cowpuc

Yep, had both the 400 and the 750's.. LOTS OF FUN and very very well built!! Totally capable of LOTS of miles.. Personally, I am a shifty kind of guy who, given the choice - prefer's to do the shifting, also it seems like anytime you go from manual to automatic it does cost in power BUT - Tip and I still have a Honda Helix scooter we play on a LOT around home.. Similar and FUN!!!

Nahhh Tooch, I wouldn't let bother me if I were in your shoes,, lots of folks (even my own son) has let me know that our chosen name for Tweekers actually means that we take Meth or something.. Doesn't mean that to us so who cares.. I think Cathy/Tooch is still a good idea... On the other hand of course my friend,, you know if you go doing some kind of sexxy moving thing like that girl in the video around me dont be surprised if have to smack ya (and dont misinterpret that as some kind of a kiss) brother but that has nothing to do with your name!!

INDEED,, Hello,, knock knock knock,, Mother Yamaha,,, ding dong - knock knock knock,,, any one home? Knock knock knock... Must be out to lunch,,,, longest lunch break in history I would say...

Stuck a brand new Metz on Tweeks before heading west a couple rides ago. It was purchased from our local bike shop brand new (no idea if it was German or Brazillian) - didnt check manufacture date on tire BUT the shop where I got it from has been in business for many years - sells a LOT of tires and I KNOW they sell their outdated tires on a separate rack from their new stuff and this 880 was NOT from that rack. I keep a really close eye on my tire pressures (always run to sidewall spec) when traveling - tire gave NO indication of air loss on the whole trip. The Metz got excellent mileage (both fuel and distance), handled the heat and cornered well in the twisties. Never got to experience it in the rain cause we went 2 months without seeing much of it.. Checked the tread depth and air pressures before we left The Dalles Venture West Rally (I think @Coffey would vouch for this cause I also checked his after checking Tweeks) and headed back to Sacramento Cali. They say a picture is worth a thousand words - see pic of what the tire looked liked when we got back to Sac. Any one who has ever had the opportunity to ride a fully loaded 1st Gen with two people on it from 70 mph down to a stop when traveling mountains (unfortunately I have had to a couple times) will probably appreciate this --- fortunately the Metz did NOT go flat and I found it in the shape it was in BEFORE it let go. I have actually ridden more than one tire down to its complete failure - thru the rubber, thru the carcess and then thru the cords and have never experienced what the picture shows with any other brand of tire.. In the pic you can clearly see an area where rubber is missing, also take notice of the little piece of red wood holding up part of a "V" of tread. I took that picture specifically to show how other "V"'s had delaminated from the tire carcess - there were several other "V" area's on both sides of the tire where this was the case.. I believe that @Squidley and Lonna also had something similar to this happen to them - may be wrong on this - will let Squid speak for himself if he chooses to. I personally will not run Metz's again unless I have to but THAT is just my opinion based on my experience as shown in the pics.

Good going my friend, sounds like you once again proved your amazing ability with these motors/bikes!! GOOD ON YA AND GREAT TO HAVE YOU ON OUR SIDE!! Only thing I may add if I can is that I have also been in similar situations with having an errant plug and have noticed that my 1st Gens will have a tendency to run warmer if I am attempting to ride them with a fouled plug - especially if its warm out.. No idea if that was a possible cause of the fan running more - something to think about I guess. Because of your experience, I am sure you know whether or not your bad plug was fouling at higher R's too - sounds like it may not have been BUT - I wanted to toss that thought into your mental computer anyway. Another note worth sharing between gearheads George.. You ever played with a "Color Tune"? Tip and I just made a trip over to Orlin's MD (met some AWESOME folks there). One of my new friends, who's name is Shrek/Kenny, had one of these "Color Tunes" at Orlin's and I was honored to have been given the chance to spend some time with it. It is a device that is basically a spark plug with a window into the combustion chamber. You remove a plug, screw this in, attach the plug wire, fire up the bike and you can actually see the ignition coloring (both spark and actual combustion). What a BLAST I had playing with that device George.. You ever had a chance to get your fingers on one (knowing you, ya probably have had one for years). Anyway, glad you got your scoot back under control and THANKS for passing on your fixin brother!

