cowpuc

These guys are like Angels on my shoulders, THANK YOU @syscrusher!! Best be listening to them Angels Gdub!

I have just lived with it and covered quite a few miles in doing so (current 83 has over 300k on her and NEVER had a good clutch), I have always just avoided hitting the retro rockets up in those higher gears and, if I did, tried to avoid the slip so not to burn up my plates.. Gotta keep in mind also that I dont mind riding beater scoots, to the point of also riding em with no second gear out till they are junk too (just to give you some insight into what meets our needs). Just depends on what your after I guess. I will say this, I have a V-Max now and that thing is SO nice - I can nail it in high gears and actually get to feel the mighty v-4 pull through those upper gears - WAYYYYY nice!! Something that I have found REALLY helps with mine has been the type of oil I run, stay away from "car" oils of the High Mileage types, I use Truck Oils like Rotella 15-40 or and Walmart 20-50 a LOT.. Seems to work better as far as preventing clutch slippage. I know from experience that our scoots (MK1's - 83/84's) have a "half plate" in the clutch basket. Its the first plate to go into the basket when your putting it back together. I always theorized that this fiber plate missing half its surface was probably a big part of the reason I could never get a good solid clutch. I did try replacing that with an extra full plate I had (that is whats in Tweeks - my bike - right now). It was a used part though and it came out still slipping in the range you are talking. Been in there a LOT of miles! The newer scoots (MK2's = 86 to 93's) I think all have the updated Diaphram clutch spring and they seem to be a lot better of system than we have.. I have a running "parts" 87 that I have ridden and indeed, having a solid clutch all the way thru the gears is pretty cool!! Luke, if I jump on my 83, by myself, not loaded for touring,, run up to 4 grand in 4th or 5th gear and NAIL IT - I garantee you that my clutch will slip and I will have to tease it a little with the throttle to keep it from doing so,, been like that for many miles!! I also assure you that this malady is fixable and, if I or you want a good clutch, someone like Skydoc has the knowledge and parts to accomplish the task! Just I never took the time and spent the cash to accomplish it..

Less than 24 hours and it will be all done Jeff,, PRAYERS UP AND BLESSINGS DOWN MY FRIEND for a well done surgery and a 100% recovery outcome!! Right here rootin for ya brother!!

OUTSTANDING you lop eared varmint Mirider rascal!!! :dancefool: Just finished a really good homemade Turkey Pot Pie and actually told Tip that it made my mouth DRUEL for a good o Yooper Pasty = PERFECT TIMING DAVE:thumbsup: Gonna hafta score some of them critters next year when we all get up that way for a Greet - Meet n Eat Meat ol buddy!! Ok,, we never figured this out did we?,,, close your eyes,, picture you and Sue riding across the Big Mack on Big Mack,,, you get to the north side of the bridge and a take a left on "2" so you go thru that western part of Saint Ignas. You stay on 2 following along Lake Michigan - a few miles out of town you come to a small Road Side picnic area on a hill top on your left hand side, you go down the hill and there is a small stand alone Pasty Shop on your left.. BEST OF THE BEST:thumbsup: Only problem is they have no place to sit and eat so you gotta sit on the lawn to gobble it up

