks with her little 74 inch V-4 and I obliged him. It was not good and neighbor aint spoke to me since LOL. With Dan and his smiling face bragging about blowing past another Harley I figured I better toss that out there . THAT is a gorgeous machine Skid!!! CONGRATS!!

Thought I might my 2 cents of thought on this Braun.. I have worn out a few tires thru the years, a lot of them riding the hot tarmac associated with desert riding. Back in those precious, exciting times I ALWAYS was one who detested the thought of having to depend on dealerships along the journey and always carried tools to swap off/on my own tires. I found that sticking with the much cheaper tires, like Full Bore or Kenda, was the way to go because all of the high mileage tires were so stiff there was no way to get them off the wheel and definitely not back on again if I had to do one at roadside. Besides, begging an old tire for a replacement tire from an innocent local biker to get me to a new tire was entertaining to say the least. Having been thru numerous cheap "softer side wall" tires in my years and having @videoarizona turn me on to the Shinko Tourmaster I found the Shinko to be the best DIY at roadside tire and went thru dozens of them. It ended up being the best enduring tire while still being doable with my hand tools. I averaged about 6k miles per rear tire by going that route. At the end of our touring years I did finally cave in and had a local tire installer put on a Dunlop E-4 multi compound rear tire for me. I did take a shot a installing it myself but it turned out to be just what I had experienced with Michillen and a couple other high mileage tires in the past, not doable with hand tools. That tire was x3 in cost to the Shinko but did last x3 as long too. The HUGE difference is/was, as I suspected, it left me totally dependent on a machine to do the swap. That Dunlop was a radial and I never really noticed a difference while running it with the bias front Shinko that I had installed on the front. All that said, if I were going to go with tires I could swap n balance on my own I would stick with Shinko, if I were going to depend on dealerships and I was good with knowing I was dependent on them I would go with Dunlop in the E-4 series.. Puc

That's what I was reading into your post, that you were talking a DYI job,, sounds like fun. I am including a couple of vids of the only trike I ever built. Did a bunch of ground up chops and different things but this is as close to a full trike build I ever did. This build was around a Dyna kit my buddy bought. This kit was belt drive and I got a hunch that your biggest issue is going to have to do with developing a swing arm to replace the swing arm on the MK1 that houses the drive shaft and mount for the rear shock, that is unless you go full independent rear suspention,, that would get pretty detailed in geometry and fabbing too. I use to attend the Sturgis rally yearly back when I was building chops just to sit around and yap with other builders,, sharing ideas and all that stuff. There was a time when Triking became became popular, back before Hannigan and others started mass producing them. I know there were a couple aftermarket companies that sold DIY assemblies of shaft drive independent set ups that were fairly complicated in structure. Seems like back then a full assembly to do what I/we are doing in the vid only for a shaft drive and independent suspention set up could be had for around $2500. When we did the build in the vid I think my buddy paid close to that for the Chinese straight axle setup so I am sure a similar DIY independent kit would be wayyyy more than $2500 now, if one even still exist. I wonder if a junk yard somewhere may have a corvette rear end,, they were independent/shaft drive,, hmmmm, might save some big $$ and enormous amount of time if you could find one.. Sounds like a fun project,, I wish you all the best and look forward to some pics and read time following you on this adVenture Larry.. Puc

This may be worth a peek brother! Hi to Bobbi, love you both! Puc

CONGRATS @Skid!! She is GORGEOUS!! My oh my,, what would Yammer say LOL!!

Larry are you going two in the front or two in the back?

my guess is Skid ran for FB Mayor in a massively maga kinda way LOL

THAT is GORGEOUS!! Congrats Boss and Eileen! I hope it all works out perfectly and the two of you get to enjoy many more years of CTFW together! @Freebird you did awesome!

Not mine nor have I any idea who is selling it but here it is: https://detroit.craigslist.org/okl/mcy/d/grand-rapids-1987-yamaha-venture-xvz/7526252893.html

@Freebird,, just curious,, have you two ridden a trike together? I know you folks had a Slinger but was wondering about an actual triked bike? If not, maybe grab a HD Demo and get some time on one. Another approach would be to rent one. I cant remember which VR club member did that a few years ago but I do remember him saying the rental was a good experience. Just thinking out loud but even a solid axle HD might give you folks a "feel" for whether or not purchasing one is a good plan. Another thing you could do to test the waters is drive up to Canada and visit @Marcarl and take his Spyder out for a putt. If you do that though just beware that it likes to go down dead end streets so you have to do a lot of direction changing,,, at least thats what I hear lol

OUTSTANDING BOSS! Congrats to both you and the purchaser.. The person got a GORGEOUS scoot that's for sure!