Sometimes the variety of the differences in our opinions of what is and isnt worth sharing actually scares me.. I gotta ask ya something Joe,, when was the last time Bobbi hauled you in for a CT Scan

Prayers Up and Blessings Down on the tear my friend!! Take it easy on those 2k miles your chasing and before ya know it there will be a couple zeros in that number!

Right back at cha there Dodgedad!!!!! Just goes to show ya Raggy, not all of those Canam riders are troublemaking lop eared varmints!!

WOW BJ - CONGRATS TO YOUR SON ON HIS ACADEMIC ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND HIS FOCUS IN LIFE!! Sounds to me like he is one busy champion of Son BJ - to you too my friend!! That said, I wonder if just asking him about the scoot, reminding him how hard it is on bikes to just sit and offering your services to help him sell it if he so chooses would work.. I know one thing my friend, aint none of this stuff worth getting in the way of good relationships with our kids.. Either way, if it ends up in the classifieds - BEST WISHES IN THE SALE!!!

Oh, by the way,, I got rescued by two of my now - TEXAS HERO"S - down there a while back.. One was in a Cowtown called Round Rock, the other in a hitchin post town called Cleveland and chatted with others on the phone on that trip.. I point that out cause I can factually say that there are some AWESOME folks down yonder somewhere.. As times goes by and if you find yourself not able to locate any good folks down yonder, let me know,,, I may have to come down there and introduce you to a couple Hopefully that "threat" inspires some positive activity in your favor

Heyyy,, hi ya Cruiser!! Always a pleasure meeting new great folks and THIS is the place where thats happening brother!! As already mentioned, we have a really good mix of Christians and none Christians (we also have a WIDE variety of motorcycles - its not ALL Yamaha Ventures around this place) - a pretty good example of the world in which we live. I gotta say, I too am a believer and have found that one of the most AWESOME things about the "family" that you just touched base with here is that, unlike the world that we live in where things tend to get non-productive in a judgmental kind of way - our family here actually ENJOYS one anothers differences and THAT is what makes us special IMHO. Of course, there are times when we have our little spats BUT, also as mentioned, we have an amazing leader in Freebird (rides a Harley, go figure:big-grin-emoticon:) and a really great group of Mods who specialize in keeping the peace around here so when we get headed in the wrong direction they zap us!! As far as actually meeting IRL and "fitting" in, laughing and playing with new friends and all that. I have found the same healthy connectivity to be found in real life meetings with these folks as right here in the Water Hole. That said, I am also a firm believer in that ol proverb that says, and I am probably paraphrasing a little = "for a man to have friends he must show himself friendly" to which I deduce = it's not always the other person's behavior that causes issues for us as individuals - sometimes its our own attitude(s) that causes us the most grief.. Dont be hesitant to jump right in to VR Rally's, Meet and Greets or even chasing down an occasional person you see riding a Yam Venture (should be fairly easy to catch the 2nd Gen riders on your 97, probably be a little harder if you chasing a 1st Gen ) to see if they are part of the fam.. Hoping you enjoy your trial visit here and find exactly what you are looking for Cruiser and by all means: 'Puc PS - That FlyinFool really is a VERY good guy BUT,, come winter you really DO NOT want to badger him to much cause he does seem to have a problem with the sights on his Wisconsin White Wash Machine

You touch those poles or make any changes and it will ruin all our fun too Or!!! Besides,, what else could I write about if you made it to easy - for some reason your campground had NO skeeters, the grass was so soft that it felt like a Posterpedic mattress under the tent AND - like you just said - even the dog gone Grizzly bears are friendly!!!!!

WOW ZZZZZZ WOW WOW WOW!! I am reminded of some old commercial on TV that use to play when we were young,,, something about a guy getting slapped in the face to which he replied,, thanks - I needed that.. THANKS GARY AND MARY - I NEEDED THAT!!!! I REALLY REALLY NEEDED THAT!!! BEEEEEEAAAAUUUUUUTIFUL MY FRIENDS!!!!!