Sounding like our kinda varmint Larry!! Have you figured out how to use the VR Calendar thingy yet? LOTS of good options always popping up there. Also might wanna keep an eye peeled around here in the Water Hole for Meet n Greet opportunities. One of my favorite M n G's has gotten to be one called "Pucs Greet - Meet n Eat Meat"s. While not the fanciest shig dig by no stretch of the word - that particular M n G has experienced major growth spurts and has gotten AMAZING reviews, probably because of the OUTSTANDING Hot Dogs that my crew of misfits tend to create. Most of the lop eared varmints who have attended are from Michigan but we have had several unscrupulous critters come stay with us - some even from Canada - for one of these events. That is never a problem, we have lots of room for camping if necessary BUT usually its not cause we also have xtra sleeping area's here in the house.. Keep it in mind if your ever thinking you might wanna Venture up into Michigan. IMHO - attending one of "Puc's Greet - Meet n Eat Meat" events is closely seconded by one of @Freebirds Maintenance Days (I can just see anyone reading this going :scared:and saying "I cant believe ol Pucster said that :big-grin-emoticon:" - to them I say ). Closer to you (Don is in Oberlin Ohio) and, after FINALLY attending my first one last year I gotta say that I have been missing something very special and really amazing all these years - LOTS of fun:thumbsup:!!! Of course, you will find MANY other opportunities on the Calendar (some right out your back door), I have attended a number of them thru the years and I have yet to find one that Tip and I did not have a BLAST at and ALWAYS felt TOTALLY welcome. It would be fun to just run around all summer and make as many of these outings as possible Oh, by the way,,, @bj66 started a new one last year called "The Pie Butt 26.2" . Its during the big Sturgis Rally, open camp on the prairie - then head into Newel South Dakota and become an official Pie Butt 26.2 Rider (we rival and with the Iron Butt Riders dont we guys?!!!!). You would LOVE it!! Venture West is amazing, an International is a must do, @OrlinEngh 's shin dig in Wisconsin is incredible, if you can catch a Vogel (:think:exactly what is a Vogel you may ask:scratchchin:) and the the Dragon with @DragonRider and that bunch you WILL come home a changed man, have yet to make a New York shindig but have heard amazing reports and still hoping to - same with this thing called Pig in a Tree (Pork in the Pines).. Hmmm, I KNOW I am missing a few thousand different ride ops here BUT you get the point I am sure!! All the best in '16 @Larry1963 and hope to cross roads with you sometime!!

Anyone got tickets to go see the new Star Wars movie? Tip and I LOVE Star Wars (she is sitting here watching part 5 right now ) and someday soon plan on having a date night to go watch it.. Cant wait to hear your opinions (without giving the story away of course:no-no-no:) if any of you lop eared Yoda lookin varmints happen to get to it before we do!! May the V-FORce be with you my fellow Star Wars lovers!!

Luke,,,, it is your destiny!! May the V-FORce be with you (:scared:I may have just hit on another good one liner) !! At least more than it has been with me! Out of 5 MK1 1st Gen's I have yet to have a clutch that didnt do that - especially while loaded with gear and riding 2 up. I have tried new springs and even new clutch plates and always ended up with a slipper right in the spot where your talking Luke. I have not tried heavy duty springs though,,, I know that someone on here sells them, I think it is @skydoc_17 that are suppose to be the cats meow. Hindsight being 20/20 If I were gonna go for it I would order a set of his and deal with him on figuring it out - he has had LOTS of good reviews:thumbsup:

Hey T, have never owned either of the bikes your dealing with but thought you might find this video of interest. Might be able to glean some pertinent info from it. Pretty cool set up IMHO. All the best in your search for anwswers. Puc

@eusa1, gotta ask but if answering this is a secret I TOTALLY understand. I am one of those folks that have seen Raggies bike sparkle and yea:178:.. Is that an actual 3 step procedure you go thru to get them to SPARKLE like that (probably should not be so nosy - sometimes my curiousity gets me in trouble)? Do you do other parts on bikes that produce that "look"? My gosh brother those suckers are GORGEOUS!!:clap2:Someday I am gonna bump into Raggy again and I am gonna make a video of what your artistic work is all about. Just beautiful!

and more Dougs n Dales n Bobs n Darrins n Joes n Bills n Daves n Petes n Sams n Jamies n Joshuas n Brads n Mikes n Sharons n Dawns n Jills and on and on.. Almost put down more Tippy's but that aint possible cause she is one of kind,, sure glad I got her when I did:173:!!

Indeed Gdub, I too would like to thank that @Prairiehammer for sharing that.. I have seen and been around numerous 1st Gens (have only owned MK1's though) and never ever ever have a noticed that!! Ya dab burned lop eared varmint Kev,, every time I get around you I end up learning something new - THANKS a gazillion brother!! Gdub, being new to the bike - it is possible that the previous owner actually rode the forks completely out of oil. Maybe put a little dish soap in a spray bottle of water - put air in the forks and spray around the forks and see if its leaking there. Also check the other areas. DONT FORGET TO CHECK THE SHRADER VALVE = WHERE YOU PUT THE AIR IN AT (be pretty cool if all it was was that little valve needed snugging up:big-grin-emoticon:). If you do find that the air is leaking from the fork seals it might not be a bad idea to double check the condition of your front brake pads. If he ran the old girls forks dry so the air is now able to get out those seals, my money is on you will also find ruined brake pads cause the flow of oil going down the forks always seem to find its way into the brake caliper.. Makes a real mess in there but totally cleanupable.. All the best in figuring it out, keep us posted on your its coming when ya got time! Also, Godspeed on the ankle healing process- that stuff is never fun!!

