cowpuc

Here's the thing CW, and I dont mean this pridefully or with any malice,, if someone I didnt know walked up and asked if they could use my 3200 pspi powerwasher to scrub their bike I would say no and do so because I would not want them blaming me or my powerwasher for paint being blown off their scoot, radio/dash board being filled with water or bearings having all the grease blown out of them. They may or may not reply,, wellllll I saw you washing your bike (wouldnt have seen me washing Tweeks/my 83 because that dirt on her from past adVentures is a keep sake) with it - what gives? What gives is right,,,, I have washed hundreds of bikes thru the years with power washers and have done so successfully,, to think a person can clean the caked on clay from an MX track off a KX500 without a powerwasher is craziness.. When using a powerwasher I am very careful with what I spray at full force and what I back off with the wand and spray with a light spray.. The areas that, as you say, get wet during a downpour rain ride are absolutely washable with a powerwasher as long as you are mindful of how hard you are forcing the water onto it, even the hardest of hardest downpour thunderstorm is not going to create 3200 psi of force if you know what I mean,, just use common sense.. Also,, those areas that normally do not get water on/in them,, again,, like a dash board,, should be hand cleaned IMHO but you sound like the kind of person who has the common sense to already know that.. Also wrapping areas like air cleaners/exhaust pipe openings is mandatory whether powerwashing or hose washing IMHO and air blasting water out of collection spots like spark plug wells is also common sense, as is pulling plug caps and drying out caps to prevent carbon tracking... That dust under the tank and in areas seen in your pic should clean up fairly easily with out having to use hard/direct pressure washer high pressure,, if you have caked on - oil soaked dirt gathered there - you have more problems to worry about besides washing your bike with a powerwasher ..

One of the things often overlooked by those seeking to hot rod out or make use of larger 32mm carbs on the 96/99 Royal Stars that are designed for the 26mm carbs is there as numerous design changes in those models that simply make them somewhat limited in what can and can not be done at a reasonable cost with reasonable reliability as an end result.. One of the main design changes that Mom Yam made to those particular models is the dropping of the balance shaft.. The smaller carb usage is part of a design that will not be used in higher crank R's - basically all about torque and not about hp up in the 5252 and above rpm range.. The 32mm carbs (and the V-Max V-Boost) at designed, in the V-4 Yam application, as high rpm - high hp in mind and reguire the ability for the engine design to be spun up into the revs in order to create the velocity thru the 32mm carbs to make them effiecient.. It may be noteworthy to note that the models with the 32mm carbs OEM and straight from Mom Yam also have balance shafts being spun off the crank to balance the engine when she spins up.. IMHO,, Mom Yam didn't just stick those balance shafts on the faster, higher revving,, 32mm carb models cause she just had some extra parts to get rid of,, at least thats my opinion.. Personally,, if I was wanting to build up a 96/99 model and wanted to make it trustworthy for long range touring AND a real buddy in performance,, I would do some research and see if the engine from a model using the balanced motor (I would look for a V-Max engine) could be shoe-horned into the 96/99 and start my project there.. If possible (and anything is), I would then put the feelers out for a short block or even better,, a balanced long block..Make sense?

Super Bikes of the Liter legend are something I stayed away from at their inception because I had a family to raise,,, wayyyyy to much on the line so to speak.. That said, when the cancer Dr. told me 50/50 in my case and reluctantly agreed = bucket list time, Maggie my R1 was my 1st adventure in finding peace on my buckets list.. 103 mph in 1st gear and that happens so fast you HAVE to use the throttle like a micrometer ,, she's a 6 speed and in 5th - bouncing off the rev limiter = 176 mph, Maggies an early enough model that she is not hampered by the later models and their 186 mph speed limiter and I absolutely positively have no doubt she will bounce the rev limiter in 6th @+200 mph,, no doubt.. There are lots and lots and LOTS of people that I know who have spent HUGE money attempting to cross the +160 mph zone and most are dismayed at how difficult that can be,, even +150 can be pricey.. If that is what this is all about,, I assure you,, Skydoc is spot on in his advice.. IMHO of course.. The tiny little 1000cc Liter bike,, the little bike that proves over and over and over again that the idea of there being no replacement for displacement is a myth.. Unless, of course,, we are talking short shifting your way down the highway dragging 40 ton around behind you!!