Also, most of the smaller plugs (which includes our "D" = 10mm plugs) dont seem to take to kindly to being over choked - its blackens em and that is never a good thing.. Maybe pull even one plug and just get a peek at its color.. If its blackened - swap out the plugs and choke sparingly.. Hope what you are describing turns out to be the issue Len!!

Just to go a little deeper into the rabbit hole of the subject at hand. One of the things that has been disconserting to me for a long time is the idea of new riders being "sold" a bill of goods on the whole "rider course" successful status making them ready for the road. I have a friend who did both the State of Michigan riders course and then paid the big money for the Harley course - successfully completed both courses, got CY endorsement on the DL, bought a bike (750 Shadow) and was ready.. I watched as the person dropped a brand new 750 Shadow 3 times in their driveway the first day of ownership - all while heading out to the street to go for a ride.. I walked over to their house, helped pick up the new bike on the third spill and humblely offered my assistance. Asked my advice and I said we needed to take the bike to a parking lot and spend some time learning to start, stop, clutch/throttle control and learn it all until it all became "habit" before the roadway should even be considered. Reluctants was there because of the passed the "courses" with flying colors and this person had been approved road ready. I posed this question: If the riders course folks REALLY cared and REALLY felt their approval meant road ready - what would that stamp of approval be worth after a car runs over you when you fall in an intersection. After a few weeks of cone work and, even though I consistently reminded them of how well he was doing (it was working great) they finally came to me and said it was just more than it originaly appeared to be. That person currently rides a trike so all "balancing" would be out of the picture and doing very well.. After all this, I went down and spoke with a trainer at our local Harley shop.. After explaining what I had witnessed with, not just this person but several new riders coming out of the "schools" I got asked what, if anything, I would have them do differently. Besides a few "field" changes like teaching slow riding techniques (being able to stop and start without putting feet down) and some other stuff, I mentioned that if a company as huge as Harley Davidson would invest in a Computer Monitored Riding Machine, something with image screens of all sorts of everyday traffic conditions being played in front of a "test rider" who was physically riding/shifting/braking a stationary motorcycle while being presented with the images on the screen. All the while having a computer record the riders actions/reactions in response to the images.. ####Picture this, a shadow appears under a car - does the rider respond to the shadow,, or - the roadway turns unannounced to loose dirt, does the rider slam on the brakes in the loose dirt or throttle up.. Or more basic, the rider comes to a stop light in heavy traffic - the turns for red to green just as the rider is putting their foot down - do they find themselves - by habit - already in first gear cause they habitually work their way thru downshifting or are they stumbling around trying to figure out what gear they are in while angry drivers who could care less whether you live or die are piling up behind you..On and on the scenarios could be.. The guy laughed at me and said what I was describing would probably result in a whole lot less people being interested in motorcycles (thought went thru my mind of wondering if he was actually pointing out how that may influence motorcycle sales?????) as it could appear that riding a bike is more difficult than most people think it is.. To that I said - that may be true BUT - maybe the ones who actually passed your classes would live longer...

Possible that your tank is not venting well, building pressure and flooding carbs - high temps can add to this if its your problem. Any chance you have ever noticed pressure in your tank when you open the cap? Another thing is a sticking float valve can cause issues like you describe, ever notice any fuel from over flows? Also, how many miles on the plugs, how does it start when its cold - do you have to choke it or does it start with no choke at first start up when sitting all night?

I would tend to agree with that Blue EXCEPT I have never experienced that with any other brand of tire under the same conditions.. I can also clearly state that I do keep very good track of the psi in my tires no matter what I am running and that Metz was no exception.. Indeed, I do go thru my share of tires when touring and I am sure part of that has to do with some higher speeds I run, tarmac temps in the desert regions, road surface conditions, packing Tweeks down like a mule and all that BUT,, that Metz 880 got treated equal and fairly and it failed miserably..