Don started this thread and it seems like we have gotten a number of new family members lately!! I for one think that is neato acapeeto'! Like everyone else on here, I LOVE making new friends - a person simply cannot have enough friends! At a time when our planet seems to have an abundance of problems with hatred and fighting, we seem to be able to get along very nicely within our club of lop eared varmints that are known as VentureRiders.. After reading some recent posts from folks who recently joined us, something popped into my mind. I recalled some deep sadness I had had over hearing of a family member who had chosen to leave our midst a while back. Remembering this thread, I found myself wondering if there was something that could be talked about within our family that could help in reducing the possibility of something like that happening again - at least reduce the probability of it.. Thought maybe, being the Christmas Season (Peace on Earth and all that) plus seeing all the new names around here, this may be a good time to toss this out.. Some thoughts.. 1. Always try to NOT take things that are said to personal. 2. Joking around and teasing one another is something that many of us enjoy doing, having hurt feelings come from poking fun is NOT fun for anyone though - if you contribute to teasing and poking fun PLEASE know that you probably will get teased back. If you don't contribute, please feel free to chuckle with the rest of us but be careful not to take any of our ribbing each other to heart.. An example is if we are teasing each other about the type of scoot we ride we are NOT referencing our true feelings in any form. I for one have a deep passion for ALL motorcycles and have the highest respect and love for ALL my brothers/sisters that ride them - just because I give someone a hard time about their Harley or their Wing or their moped does not mean I actually feel that way.. I know I kid around a LOT about 1st Gens being faster than 2nd Gens but in all honesty - I really have no idea which one is faster and seriously, I dont really care - it is fun to joke about it though. Also, I tease a fellow member here who I love dearly about owning a machine that controls the weather, he doesn't really have one BUT he sure is fun to poke fun at. 3. Our moderators and the owner of VR (Freebird) are really GREAT people. Unfortunately, part of their job here involves doing things that can easily be taken personally by the rest of us varmints. I have had threads moved, been part of group scolding for placing posts in the wrong area's and all that. After careful heart examination I have generally been able to see where the actions that one of our leaders had taken needed to be done for the benefit of our site. This sounds easy but I will tell ya, in the middle of it all it can be a difficult thing to do. Something that has really helped me in dealing with some of this has been remembering that our leaders are just people too, the big difference is that they are the ones who have to do the job of keeping things in order, safe and flowing smoothly for our benefit. Another thing that I have found that has helped me is getting out and actually meeting some of them. For some reason (in my case anyway), getting to shake hands with, ride with and even share a hot dog with these varmints helps a LOT with understanding them and their collective positions. They are ALL amazing people who deserve our respect and love. 4. If you are the original poster of a post, try to respond to people who have posted with an answer and not just disappear. This seems to give the responders a feeling that you appreciate them and the time they took to write. Sounds crazy but something inside me tells me that little things like that really do matter. 5. We cant go wrong by using those little "thanks" and "like" icons at the bottom of posts. I still think that there really is something to Ernest P. Worrell's little song about those three little words = please and thank-you. 6. Never be afraid to offer suggestions to technical questions by others, there are LOTS of really mechanically inclined people on the site who may or may not agree with your suggestions BUT nobody knows everything about everything and a really great benefit of a family like ours is that we can and do learn from each other - no matter what stage of the learning curve we are at. Always remember - there are NO stupid questions! 