Having been in the restore business I have tried many many different methods for restoring tanks including electrolisis, acids, sand and bead blasting, rattling bolts in a paint shaker for rust removal/prep for sealing.. Best of the best I have found for prep is White Vinegar - straight strength - filled to the brim and let the tank sit for a week.. Rinse good with water and dry with a heat gun or sit it in the sun.. I welded pipe for years, both Tig and Savick and also did a fair amount of shop tigging/shear work and applied those skills to both restoring tanks and building new. Unfortunately,, with vintage tanks, repairing and repainting takes away from their value.. I learned many years ago the Kreme Coating was not for me. I got pretty good with the stuff but had serious failures with tanks lasting out past 10 years.. The coating would always separate and cause issue with leaking again and get really ugly.. I did a bunch a tinkering with inventing my own coating and had good result using Seal All (yellow tube) as a base and MEK as a suspention/liquifier.. I actually had much better results long term with my homemade coating than I ever saw out of Kreme Coat.. Then I discovered Red Kote ( https://www.ebay.com/itm/Red-Kote-Quart-Coat-Gas-Oil-Diesel-Fuel-Tank-Sealer-Liner-Patch-Hit-Miss-Engine/131533413846?hash=item1ea0009dd6:g:mb4AAMXQ1PNRauxA ) and WOWZY,, my tank restoration/repair process was changed for ever.. This is some SERIOUS stuff that I have used very successfully for many years!! Because I never did have access to the Zinc process that large manufacturers use to protect the inside of the new tanks found on all modern steel tank bikes (what happens when a bike tank rusts from sitting is the inside of the tank that is coated with Zink looses it zink, this is why after you acid a tank out to prep it it rusts again very quickly - IMHO of course) I always strove to get the tanks as rust free as possible for adhesion of the coating.. I discovered that this was not necessary with Red Kote.. A simple handful of bolts in the tank, shake it some to knock off the stalagtites,, a quick rinse with vinager and rinse with water, dry with heat gun,, apply the Red Kote and its done.. Complete job in just a couple hours. ANother extremely valuable thing about Red Kote is that it actually makes a tank within the tank and this is HUGE.. NO more patching/welding needed as the coating fills the holes/leaks so you can keep the OEM paint job intact.. I now have bikes out there that I built/restored using Red Kote with +25 years on them and still going strong!! Thats all I know about that Unc! Puc

This question came up in a recent discussion I had with some close friends who both served in America's military.. Having both served and taken "The Oath",, they thought America's LEO "Oath" is different than that of U.S. Military personnel.. I have never served at either position of honor but I had always thought the oath's were identical.. Has anyone here served in both and did you find the swear-in's to be identical in both nature and word or do they differ?? Any differences you could share with the public? An early THANK YOU to anyone who can help and a HUGE THANK YOU again all/any who have served in either/or!! Puc

TOTALLY AGREE BUM!! That Patch,, he is quite the top notch DJ!!! Reminds me of BJ the DJ from South Dakota!!! That would be a HUGE compliment Patch!!!

Very close to my point about fixation sighting Patch... As an opinion of mine, what can and does happen very often, especially in circles where skills to prevent it from happening have not been developed, is the person will spot a dangerous situation and instead of avoiding panic and using their developed skills to avoid a crisis,, they actually freeze up in fear and maintain focus on where the crisis is going to happen and thereby end up following thru with the crisis.. This is very common on MX Tracks where 200 ft jumps are common place and I have personally watched in horror while in the air on my MX bike as a rider in front of me,, also air born,, will panic and forget to tap his rear brake to adjust the attitude of his bike for the landing as he freezes up from fear and just stares at the spot he and his bike are about to crash land.. All resulting in severe injuries (or even death - witnessed many injuries but never an actual death thank God) as the rider stares down at the landing ramp below him and his fixation from fear completes its evil mission. I know,, probably sounds like a bunch of nonsense but from my untrained perspective it is reality..