I totally am with you Peg!! One of things that has become almost trendish is the loss of riders accepting the "Riding your ride" biker code - IMHO.. Allowing other bikers, being friends or whoever, to convince us to ride over our heads.. Personally I am proned to dismiss myself from a group ride if I find their riding style does not line up with my own personal safe riding techniques. I also tend to ride alone (Tip and I) a lot because there are so many areas that my safe riding idea's are out side the box of normality for many people and I dont want to be at fault in the instance of myself or someone being "led" into a bad situation.. Another perspective of this though that I have witnessed and have actually been involved in had to do with group riding philosiphy.. I rode a couple times with a huge group of riders here in our area. The ride captain, who was a personal friend of mine and who sought our ideas for conducting these rides, chose to gear the ride toward the most inexperienced rider(s) of the group. There was a lady there who had just began her riding career who willing spoke up during the riders meeting after having heard the announcement that the ride captain was looking for the most inexperienced rider(s). She openly admitted that she was not comfortable with speeds over 45 mph, wanted no one to ride beside her (should be staggered anyway) and wanted to take corners at or below 15 mph.. She ended up riding in second place in the long line of bikes, only the ride captain rode in front of her.. Given, that was a long slow ride BUT - it was a very enjoyable ride in that the ride focused on the limits of the groups weakest link and we all made it safely home..

Yep,, thinking really positive thoughts about July 28th here in my town Bill - thanks for asking.. It would be all beef hot dogs on the grill again, pops and chips also provided.. Can't confirm it yet as my daughter is here from Cali to help me deal with this medical stuff and I am not sure where that is all gonna lead - should know more soon and will certainly make it known to all - YOU AND YOUR WIFE INCLUDED - in a bit!!! Never thought about that from that perspective,, I always thought my keyboard's keys were shrinking brother.. Thanks for the enlightenment Bill,,,,,, I think:think:

Hey GW, first let me say to you on starting this thread,, monkey butt can be a severely painful (even to the point of getting bloody and needing actual medical attention) thing for a lot of folks and yet, a lot of folks fear even talking about the subject. Note to readers, If you happen to be one of those types ya might not wanna read what I have to say in response to GW's question. If you decide to keep reading PLEASE try to remember that its ol Pucsters way with open communication and way with words that just dont always sound,,,, normal I rode cross country dirt bikes for many years - pounding the woods all day on a dirt bike can compound the effects of monkey butt exponentially.. Back then I found that wearing spand-x with the shammi cloth crotch and NO underwear between my bottom and the shammi worked AWESOME. That and making sure that whenever I stopped to go pooo pooo I always cleaned my bottom real well afterwards.. Between those two things I can honestly state that all those sun up to sun down dirt biking days never ever resulted in any form of monkey butt.. It took some time to develop those methods for MY bottom though and they were developed because I did endure thru some early days of monkey = NOT FUN AND VERY PAINFUL!! One of the things that I discovered during those "early years" was how well human spit works for cleaning the bottom after going pooo pooo.. Spitting on toilet paper and wiping my bottom until it wiped clean helped enourmously in making sure monkey butt never stood a chance.. Sounds crazy but (no pun intended) I gotta say - for some reason it worked great!! Moving into modern times (Venture touring days) I found the spand-x to be uncomfortable for sitting in the saddle for hours and hours and hours like we did/do. I moved to using the type of shorts shown in the picture below. I carry several sets of these when riding long distance and have even tossed out the ones I have after wearing them and purchased new along the journey. I wear them as underwear under my jeans BUT (again - no pun intended) prefer to wear them alone and no jeans (they are "shorts" after all - never a legal problem ) as they are VERY comfortable, plus as mentioned earlier - the seams in jeans can be irritate the skin and possibly cause monkey butt to begin, and they airate fully - a huge plus when chasing away the monkey.. Also they dry very quickly which is extremely important if a person is prone to ride in humid areas, rain, sleet or so on.. On the using spit to clean my bottom routine, Tippy has been working with me on always making sure we have antibacterial baby wipes and using those instead of spit. I have to admit, those things work amazingly well for the task at hand PLUS they have the added feature of being able to use them in the event that no rest area springlers/swimmable lakes or streams or truck stop shower facilities are in the area and you feel like a shower is needed. Spit on toilet paper or one of your socks being used as an actual shower after a long day of CTFW is kind of self defeating... BUTT,,, all that said,, if needed I am still not apposed to using spit if needed in my fight against monkey butt because I have found that the fight against the stuff begins with not letting it start in the first place.. Thru the little bit of biking I have done since the mid 60's I have owned everything from the beads, water seats (remember those?), gel seats (gave one I found to a fellow member that wanted to try it), sheep skins, sitting on card board, sitting on a stack of all cotton tee shirts, using Gold Bond anti cafing powder, anti pimple creams, anti fungal creams and powders and on and on and thru it all - the answer I described in all this are what work for me in all climates of touring..