7. I LOVE pictures - for me (and others too - I KNOW this for a fact) pictures included with a story are like cake and ice cream,, yummmmm good!! It seems like many folks have reported having problems getting pics to load on VR.. For some reason something inside me tells me that even some folks may have given up because of those difficulties. I want to say that we WANT to see your pics. A really big deal that I ran into a long time ago had to do with pictures being to big to load - I seriously have come to believe that picture size is the number one reason that pics wont load up on the site. I personally use "Paint" to resize pics if needed BUT I know that Don (Freebird) has a thread in the forums all about this - PLEASE use it and keep the wonderful pics coming!! 8. We have a members map that shows a little balloon that points to our home locations. I LOVE to spend time playing on that map and seeing where friends of mine are from and am proud to have my name pop up on there because I am proud to be part of our family. If you haven't done so and wouldn't mind doing so, please include your balloon on that map. 9. If you read about a Meet n Greet (or other gathering) and feel a pull to go and meet some of these people in person PLEASE do so. This may sound crazy but I know from years of hanging out with different groups of bikers how hard it can be because the wondering whether or not I will "fit" in still bugs me too sometimes. I just want to say that I have never experienced a more receptive group of folks than I have here on VR. To put this into perspective, Tip and I are non-drinkers - I have been to over night gatherings with this group and have NEVER had an issue arise from turning down consumption and NEVER felt out of place or looked down upon for being a non-drinker. Just very good folks who accept me the way I am - cant ask for more than that! This goes for folks from the East Coast, West Coast, North coast including Canada and those Southna's are AWESOME too!! Even if you end up driving your car - you will be welcome! 10. Ever notice those cute little badges under peoples Avatars? Ever click on one and see what they are about? If not you should - those badges are there because someone thought enough to nominate someone for one reason or another.. Some really interesting reading can be found by clicking on those award badges. Did you know that you can nominate your friends here for special awards,, acts of kindness and all that too? Pretty cool really because those follow the deserving person on all their posts, sort of a real easy way to learn about each other!! Think about using those as a way to say thank you to a new or old friend! Just another way to make each other feel a little more welcome and appreciated from my perspective. 11. There is a way to "friend" people here on VR. I dont know about anybody else but I like that a LOT.. Clicking on someones name, reading about them and what they are about, clicking on that little "friend" icon and then being accepted by them as a friend is really pretty neat - I have always felt like a person cant have to many friends and that little icon sure makes it easy to have them here on VR! On a side note, a while back I did that and within a very short time after clicking on that icon I got a phone call. The voice of a person I had never met was on the other end of phone and said he had called to introduce himself and "meet" me before he accepted my friend request - HOW COOL IS THAT!! We talked for a good while and now both are looking forward to meeting some day in real life - it dont get no better than that!! 12. If you go to a "Maintenance Day" go to learn about your bike/meet new folks and not necessarily for some free repair work. Most folks LOVE helping others but really dont care for being taken advantage of. Also, dont be afraid to jump in and spin a few wrench's - even if your like me and concerned about things like "what if I cant firgure it out",, there will usually be someone around that can!