LOP EARED BROTHER BY A DIFFERENT MOTHER VARMINT IF THERE EVER SO EVER WAS ONE!!

As always,, absolutely nothing fishy,, all fact based and told the way it happened!! Have pictures :rasberry:.. Not my fault my life is filled with Murphy malfunctions

I just wrote this over on Mama's Party thread.. It applies directly to my answer to your question too Randy so instead of retyping everything,, I will just copy/paste it been crazy here.. On top of this virus thing we have a domestic dispute going on down the street that has resulted in one of the disputers going crazy and dumping nails and screws out on our street corners.. Its been going on for a couple weeks now and its getting old. The police have been involved all along but are having a hard time nailing (pun intended) the perp.. Found out from the LEO that is working the case today that the varmint has expanded his horizons of terror by including 5 more intersections and about 8 mores miles of roadway in what appears to keep his girlfriend boxed in with nails/screws.. Couple that together this crisis that everybody else is dealing with and local/state officials here changing the rules they want us to live by like my 3 year old grandson turning my lights on and off (he is sooo cute when he plays the lights on/off game but not so much when those in power do so) and yeah,, life can get frustrating.. Matter of fact,, I got so frustrated with all the rule changing and the punctured tires today that I looked at Tip curled up on the couch and said - LETS GO FISHIN!! With no idea really whether or not doing so was legal at this point, I tossed our flat bottom boat in the back of Clyde (our historic vehicled ex-Airport plow truck) with the fishing gear stuffed haphazardly underneath the boat,, fired em up and away we went.. Headed for a small inland lake up in Michigans State land that knew of.. It took some doings to get down to the lake once Clyde's granny gear in low range had crawled and knawed Clydes way out thru the sticks and down the extremely steep hill to the lakeside.. Dumped the boat into the water,, pulled the spare batter out of Clyde for the trolling motor,, admired how pretty Tippy was walking in the black muck on the lack shore in her knee boots,,, jump in, pushed off and away we went,, FISHING!! I knew the old battery that was Clydes plow batter couldnt be in to good of shape so I was not surprised when I pressed the battery check button on the motor and it proudly displayed "RECHARGE".. By now though,, being used to what life has become in Michigan,, I just laughed in Murphys face,, grabbed the oars and told Tip we would save the motor for trolling as the sun set and the big ones starting getting hungry and just row around the edges and see if we could snag a pan fish or two. Of course, the pan fish in this particular little lake had no internet access (the lake is wayyyyyy back in the sticks,, only reason I even knew about it was due to my many many years of riding my dirt bikes on those thousands of acres of lands that are owned by us tax payers of Michigan) so had not read the same claim that they were suppose to not be able to tell the difference between the little rubber worms I had purchased online and the worms I used to dig as a kid in the wilds.. I pointed the fish beds out to Tippy and told her it was obvious the place was loaded and that it was to bad they didn't know they were suppose to bite on the little plastic worms.. I then told her to pull in her bobbered line as I was gonna bust thru the brush and go find us some REAL worms.. After untangling our lines hundreds of times from the lakeshore brush growth and standing up in the boat and using an oar like one of Mike Finks river boat men operating a push stick,, we arrived back at shore.. Yes it was mucky,, yep Tip got a big chuckly at me sinking in the muck just to get some worms,, yes Tip - having many years of motherly experience, happen to have a sandwich baggie for me to gather worms in so I wouldnt have to use my Harley hat.. As I tipped the first log over and saw nothing but ants,, I began to tell Tippy that many many many many years ago, at a time wayyy before the evil Syth Emperer who was playing the on/off rules games with our lifes was even thought of,, people used to actually go dig worms to go fishing with just to have food.. As I picked up a great big fat worm and stuffed it into the sandwich bag I told Tip that what I was doing, back in those times,, was serious business... After we got back thru the brush with several very nice big fat leaf worms staring at us thru the clear plastic of the sandwich bag I randomly grabbed one of those worms, stuck him on the hook on Tippies pole (chivalry is not dead in our 40 marriage,, I dont care what PC says),, watched her give that wiggly little worm a toss into the lake water and WHAMMO - instant NINE INCH SUNFISH!!!! BINGO,, JUST LIKE THAT ALL OUR DULDRUMS OF THE DAY BEGAN TO MELT AWAY!! The melting away actually continued to melt and came to full fledged outpouring of an amazing feeling of a return to sanity as Tip later hooked into and LANDED a great big Northern Pike while we were trolling!!