After an in-depth moonlit conversation with this lop eared varmint named Moe, a really nice lady named Sharon and some farmer named Orlin, Tweeks - Tip and I conversed and decided we indeed had found the site of the official "Orlin and Sharon's Maintenance Day in Viroqua Wisconsin. After the three Veer - o - quawinites - Moe,Orlin and Sharon had inspected us and at least 2 of the 3 of us ((Tweeks - Tip and I) had satisfied the requirements set forth in the official VR bylaws that state that 2/3rds of all attendees of any VR function must pass mental and emotional stability tests, Orlin instructed us in how to find the area that is known as Orlin's Camp Ground.. Although we don't carry a GPS, Map or compass - I was actually surprised as how well laid out Orlins directions were and how easy it was to find his hidden campground - even though it was located in a terrain that fully resembled some of the back hills of the Appalachian Mountains that Tweeks, Tip and I had ridden and camped in.. I say that tongue and cheek though because the ease of which we found the "camp ground" may also have been due to my own ability to find my way in total darkness with nothing more than my specialized training in mountain crisis management and being accustomed to looking for sticks on the side of the paved road way under such conditions.. Orlin's 12:30 a.m. instructions went something like this,, pointing down his unlit driveway towards an unlit canyon,,, go to the end of the driveway and turn left (got that down pat, I know my clutch lever is mounted on the left).. Go a little ways down the paved road and you will come to two white sticks pointing up out of the weeds on the right hand side of the road - (again easy to follow cause I know my front brake lever is on the right). Then turn onto the two track that leads wayyyyy back into that there valley - (this is the really easy part - I am a professional two track finder and have always found that even if I am on the wrong two track, excitement usually increases exponentially when two tracks are involved).. The final step to Orlin's instructions is where I kind of winced.. He said that there were other people camping down there and that I would see tents/campers and motorcycle(s) in the area that I would want to camp in. He mentioned a couple names of fellow VR members who were already camping down there and it dawned on me that I had not met (or, more importantly - they had not met me and had no idea we were even thinking of showing up at Orlin's MD) any of these other folks. Experience has taught me that you gotta be somewhat sensitive to other folks sleeping habits - while some people don't mind you waking them from a sound sleep by motoring a couple feet from their dwelling - some folks can tend to get rather ornery.. Not knowing what type of varmints I was about to interrupt sort of made my hand itch.. After figuring out that the itch was actually from the skeeter bites I had received while chasing ghosts back at Dover, we thanked Moe, Sharon and Orlin for the wonderful early morning welcome and the direction's to their campground and headed out looking for a couple of white sticks located on the side of Hwy 56 not to far from the left turn we made out of Orlin and Sharon's driveway.. What a blast!! Believe it or not, we found those white sticks on the 2nd try - that had to have been a first for us!! We rode down Orlin's Camp Ground Two Track like we owned the place - Tweeks felt right at home as she handled the slightly eroded, grass covered stones of VEEER - O - QAUW Wisconsin - it was a very special treat for ol Tweeks.. We rode right past another 1st Gen Yam Venture, a red one, with a tent all set up and what appeared to be a grizzly bear sleeping inside.. I whispered a whisper just a little louder then Tweeks exhaust to Tippy.. Something along the line of I thought we should go a little further into the darkness so we dont disturb the Grizzly.. We came to a spot where it looked like someone had unloaded a bunch of tree branches and stuff, bedded Tweeks down for the night, unrolled the tent and set it up in total darkness.. Tip crawled inside while I walked over and attempted to add life to one of Orlin's trees.. That's when I heard Tip mention something with a tender little whisper about our tent being wet from the severe down pour we had gotten ourselves involved in back in that place called Richland Center.. I finished giving growth additives to Orlin's