Might be mistaken but it seems like @videoarizona had one,, maybe.. I never had the honor of taking one in but lots of other V-Stars including the 650's.. All were good bikes and sold well with no bring backs.

Hi Skidder! So I pay $7.90 a month for my Medicare Part D which gets me two of my meds (1 top tier, and 1 2nd tier) at $6 and $2 each for 90 days worth of pills. My cancer drug was an additional $145 per month out of pocket with my Part D insurance (that is called Silver Script?). Someone told me about "GOOD RX" which is a free card you can sign up for at GoodRX.com. I signed us up for that and that little card brought my Cancer drug down to $12 but saves nothing on my other 2 drugs. I was shocked at how easy the Good Rx card was to use. I use pharmacy within a local chain department store and it was absolutely no problem or hassle to use. Good RX is outside of my insurance plan and is free and my Part D carrier has no link to them or even knowledge of the fact I am using them that I know of.. Is that the kind of info you were looking for? Hope so! Aint this getting old stuff fun LOL? Puc

Hi brother,, @Freebird did you ever get a chance to check out the Vanderhall line? Tip n I test rode them a few years ago and WOW,, talk about a quality build and fun ride! The side by side sitting was amazing and I gotta hunch Eileen could easily drive it too.. Just a curious.. Puc

Way cool! That test riding business is LOTS of fun! Kind of like getting to sample multiple flavors or fudge up at Mackinaw City in Michigan LOL. I followed the Polaris Indian line right from the get go, from the 116 engine release down at Daytona and then to Sturgis for the world release and then to numerous test rides any time we were near a Polaris Demo tent. I LOVED the 1st year Chief with the real leather bags. I also LOVED the Polaris Victory Vision 8 Ball, it was one of the best handling motorcycles I have ever ridden, I knicked named it the WEEBLE cause I could flog the thing and it was pretty much not tip overable. I could also come to stop, step off the bike and walk away and it would just lean down on its floor boards lol. It was AMAZING! Personally, the only reason I never had interest in ANY of the Polaris line was strickely because of Polaris. Back in the late 90's when Polaris introed the Vics they had severe tranny issues, a major design flaw. I was real close friends of the owner of the local Polaris shop. When the Vic tranny issue showed up Polaris REFUSED to cover it under warranty and my buddy chased them out of his shop and cashed in his Franchise. Polaris did outsource a tranny redesign for the later models of the Polaris Victory 92 inch bikes but they never did fulfill their warranty promise to the early owners. Then, when they introed their Indian repops they dropped the Victory line with no notice to public or dealers alike. 2 weeks before they canceled the Vic line I was at the Dealer trade show and Polaris was there still offering Vic franchises and selling Vic bikes. I also know numerous Polaris Vic owners who got stuck upside down on loans with the instantly devalued motorcycles. IMHO, Polaris is not a company I would get involved with on any level. Test rides are still fun though LOL.. Puc ** to quote WIKI ""The 1999 and 2000 Victory models experienced serious transmission problems, even with bikes with considerably less than 10,000 miles. This has been corrected with minor revisions in 2001 and a complete redesign in 2002. But, according to Wikipedia, Polaris was aware of the problem with the false neutral transmission from the beginning, and yet - Polaris did not correct the transmissions in the 1999 and 2000 models and to date has not supported the owners of those bikes by replacing an apparently faulty design."""

Tip and I can so relate Don. As ALWAYS @Freebird, our prayers are with you and Eileen as you 2 sort through this part of life. Tip and I got out yesterday for a few hours and found not pushing it, stopping occasionally to smell the roses helped a lot. Luv you both!

On our local community forum one of the teenagers in our area wrote this: "just took my road test for the first time at Mosley's didn't even make it out of the parking lot had John as my Examiner don't know that I'm going back there he didn't even show me how to do it until I had already failed and then he treated me like I was a child like I have never drove before" PLEASE NOTE - the quotation marks in the above paragraph are mine, there were/are no punctuation marks in his post. Out of 30 responses to the OP's plea there was only 1 other response similar to mine below: "Mathew, having the examiner show you how to pass the drivers test would be like one of your teachers in school passing out the answers to a test they are required to give the classroom so the students can go on to the next grade in school. Doing so would not only be unethical and wrong to society but would also be doing a GREAT disservice to the student who is taking the test. Passing tests is something YOU earn by study/practice and personal perseverance, not something that can be given to you. Believe me, the examiner in this case probably did you a huge favor. You will find that life as an adult is going to judge you much like the examiner did but much harsher in the future."

My gut tells me you are going to be a very happy Venture Rider when the proper starter gets in and the new battery my friend. PLEASE keep us updated as you proceed when that happens! By the way @Braun, you are more than welcome, anytime! Puc