I am with Tufftom,, been crazy here.. On top of this virus thing we have a domestic dispute going on down the street that has resulted in one of the disputers going crazy and dumping nails and screws out on our street corners.. Its been going on for a couple weeks now and its getting old. The police have been involved all along but are having a hard time nailing (pun intended) the perp.. Found out from the LEO that is working the case today that the varmint has expanded his horizons of terror by including 5 more intersections and about 8 mores miles of roadway in what appears to keep his girlfriend boxed in with nails/screws.. Couple that together this crisis that everybody else is dealing with and local/state officials here changing the rules they want us to live by like my 3 year old grandson turning my lights on and off (he is sooo cute when he plays the lights on/off game but not so much when those in power do so) and yeah,, life can get frustrating.. Matter of fact,, I got so frustrated with all the rule changing and the punctured tires today that I looked at Tip curled up on the couch and said - LETS GO FISHIN!! With no idea really whether or not doing so was legal at this point, I tossed our flat bottom boat in the back of Clyde (our historic vehicled ex-Airport plow truck) with the fishing gear stuffed haphazardly underneath the boat,, fired em up and away we went.. Headed for a small inland lake up in Michigans State land that knew of.. It took some doings to get down to the lake once Clyde's granny gear in low range had crawled and knawed Clydes way out thru the sticks and down the extremely steep hill to the lakeside.. Dumped the boat into the water,, pulled the spare batter out of Clyde for the trolling motor,, admired how pretty Tippy was walking in the black muck on the lack shore in her knee boots,,, jump in, pushed off and away we went,, FISHING!! I knew the old battery that was Clydes plow batter couldnt be in to good of shape so I was not surprised when I pressed the battery check button on the motor and it proudly displayed "RECHARGE".. By now though,, being used to what life has become in Michigan,, I just laughed in Murphys face,, grabbed the oars and told Tip we would save the motor for trolling as the sun set and the big ones starting getting hungry and just row around the edges and see if we could snag a pan fish or two. Of course, the pan fish in this particular little lake had no internet access (the lake is wayyyyyy back in the sticks,, only reason I even knew about it was due to my many many years of riding my dirt bikes on those thousands of acres of lands that are owned by us tax payers of Michigan) so had not read the same claim that they were suppose to not be able to tell the difference between the little rubber worms I had purchased online and the worms I used to dig as a kid in the wilds.. I pointed the fish beds out to Tippy and told her it was obvious the place was loaded and that it was to bad they didn't know they were suppose to bite on the little plastic worms.. I then told her to pull in her bobbered line as I was gonna bust thru the brush and go find us some REAL worms.. After untangling our lines hundreds of times from the lakeshore brush growth and standing up in the boat and using an oar like one of Mike Finks river boat men operating a push stick,, we arrived back at shore.. Yes it was mucky,, yep Tip got a big chuckly at me sinking in the muck just to get some worms,, yes Tip - having many years of motherly experience, happen to have a sandwich baggie for me to gather worms in so I wouldnt have to use my Harley hat.. As I tipped the first log over and saw nothing but ants,, I began to tell Tippy that many many many many years ago, at a time wayyy before the evil Syth Emperer who was playing the on/off rules games with our lifes was even thought of,, people used to actually go dig worms to go fishing with just to have food.. As I picked up a great big fat worm and stuffed it into the sandwich bag I told Tip that what I was doing, back in those times,, was serious business... After we got back thru the brush with several very nice big fat leaf worms staring at us thru the clear plastic of the sandwich bag I randomly grabbed one of those worms, stuck him on the hook on Tippies pole (chivalry is not dead in our 40 marriage,, I dont care what PC says),, watched her give that wiggly little worm a toss into the lake water and WHAMMO - instant NINE INCH SUNFISH!!!! BINGO,, JUST LIKE THAT ALL OUR DULDRUMS OF THE DAY BEGAN TO MELT AWAY!! The melting away actually continued to melt and came to full fledged outpouring of an amazing feeling of a return to sanity as Tip later hooked into and LANDED a great big Northern Pike while we were trolling!! Right about now I bet you are asking yourself,, what on earth does all this have to with Mama's party coming up on Tuesday.. Well,, the fact is,, I have never ever cleaned a Northern Pike and figured,, for future reference (yes,, we intend to go back to that little lake on a regular basis - getting away from everything and everybody seemed to do the job restoring some sanity for us) maybe one or two or even three of you lop eared varmints will have suggestions for doing exactly that... The End!

