cowpuc

Heyyyy,, look what cat dragged in Know what cha mean about the leaf thingy happening Tom, been having all kinds of fun chasing em around the yard too. Trying to stay on top of it before the Fool sends the other stuff falling from the sky. Beginning to feel a little like Henny Penny - the ol the sky is falling - the sky is falling routine. Thanks for checking in brother!! PS, that comment about misfit's was perfect - of course who would expect anything less from the Master of Misfit's himself:guitarist 2:

Absolutely fantastic ride report and those pics are WOW ZZZZ WOW WOW WOW AWESOME David!!! :clap2::dancefool::dancefool: THANK YOU for sharing them!! That tire is HUGE:scared:,, hate to have to try and spoon a new one of those on after a flat:big-grin-emoticon:.. Looks like you all had a BLAST - good on ya brother:thumbsup: Makes

that he KNEW would solve everything. Having clearly recognized the type of motorcycle the Detective was riding and knowing from experience how much all Venture Riders enjoy getting together to brag about their bikes and EATING food - Don wiped his wifes tears away the best he could and told her to hang on - he slid the Avalanche into 4 wheel drive - stomped the accelerator down and headed across the open fields surrounding the road they were on. Stopped at a Walmart, came out with 4 grocery carts full of stuff and a few few minutes later they pulled into the home of friends of theirs. A mysterious varmint with a big smile answered the door right after Don knocked on it.. "@Squidley its good to see you" Don said as Squid stood there trying to pick a piece of fried chicken from the pearly white piano key's he had just used to dismember some chicken legs.. "Good to see you and Eileen too" came Squids friendly answer.. Then, in his best Texas drawl he said "how comes it looks Eileen's been crying and why do you have all those packages of Hamburger, boxes of Ice Cream and containers of Baked Beans in the back of your new truck?". Don started to explain to Squid that

1. Totally agree 2. Absolutely 3. Hard to say, if by "better" bike you mean a bike that fits the dynamics of how you and your buddies ride when your together than it could actually make you a better rider because your not trying to force your RSV to do something its not designed for. Like you mentioned - that can be exhausting and exhaustion alone can certainly chip away at ones skills.. There is a lot to it... As far as the over confident issue,, IMHO you sound like the kind of person that would not be likely to have issues with it because you are obviously thinking about it - usually over confidence comes from not thinking things thru. I only brought it up because I have seen the results of it played out a number of times and thought best to bring it up cause your my friend and friends warn each other of things like that.. 4. IMHO, thats a pretty rough call with not enough information, only you can know how your bike fits into the needs of the group your riding with. Also, I have never had the honor of riding an RSV so I have really been going out on a limb even sharing thoughts, idea's or even my opinion about the bikes cornering characteristics and capabilities. I will say this though, I do TOTALLY agree with you that this thread has been fun and very interesting and I thank you for posting it up. Regardless of whether you decide to go Beemer, stay with your RSV or end up owning both (that happens ya know ) I wish you ALL the best in the funnest, safest and fulfilling rides with those Army buddies of yours!! right there with ya Blue!! :thumbsup: I know one thing, if I had one of those puppies I would be :big-grin-emoticon: and snappin 's and running all over the country to show it off After watching that video about it I feel like:

Ahh ohhh,, you forgot about the Trophy Girl Leland :bikersmilie::bikersmilie: (Tippy)

pulled yet another item out of the hidden compartment where she had found the mysterious sealed envelope earlier in our story. Don's eyes glimpsed over at his lovely wife as she read the note aloud.. Her words resonated within the confines of the Avalanche and a smile appeared on the face of our hero who was busy driving their new rig, she read - Dearest Eileen, the envelope attached to this note contains two round trip airline tickets to Paris where I am planning yet another great vacation for us as far away from these

I really like your new trike Gez but gotta ask,, do plan on putting some kind of shield over the 2x2 inch piece of tubing aiming at your tummy? Just thinking out loud here but seems like the possibility of getting skewered if you had to stop quick by something that size may interfere with ones ability to concentrate on the twisties while playing in places like the Dragon..... Otherwise,, pretty slick!!