tree, walked over to the tent, bent down and asked Tip how bad it was.. Tip thought it best for me to actually climb inside and test her tent water content theory for myself so I did so.. It wasn't so bad,, only the center of our double person sleeping bag was soaked enough to actually be mistaken for a swimming pool or a wet hot dog bun.. The outside 2 inches on my side were actually fairly dry.. I walked out and pulled the bike cover back off Tweeks, dragged it into the tent and gave it to Tip to roll up into and to use as a sleeping bag.. I calmly walked back out to Tweeks, felt another twinge to assist Orlin's tree with a natually aspired growth spurt, walked back over to Tweeks to remove a tarp that I also carry in her Maintenance Department to roll myself into to keep the chill off.. After digging around in Tweeks saddle bag in the dark for a half hour or so it finally occurred to me that I had actually removed the tarp from her Maintenance Department when I got home from Freebirds MD a few days before we left for Orlins.. It had gotten wet during that ride and I had removed it to dry out so it wouldn't rust my needle nose pliers back solid like had happened before.. Their is nothing worse than needing your needle noses and having them unusable because they are rusted shut... I meandered back to the tent, Tip was sawing logs pretty well and doing so all rolled up in Tweeks old bike cover right in the middle of our 1 1/2 person sized Menards Tent (sized to typical Chinese adult peoples).. I crawled into the tent, closed the screens, gathered as much of the 2 inches of dry fabric on the sleeping bag edges that I could gather in my hands,, curled up and,, heard Orlin's tree calling for more growth additive.. After finally getting my body adjusted to just the perfect spot on Orlin's Camp Ground's PERFECT sleeping lawn (THANK YOU ORLIN FOR ALL YOUR HARD WORK IN CREATING SUCH A BEAUTIFUL CAMPING SPOT), I closed my eyes in the VEER-O-QUAW darkness, opened them a second later and it was daylight!! I noticed my bike cover had crawled into our tent during the night and it wasn't long before I noticed it had actually taken on a human form as well - kind of like a mummy!! Just about the time my morning fog had cleared it and it dawned on me what had happened the night before, the mummy spoke to me.. Something about needing to go potty.. I told the mummy that Orlin had mentioned there being an actual first class rest room down at his "Camp Ground",, something he called an out house.. We decided to go exploring.. Shortly after we started our morning CTWRB's (Chasing Those Wet Riding Boot's), we came across the sleeping Grizzly that we had passed on way in earlier that morning.. Come to find out, what Tweeks had bolted from and what we thought was a sleeping Grizz was actually no Red 1st Gen Riding Grizz at all.. We discovered this by silently walking past the Grizz's Den with total regard for our sleeping neighbors. I was in the process of quietly video tapping what I thought may very well be the only 1st Gen Venture owned by an actual Grizzly bear vwhen I heard a commotion within the den.. Unkown to me, my camera was still recording as Tip and I casually attempted to stride past the sleeping bear.. Following is what my camera picked up..

Thanks Bob,, I always wondered how my buddies on here managed to to that!!! That Bongo - he is one of my true friends and brothers allllll because he lets me in on these hidden little VR secrets!! That Tip and I will be practicing to forget to include the longer break step cause we would love to migrate west!!

http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?84840-Custom-fit-light-bar&highlight=Harley+tail+light+bracket Is this it brother? I found that by clicking on "forums" and then searching Harley tail light bracket...

Hmmmm,, maybe its because you spell "Charles" (as in CharlesMac) "Bill" (as in Billmac) so you very well may be trying to search for "harley taillights" by typing in "Charles is looking for Hardley lights that Bill wants to put on the back of his Yamaha"... Sorry Bill, will have to buy ya a hotdog at my next "Greet - Meet and eat Meat" to try redeem myself from my spider web woven with sarcasm

WOW - how cool is that!! Thanks PB for sharing, and even with a Hey @OLDYELR, hope your ears are ringing and ya hop on here and say HOWDY!!!! That Pbjman aint the only friendly lop eared varmint around this joint who would like to hear from ya!!