WOWZY WOW WOW WOW!!!!!!! Few feet earlier into the rail and he would have done the ol Wiley Coyote routine right into that sign and SPLAT,, woulda/coulda been a whole different outcome ... Thank the Lord he cleared it and sounds like he is gonna be ok.. From what I can tell from the video, and IMHO, he had plenty of good, open pavement to judge his corner,, nothing there keeping him from tossing that sport bike down onto the chicken strips (maybe the pavement was wet,, putting fear of sliding out on him) and riding it out.. Bottom line,, it looks like possibly another fixated looking/watching at going where he didn't wanna go ending up at not even an attempt at riding out the corner.. Crazy,, right after the bike bounced off the rail and he went over the edge,, its almost like the bike just took over on its own to prove it was completely capable of making it .. GLAD THE RIDER IS GOING TO LIVE TO RIDE AGAIN!!

binI did send you a PM last night answering this my Texas Hero but apparently, due to oversight on my part my message box was tapped out and bouncing against the rev limiter and the message did not go thru.. I just resent my reply brother.. Asking for some pics of your triple tree or where ever you are planning to drill and questions about your planned method for the process,, you thinking drill thru,put a bolt in and nut on the bottom or drilling and tapping?? The reason for pics,, maybe there are already spots of factory drilled and tapped locations you could tie into with some brackets to mount the horns onto.. If it were mine I would look carefully for "clamps" where the forks slide into the triple trees = most scoots have got them of some sort.. Fabbing up a set of brackets that I could bend/tweek into mounts for the horns and then mounting the brackets under the fork clamp bolts would not be unreasonable IMHO.. It is not uncommon for OEM engineers to use those clamp bolts in double duty for everything from quick detach windshield mounts and blinker mounts and lots of other stuff.. I have personally used them to do crazy stuff like your son is talking about doing too,, on more than one occasion (you know how I am) and have never had issue with such.. I am sure you will get LOTS of suggestions on here from the guru's. I strongly suggest that you give much thought to listening to them before you drill baby drill... Best of luck with your project!! CANNOT WAIT TO SEE THE END RESULT!! Puc

Tell you what,, I still think the Midnight was/is one of the prettiest motorcycles ever made!! Because one of my favorite singers of all time (only topped by Willie), Waylon Jennings, always wore black,, if I had a great big beautiful hard pulling,, come out swinging rebel of a scoot like that all decked out in black I would name him "Waylon" and Waylon and I would head out CTFW to prove once again that Hank really did do it that way!!! GREAT FIND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes sir reee Bob,, thats the puppy!!! Evil little sucker has cause many many people TONS of problems.. I have tried replacing with new,, didnt work best.. Putting ring terminals on the wires and lugging them up that way,,, better than the spade terminal idea but not the best.. And found my best luck for best long term, long distance touring protection against Murph to be clipping the spade blades off the wires, cleaning up the insulation, trimming back the black outer plastic housing some,, slipping some shrink tube over the indiviual wires AND a larger piece over all three of the wires,, solder em up, pull up the individual shrink tube and heat it to shrink. pull up the large three wire shrink tube to cover original plastic outer and the three wires in one piece and shrink it, tie wrap to frame and done.. I know,, it will now be a hassle to test the stator circuitry if the need arises BUT, IMHO,, its worth the hassle.. Yes,, IMHO,, it is a common fail point.. All of my 6 MK1 Ventures totalling +1 million miles that I personally ran em out to had those stator wires hard wired due to issues at that joint.. Oh,,by the way,, there is not polarity = just white to white.. Maybe take an ohm meter and check resistance across those white wires a pair at a time (disconnected at the terminal you have in your hand, testing leads going back to the stator so you are ohming out the stator windings) to make sure they are all the same and in spec.. also check each to ground. this will give you somewhat of an idea of the condition of your stator.. What years your scoot? 83/84's had stator issues and without the update (oil splash and orvice in crank bolt to allow oil bath) - they all failed = edit = ((OOPPPSSSS, my bad,, just noticed we are talking 93 VR,, I would still ohm out the stator before soldering the wires together anyway)).. Thats why I ask..