Sure brings back great memories of hittin the road with our 4 kids when they were little GW (I had/have REALLY great kids but they did like to join me in howling at the moon once in while - good Lord I miss my kids:8:), moteling was a pain in the gazoozy, only took us one 1 month trip to figure out that was no way to have fun! Picked up a 32 foot Sightseer Class A Motorhome. It was PERFECT for our needs, Onan Genny - dual roof air - Dodge chassis with a 419 big block in it (four barrel w/ headers and didnt do half bad on fuel = always got 9ish). We looked and looked for a "bunk house" - took about 6 months to find it but the 4 beds in the back worked PERFECT for our little kids,, they all had their own beddy byes and area to hang out. Soooo much fun coming out of places like Disney, Cedar Point or off the beach at The Bay of Fundy, toss on burgers, eat dinner, shower up the youngens and watch em fall asleep in the beds before even pulling out of the parking lot.. Wake up the next morning in a Walmart parking lot, play a little baseball game while Tip cooked breakfast and back on the road.. We ran that thing all over America and a lot of Canada.. Although I ALWAYS had fun with and enjoyed my kids thoroughly (played with them a LOT) back then regardless of how we traveled (this was pre-motorcycle touring with em) but I gotta say that knowing exactly what we needed/wanted in an RV then waiting and finding that unit paid off BIG TIME in endless, awesome memories.. In staying with forum rules,, here are a couple of my favorite pics of the interior of that ol Class A taken on our path looking for Tidal Bores out in Nova Scotia...

It only be-eth a waste if thou leteth this golden age of opportunity to enlighten us one more time slipeth thru those talented fingers of yours oh Master of The Spoken Dialog,, your Kingdom of inquisitive lopeth eared varmints waiteth for yet one more of your sage advice examples.. PS oh Dearest of Emperor's, your royal subjects looketh not to you just for direct instructions for proper oil filter o-ring engagement but the multitudes now eagerly awaiteth your holiest of advice on how to turneth back the hands of time:bowdown: . 40 soundeth pretty dog gone goodeth to many of your royal subjects..

A few years ago I did a little man cave testing using straight Sea Foam, cheapy Auto Zone spray carb cleaner in the yellow and white can, Techtron spray throttle bottle cleaner and Chem Dip. I took an old set of carbs from a 750 Honda that had been left for years, pulled the bowls (nasty inside but all the same nastiness) pulled the internals including floats/needles, jets... Put the parts in the bowls - filled the bowls with straight up chems listed above with the floats weighted to hold em under.. With NO brushing or scraping or compressed air blowing = Chem Dip parts were clean in less than an hour, Techtron came in second with a couple hour soak, Auto Zone spray cleaner came in third with clean parts at a four hour soak.. An interesting thing here, the Sea Foam did nothing,,, even after leaving the parts soak for a few days the stuff did nothing.. Admittingly, this was straight Sea Foam with no gasoline added (I am no chemist and have no idea what kind of chemical reaction happens when gas is mixed with the stuff). One of the things that really interested me in my findings is that I had used Sea Foam on a number occasions and the stuff always did seem to make my engines run better. After my testing I wondered if the better running of the engines I had experienced had more to do with the type of burn attitude gas has with Sea Foam in it rather than how the stuff actually "cleaned" surfaces.. I am still not much of a believer in cleaning carbs by adding a substance into your fuel,, just never really seemed to actually work for me. Strange as this might sound,, I have had wayyyy better luck with cleaning carbs by draining my bowls, pulling the slides/metering rods, injecting carb cleaner into the bowls thru the drain tubes with a syringe until the carb cleaner flows out of the main jets thru the meter rod holes into the throat of the carb, close the drains and let it sit for a few hours. Open the drains, pump the syringe to make some agitation and suck the dirty carb cleaner out, refill thru the drains with raw gas until it too flows out the mains, agitate and suck gas out, close the drains, fill the bowls with fuel from the fuel pump, open the drains and bleed em till they run clean.. Have had much better luck doing that as opposed to "add to gas" anything as far as actually cleaning the carbs without removing them.. Another thing I might add here,, years ago spray carb cleaner used to come with some kinda cleaner in it that would burn your skin under your wedding band when it got under there - had an obvious "bite" to it . I LOVED that stuff (not cause of the burn but cause of its CLEANING ABILITY!!) - it ROCKED!! Havent seen it for years now and , other than Chem Dip (very hard on rubber parts) - this new age spray stuff aint even on the same page.. Concerning the plug fouling thought, I have found that Sea Foam does indeed seem to cause fouling.. I have noticed a "sheen" on fouled plugs that have been exposed to Sea Foam.. Strangely enough, I have also seen a very similar type of sheen on 2 stroke engined snowmobile plugs that have had a diet of some synthetic 2 stroke injector oils..

