cowpuc

:sign yeah that: One of the HUGE things I love about our little +60 mpg Hyundai Ioniq mini motorhome is that it's cruise control remains operatable from 16 mph to 114 mph. For many thousands of miles I had to use a throttle lock on my 1st Gens to get that kind of cruise control performance. I actually liked and appreciated those throttle locks so much that I even put one on Maggie, my Yamaha R1. If the guru's dont respond shortly with a viable electronic cure for your cruise control you might give a throttle lock a try. They do have a learning curve but not that bad IMHO. I even use mine while slow riding Tweeks thru crowds at rallies and wanting to take video's of the people doing crazy stuff

My personal rule of thumb is, for CTFW living out of saddlebags and tenting it, draw a parallel line across the country from the bottom of Michigan and Sept 1 thru July 1 stay south of it if you want the best chance to not get snowed in.. I think if I were gonna do such a trip October to November I would hug the west coast, stay on the west side of the Rockies and hug the ocean.. Probably run around the west side of Mt. St. Helens, down to "The Dells" in Oregon on the Columbia, head south staying in the lower elevations, back over the coast after getting around Portland, follow as much of "1" as possible down to Stewards Point California. Ride east out of Stewards Point on Skaggs Creek road (WOWZY WOW WOW WOW = this is must do every time we get out there = its like a bicyle path thru the Red Woods - BEAUTIFUL CTFW opportunity and fresh new pavement!!) out to Geyserville. I am not much for City driving and have done Frisco several times without being to impressed so I would set my sites on going around the bottom of the Serria Nevada's and spending time in Death Valley N.P. in the coolness of the fall months when its not 120 degree's out there.. If you happen to catch the park during full moon time, pull the fuse on the headlight (or unplug it) and run running lights only = UNBELIEVABLE EXPERIENCE!! Like riding on a different planet!! From there I would grab Joshua Tree NP on my way down to Organ Pipe Cactus N.P. and cross into Mexico there.. I carry a couple quarts of xtra fuel strapped under my tent carrier on the back of Tweeks,, I just use empty oil containers,, when I fill em I squeeze em down to allow room for expansion.. I know Menards here has sealed fuel cans for such security but I also know that there is an after market company that sells pretty nice fuel containers that are saddle bag ready. I am positive that @VentureFar (wassup my dear brother!! Hope all is well!!) has a TON of experience with these.. Cant remember the name brand he uses but he will be able to tell you - trust VentureFar = if he says NO LEAKS no SMELLS = it is so!.. Have fun, ride safe! Puc

WOWZY WOW WOW WOW,, you are 100% correct @Condor!! That place REALLY gets lit up after dark!! Makes me think of the Sturgis Rally on steroids when the sun goes down!!

Thanks for the reminder my brother!! Got er done! Also thanks again for doing this in memory and honor of our friend and brother, BongoBob.. Sure miss em! Puc

prayers up sky!!

Sheesh @videoarizona,,,, I have absolutely NO idea how I missed your post here brother,,, Trooper/Tip and I were probably out wandering around the country trying to figure out our way home.. My apologies my friend!! Indeed we did sneak your scoot out for some fun while you were sleeping off an awesome CTFW journey from AZ to our home in Michigan!! To follow up on the video(s) of us out tortu,, demoing the amazing 2nd Gen iron steed as you mentioned,, here is a couple them. First one will be of the slow riding fun we had with it,, second one as proof of what kind of company you keep (lop eared varmints who will sneak your bike away for some fun when your snoozin). Third one will be of us on Tweeks showing the basics of how we slow ride and the exact techniques we used in slow riding your fully loaded with gear, 2nd Gen = DEFINITELY user friendly that 2nd Gen was/is.. Not sure what size tires you had on it at the time,, I can't remember if you had dropped to a smaller front tire as mentioned in this thread? I got a sneaking hunch that you had OEM sizes on it and truthfully,,, I thought it did a GREAT job,, IMHO of course! Another opinion concerning the topic of discussion here,, because I run full weight (always have my touring bike set up for x2 up CTFW fun at full pack) on my 1st Gen, I always make sure that my tires are a full, when cold, air pressure according to the tire carcass rating on the tires I am running. Doing this pretty much guarentees that I am running on the radius of the tire which I like the feel and handling charachtoristics of.. Running lower than stated air pressures will give me more contact area and a different feel in steering and such. Back in the day when doing a fair amount of dirt play in the dunes of Michigan (Silver Lake), it was common to catch me running 3 or 4 pounds of pressure on the tires on my MX bike to make em squat and gain traction.. Thing is,, worked GREAT for dunes but dangerous on the street, IMHO of course.. Here's those vids..