what cha riding Flash?? By the way,, :group cheers:

Wish you were closer Silv,, I got an original Tombstone Taillight in my stock of left over parts from my Chopper build days... Would DEFINITELY top off your build in total chopperdom coolness

It's to bad BJ from South Dakota aint still around,, he LOVED spinning the vinyl's Patch and would have GREATLY appreciated your thread here!!! :guitarist 2:

OUTSTANDING SILV!!!:thumbsup: Ya know,, thinking about it,, the headlight on your scoot looks about as close to being an original ""Bates"" as one could get!! WAYYYYYYYYYYY COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:thumbsup:

What ya did, ya did good cause I can see clearly now :happy34:!! VERY WELL DONE EARL!!!! She's a beauty!! I always enjoyed making the coffin's,, straight cuts, tig em up... A ton less work than dinking around with the english wheel BUT,, I did actually enjoy the wheel - lots of fun if you wanna spend hours tinkering.. Concerning the brakes,, even though you did drums,, at least you did SOMETHING for stopping power!!! My bent always leaned more toward a love for the simplisity "spoolie" look.. 21 inch spoolie with no brake to clutter it up and a set of "Z" bars aimed at my chest to put me out of my mysery should my rear drum brake fail me in an emergency.. I LOVE YOU BUILD BROTHER!! Thanks for the pic! Puc

Awe,, THANKS YOU LOP EARED VARMINTS FOR THE B-DAY WISHES!!!

Before heading out CTFW with all the electrical updates being completed,, it might not be a bad idea to hard wire the 3 phase stator output terminal that sets on the frame about half way down under the left side cover... It would be a real shame to get stranded out in the desert with a failed stator cause that terminal melted down due to resistance buildup allowing two of the three white stator output wires to make contact thereby taking out the stator... Staying one step ahead of ol Murphy can be a career opportunity!!

,,, you and I Earl,, we got more in common than a lot of actual blood brothers have my friend!! I was the odd duck of our family of 7 kids.. Even before Kindergarten, my parents knew something was off.. My lack of any form of interest in sports (my dad was an athletic crazy) and interest in motorcycles during a day and time when motorcyclist were severely looked down upon was an issue.. When I was in Kindergarten I still remember to this day being punished (both at school and at home) because of my lack of interest in collecting baseball cards and such as most normal boys did as I preferred to sit and draw pictures of Chopped motorcycles. I would also rather rip apart a beat up old lawn mower engine to see what was inside than watch the super bowl - and this was as a little kid .. When I got a little older and started riding peddle bikes, I had aquired quite a local reputation for ruining friends bikes by cutting the hollow tubed forks off them (Huffies?) and using those forks on other friends bikes to create extended forks by sliding the hollowed ones over the flat forks of other friends bikes (rich kids with Schwinns). Yep,, even at 8 years old, I was a rebel.. I have since built many choppers over the years and actually thoroughly enjoyed cruising and touring on them pre-Venture days. I also got into for resale.. Allll that said, and in the spirit of a shared brotherly love for the fine art of Chopperdom,, could you PLEASE take another shot at posting the picture of your bike?? I am not able to see it and would LOVE to!! I would also be interested in knowing whether or not I am the only one on VR who is unable to view your precious Chopper picture? Your brother in Chopperdom!! Puc