with the dyno sheet showing that his new motor, which had dual turbo's attached it, would produce just over 1000 horse power and 650 foot pounds of torque. Our Icelandic friend has visions of putting a whoopin on

Indeed Fool!! Then you could get that nozzle control right down to exact placement... I sure am glad I invested heavily in that contraption - we are gonna make MILLIONS, maybe even BILLIONS when you figure in selling to people out for revenge on others - booohahahahahaha:big-grin-emoticon::big-grin-emoticon:

And the underlying message in Mama's reasoning here is exactly why the ol Pucsteroni will always be king of the mountain when it comes to Professional Hugging Contests..

The Wizard of White Wash has spoken some mighty powerful words there I tell ya!!!:bowdown::bowdown::bowdown::bowdown::bowdown::bowdown:

As in all things Shmily,, the following is one of those "IMHO" thingies.. Most bikes really do have a "purpose built" idea behind them. There is an old saying that I have heard many times over in race circuits = a fast rider will be fast no matter what he rides. That saying does hold a lot of merit BUT - a world class MXer is not going to be able to compete on a Motocross Track, even with Novice riders, if he is riding a Honda Goldwing on the track - just aint gonna happen. Now that is an extreme example BUT - within that extreme example are some very important items that cant be ignored! I have seen the question you are asking and what I am responding with played out many many times over - from little kids on minibikes to adults on big bikes, indeed - a purpose built bike being applied to what it is purposely built for can, will and usually does inspire confidence - you are not on crack:biker: Experience has also taught me though that an overly confident person ( it is not uncommon for a bike to inspire to much confidence) is usually a very dangerous person too though. For instance, that GTL that you pointed out - I look at a scoot like that and TOTALLY see a TON of fun waiting to be had. I have the exact same "feeling" run thru me when ever I view videos of the new V-Max because I LOVE massive HP and Torque. My underlying problem (for me) is that I also know that big power numbers like those two produce can actually work against you when the user friendliness and over input forgiveness found in handling lesser HP machines when ya wick on em is gone. The more powerful they are, the more precise you have to be in your input (there is always a give and take) - make sense? Just something to think about.. Hey Shmily,, what other machines have you got in the group of guys you ride with?

My 1st Gen doesnt have a spin on but if it did I would be doing the ol 1/2 to 3/4 past o-ring contact,, its always nice to not have to chisel the old filter off when you do the next change.. Me n Bongo gotta another thing in common,, I am a coater of the seal too Bob.. So,, anyone ever stick a spin on on with the o-ring missing? Its amazing how much oil an oil pump can push out in a very short time.. PS,, I can only hope this somehow offends Carl,,, I can also only hope that we are talking about the same Carl...

What da heck,, my indelible memories of the FlyinFool making sure I get the first frosty's of the season are forever scorned Flied Lice!! Oh well, at least I have the knowledge that you were not actually home to get to shovel the stuff so I guess it aint so bad.. WHAT A FANTASTIC IDEA - stick up a streaming outdoor cam!! YOU are da man brother - can not wait to see that puppy in action Flied Lice!!

Ahhh yes,, that ever ending fine line between genius and being down right crazy:big-grin-emoticon:... Never ever a problem Sylv, truly my friend - I take all the comments in the spirit of and even the 's with a on my pretty face:big-grin-emoticon:.. Being an inquisitive type of does have its ups and downs but the downs have never come from my buddies like yourself reminding me that sometimes I cross into the zone of to much craziness and not enough geniusness Glad you guys actually join me in watching the vids though cause being a little crazy is wayyyyy more fun when you have company

even a highly skilled Harley owner like her husband was amazed. The person who she had purchased the engine from had taken 2 V-4 Yamaha motors and somehow connected them together creating a 8 cylinder engine that