peace would remain in the Yammer garage and that V-4's, new or old would live in harmony throughout Yammerland as they should. A discussion then came up about what would become of all of them should mother yamaha (better known to the bikes as The Creator) decide to produce a Gen 3 Venture using the new 1700cc V-Max motor as a powerplant. They all laughed at this suggestion because they knew

Exactly!!!

about how fortunate he was to have ended up in the hands of the Detective. A deal was struck between the more mature 1st Gens and the new 2nd Gen that if

No idea if any of this helped the OP here but I gotta say,, you bunch of lop eared varmints are slicker than a freshly bathed muskrat on a cold winter morning Makes me proud to know ya's!

Hi Gdub and to VR! I may be misreading your question and if I am I apologize. I am assuming that when your talking about replacing the seal you are either talking about the seal around the cap on top of the fork or the seal around the collar that the air travels thru to get into the fork and you are not talking about the fork seal located on the top of the lower leg = the one that the upper tube slides thru when you press down on the front end? Guess we should get that clarified first.. If the leakage is around the cap, its a fairly simple fix = lift the bike so the front end off the ground, remove the cap and replace the o-ring on the cap. The collar would be more involved as you will have to remove the entire front fork, slide it out of the lower triple tree and use the triple trees upper edge to knock the collar off to replace the seals. If it's the actual fork seal (the one in the lower leg) that requires removing the lower leg from the upper tube, that kinda makes me .. The reason why is it seems like you would have had to have lost a lot of fork fluid long before you would ever actually lose air. The reason I say that is that the air pressure that is introduced into the fork is actually pressurizing against the oil inside of the top tube and it works by forcing down on that oil,, seems like the tube would almost have to be empty before it could leak air out of that seal - make sense or am I thinking crazy again:confused24:? Concerning progressives, I have almost completed wearing out my fifth 1st Gen and have yet to own one that came to me not needing progressives. The OEM springs tend to sack very easily. The easiest way to determine whether yours need progressives is to run all the air out of your forks and see how much travel you have in them. If you can hold the front brake and bottom out the forks with no air in them you indeed need progressives. Sitting on its side stand your forks should show 3 1/4 to 4 inches of travel exposed above the bottom leg - I have had them with only an inch or so of travel exposed with sacked out springs. I also might add that, generally speaking, I end up having to replace seals on forks when I end up with sacked springs and I have a theory that the reason for this is because of the pressure put on the seals from oil not having any place left to go - whether thats true or not I dont know but I do know that its VERY common to have blown seals with sacked springs. I have purchased sets thru Ebay and have been very happy with them - they seemed to do fine. There are some small items that need to be addressed when you do the swap (like pre-loading and changing the fork oil) but nothing major. Concerning fork boots. I am an old dirtbiker and very familiar with fork gators and am thinking we are talking about the same thing. These would be covers that go over the tube/lower leg and keep dirt off the upper tubes and fork seal area? The normal arrangement on our bikes is lower leg, seal (with bushing below it, washer, seal, washer, snap ring and then dust cover right above seal (think I got that right - been a while).. They did not come from Yamaha with a Gator or Boot over that joint.. Perhaps someone had stuck boots on your bike in an attempt to help keep seals in it. Personally, I dont think boots are a bad idea if your gonna be running a lot of two tracks but,, experience has taught me that boots can retain moisture which can create pitting on the tubes in certain environments and the type of boot your using.. I have ran a LOT of off road with my Ventures and, other than having to occasionally clean out the fork seals with a piece of old 35mm film negative (or a similar piece of thin plastic) found no reason to lean toward putting gators on my scoot.. Now, all that said, if I were in your shoes and we are talking about replacing the actual fork seals - the ones located at the tops of the lower legs under the "boots". Assuming this is where your getting air from.. I would double, triple check the bushings under the seals very carefully for fit. It is not uncommon for those bushings to go out of spec - especially if they have been ran dry. Those little suckers can and have caused some strange issues (low speed wobbles, premature seal failure) because the upper tubes can actually move laterally inside the lower legs. Not a bad idea to check em as long as you have it apart. Hopefully I didnt loose you back at the first sentence of this thesis and that it helps you somehow. Lets keep our that someone with much more knowledge and ability to communicate it comes along if I lost you:big-grin-emoticon:

Just a heads up Lefty, that Yammer has a hollow leg that holds a lot more ice cream than his teeth do,, just thought I would point that out

That we do brother, THAT we do!!!

that beat within Silver had not been altered or changed so it was clear to the 1st Gens that she was truly still part of the worlds best touring bike family that had begun with the 1st Gen Ventures. It was not long before the pretty 2nd Gen found herself being corrupted by the 1st Gens and joining in a game they had started by placing bets with them as to who Yammer would select to ride on his next journey. Regular dollars mean nothing to motorcycles so the bets were payable with

Be really careful in your foot doctor selection. so it gets re-attached pointing the right direction. Maybe find one who has some perfect refinement, so even your "toe" will be in proper alignment. The limp that you have will be addressed on this Thursday, so when summer returns on your bike you can play. Winter months may be long with therapy and all, But when summer returns we'll be having a ball. No fear do you have or concern for that matter, if thoughts of your White Washer is why all the chatter. These varmints on VR will watch over that thing, so its sure to be ready for NEXT winters sting. We send you our thoughts and prayers dear friend, all wishing you best with full recovery's end. While laying there snoring and under Gods care, have dreams of some snow but PLEASE leave it there!!

and a very MERRY CHRISTMAS to you and yours Eusa1:santa:!! By the way, I seen have MANY fine examples of your work while out chasing the wind - you do a GREAT job my friend - thanks!!