Sounds like you actually got the best of both worlds Shmily, got a very understanding wife, got the extra cash AND your smart enough to know your own limitations. I think the key here may very well be figuring out what exactly it is you are looking for in your scoot, what will bring you home in one piece and what will make YOU happy at the end of the day . I too am an avid proponent of riding your own ride, simply put - I dont like to see people get hurt and I sure as beans dont like getting hurt.. I have led a number of neighborhood outings on motorcycles. I tend to be one of those types who likes to cater to the needs of the slower paced riders when I do lead, if we have a brand new rider who needs to do 15 mph on a 35 mph hair pin we all do 15. That said, in some of those situations Tip and I will actually climb on our Honda Helix scooter and go have a blast. Of course, if we are headed cross country we both LOVE riding Tweeks (our 83). We have looked and looked at many other scoots but the fact is, that beat up old Venture fits our needs to a tee. Then there is this ol V-Max that I just picked up. One of my best friends here in our area has a new V-Rod - I LOVE riding with him and he and I have been enjoying some really really good times out playing motorcycle tag like a couple a teenagers. He also picked up a Honda Ruckus moped to go out and play with me on my Puch 1.5 horse moper.. You may notice a "trend" in all that,,, that being that not all scoots are created equal but all scoots are suppose to be about having fun and for everyone involved to come home satisfied and in one piece.. It is interesting that you mention in your original post that this whole thing kind of revolves around going out with a group of your good friends (must be cause you also mentioned 4 or 5 day adventures = spending multiple days together usually indicates some pretty good friendships = SOUNDS LIKE A RIOT!!). Considering that, maybe what you need to do is take a closer look at what the rest of that group is riding and get yourself something that "fits" closer to the group dynamics. If I had a group of ten really close friends that did a yearly multi day ride and they were all on Sport bikes I may just pick myself up a sport bike and leave my Venture at home. On the same token though,, being me I may also take a hard look at lightening up my Venture for "track days" with the boys first.. Loose the trunk, drop the windshield down to four inches, tighten the boingers, get softer/stickier rubber on the tires and all that and see how it rolls.. You may find out that tweeking your Venture towards the needs of the day may solve a lot of your problems - may also find yourself with multiple bikes for multiple applications in the end too:big-grin-emoticon: Talking about all this is almost as much fun as doing it,,, almost....:bikersmilie:

Heyyyyy,,, Shmily struck a nerve with this post,, out of 8 views it has 7 responses:stickpoke:!! :clap2::dancefool::thumbsup:

Might take a quick peek back at the pic GW put up of the Beemer.. Notice how high on the seat line the passenger is setting than the driver is setting? IMHO, an increase in that measurement increases top heaviness which is not necessarily helpful in twisty management..

Out of all the twisties on all the mountains with all the bikes (including some sport bikes) I have ridden along with on my 1st Gens (never rode a 2nd Gen) I have never been let down with at least being able to keep up - that is one area that I have really never had a complaint.. IMHO, One of the reasons this may or may not be so has to do with the 1st Gens having mid controls.. I have owned other scoots that were forward controls only and gotta admit - that riding position has always lacked in the adrenaline filled world of peg scraping for me.. Probably just me being an odd duck but pegs under me give me more of a feeling of control.. I like to keep my toes twisted down and dab for the corners with it and can usually tell how deep into a corner I am by how far I have to dab to touch pavement, this saves on that icky feeling of scraping (lots of folks like to scrape - I dont actually like the "feeling" that comes over the bike when in a lean and touching steel to pavement). That brings up another thought for ya Schmily,, how often do you scrape your pegs in those corners? That peg scraping business is kind of a barometer of how hard you are pushing the bike IMHO. If your scraping all the time then ya,, you may very well be overriding your scoots capibilities (could also be suspention not set up correctly). On the same token though, if you have never found the confidence to be able to lean er into the curve and touch bottom once in a while then thats a different subject having to do with practice and getting to know your scoot and learn to trust it... Now, about that Beemer,, HOKEY SPAMOKY - 160 horsies and 129 foot pounds of torque!! Just pulled up this video about the GTL and WOW,, can definitely see where your "in love" is based - GORGEOUS SCOOT!! Lots of cash up front though,, I think if I were in your shoes I would take a serious look at what I was mentioning concerning the question of - am I holding my current bike back from its potential or is it holding me back - and THAT is question only you can answer.. WOW ZZZZZ WOW WOW WOW!! Didnt know Beemer had a 6 cylinder 160 hp touring scoot out there... I gotta get out more and MOTHER YAMAHA - YOUR MISSING IT - wont be long and that new V-Max motored Venture will be nothing but a pipe dream

I would pull air box cover and filter, check the slides for ease of movement. I would also still pull the the slide diaphrams , take a peek to be sure all is well in there - make sure they are all lined up and sealed properly. By all means, doing a compression test just to be sure all 4 are adequate is always a plus when diagnosing a scoot you really have no idea where its at..

This any better Fool?