Very very nice Oz - THANK YOU!! Might add that one of the things Tip and I have found is that its never a bad idea to stop in area's we are riding and yap with the locals to find little hidden treasure rides,, the out of the way places that can spring up off from following main roads like noted on these maps can also add a whole new dimension. Plus making new friends is always fun!! GOOD THREAD!! Greatly appreciated

What in the world,, its been 4 days and no more stupid things? Am I the only one who has done more than one? @Flyinfool? @Marcarl? @ragtop69gs? @Brakepad? @mirider? @Freebird? @Drews? @Eck? @bongobobny? @Condor? @AussieAnnie? @YamaMama? @rbig1? @bluestar99? @StarFan? @bikerjohn? @divey? @Dale124? @Anybody? Hello,, no one else did something crazy?? Ok,, you had your chance,,, guess its all left up to me... My parents lived in an old farm house in my teen years. They had about 80 acres of farm land that I hunted deer on during the second part of our deer season here in Michigan. The soil of that old farm land was really strange, it had a good 4 inches of top soil on it but when it rained hard it didnt drain good and the soil under the top soil would turn to soup and would take forever to dry out. I had 1965 International Utility Truck that I was driving during that era of my life and one day I decided to drive that old truck across my dad's field to haul a deer in I had just harvested (notice the politically correct lingo there:happy34:) - this was about 8 a.m.. The field had its own access to it from the main road and I used that access to get onto the field. I had gotten about half way across the field when I felt the ground give way and felt the frame of the truck settle onto the topsoil. It was at this point that I discovered how truly soupy the soil under the topsoil was because as I stepped out of the truck I watched as the front wheels slowly sank down until the front frame rails were also laying on the ground. :doh: Nearest tree was about 200 yards away along the main road - nothing to hook a come along too:confused24:.. Got a brilliant idea!! Went back to the house and "borrowed" my sisters car, went into town - first used car lot had a 4x4 Jeep Truck for sale - went inside and told em I wanted to test drive the truck .. Pulled the test truck out to my truck in the field, hooked it up, the Jeep went down like a ton of bricks:yikes:.. Walked back to the house, borrowed my mom's car, was back in an hour with another test driver - this was a 3/4 ton Chevy 4x4 manual shift with BIG tires on it,, hooked it up to the Jeep and it went down like a ton of bricks too :yikes: As I was standing there I noticed a County Road Grader coming down my parents gravel road - guy was out minding his own business, doing his job grading the road when I flagged him down.. A little begging and smooth talking and he was out in the field attached to the Chevy,, popped it out no problembo.. Hook onto the Jeep - out it came no problemo.. Hooked it onto my International, will never forget it,, these great big grader wheels that were taller than me rotated about 1/8th turn and that grader went right to the frame:doh::doh:.. I unhooked the chain from my still stuck truck, the driver tried EVERYTHING to unstick himself (lifting with the belly blade and all that) and it WOULD NOT come out!! As we were waiting for this GREAT BIG MASSIVE County Road Commission Tow Truck to appear the driver was telling me that he hoped he had a job after getting found out:doh::doh:.. I was tempted to ask if he would mind if I left my truck hooked up to the grader when the tow truck was running a line out to him but THANKFULLY I wasnt quite THAT stupid:happy34:.. After they left I started the process of washing and returning my "borrowed" vehicles.. Made it to the last car lot just in time.. Was coming home in my Mom's car when it dawned me,, one of my rabbit hunting buddies who was considerably older than me had Triple "A" insurance with towing service. I knew the tow bill would be expensive and this was long before God had invented decent paying job's for 16 year old kids so I did what I had to do - I called my buddy and asked.. He said he thought he could get it towed on his Triple A card. About 9 p.m. a wrecker pulled in, we talked for few minutes, got the payment deal all squared away, the guy hooked the wrecker up and it wouldnt budge the truck, no matter what he did to it the wrecker just slid - I honestly thought my Utility Truck was going end up becoming a field ornament - you know,, decorate it during Christmas,, use it for a hunting blind or something cool like that.. The wrecker driver ended up calling in for a bigger wrecker.. The wrecker company ended up sending a unit very similar to the one the Road Commission had sent out for the Road Grader. About midnight and my Dad's field finally released my truck from incarceration :cool10::cool10::cool10:

and then parking her next to a group of snarling 1st Gen's who had battle notches carved on their sides from the many Hardleys and other 2nd Gens they had slain. It wasn't until the Detective had left her alone with the group that she was able to calm them down with her melodious exhaust tones. The rambuncious 1st Gens began to discover that the heart beating within her finely detailed body proved she was one of them. The person who Yammer had aquired her from had done everything in his power to disguise her true Yamaha beginnings by covering her with