:sign yeah that: After checking the Cables and Fuses carefully for corrosion and engagement like Vaz mentions I would stick it on a battery charger and bring it to a full charge and try it, then toss some jumper cables on it if needed to see if that will get er started. After getting it started I would toss an ohm/volt meter across the battery cables to make sure your scoots charging system is doing its thing. At idle = 12 volts, off idle (2 grandish) I would be looking for 14.5 volts.. IMHO, starting the bike every week and letting it sit and idle will drain the battery. If your gonna start it just to keep it operatable you gotta rev it occasionally in the process to keep the battery charged. If you just let it idle you can drain the battery with results similar to what I am reading here.. Maybe a Battery Tender is in your future?

:sign yeah that: Right there with ya Roller!!!! Prayers Up for all in the possible path of this one!!! Stay safe my friends!!

Way I figure it brother is ya can't expect them to even care one way or the other whether you respect them or not once they have lost all respect for themselves ,, did I say that right ,,,,,, IMHO respect for all things external of ones self begins with respect for ones self,,, ,, probably still not making sense,,, oh well,, at least I tried

Tweeks, Tip and I CTFW down to Big Bend N.P. a few years ago and then did another one just this year to see what was happening about the wall in El Paso. IMHO, the climate has changed significantly (at least along the border,, thinking the Cartels aint none to happy with the U.S./Mexico relationship right now) between now and than..

Judging from the straight down exhaust on a flat heat engine and the right side shift lever at the tank my guess is Indian. I can almost see the kickstarter ratchet somewhat and that looks more Indian than HD too.. Yep,, I am sticking with Indian,,, for the time being BEAUTIFUL PIC BROTHER = THANKS FOR SHARING!!

Sounds like Slab City!! Ever Ventured down there Condor??

No idea what your carrying for a Drivers License but here in Michigan we have access to the "Enhanced" licenses and Tip and I have them. We found out that these DL's do not give access across the southern boarder. They work PERFECT for travel into Canada and back into the States but not for the Southern Boarder.. Still gotta do the old Pass Port routine down yonder.. Heyyyy,, wait a second,, we actually had a member do a, from Canada thru Mexico ride a while back.. He did a great job on reporting the full experience,, it was quite a story to follow as he was riding a 250 dollar Venture (man after my own heart)... Hold on I will see if I can find the thread...... YEP = here ya go Silverado! Hope this helps!! https://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?119387-Canada-to-Cancun-on-the-250-Venture-The-full-ride-report&highlight=mexico

Any of you lop eared lead tossin varmints got any experience with these (Kel Tec PMR 30)? 30 rounds :thumbsup: of 22 magnums in a double stacked magazine, 4 inch barrel, super light weight, single action all under a life time warranty... https://www.gunbroker.com/item/829723066

What,, no pie? WOWZY WOW WOW WOW,, AWESOME pics from an AWESOME lop eared CTFW varmint there Vaz!! Needed that = THANK YOU my brother!!

Looks somewhat similar to the "Voyager" kit that MiRider and Sue (Dave = hi brother,, if you see this = WASSUP?) had on their RSV that they let Tip and I take for a spin = VERY STABLE for an easy to build Trike!! No where near as complicated as the Triked Sporty I helped build for good friends wife where displacing that OEM drive wheel took some doings including line up fitment and some welding as shown below..

:sign yeah that: That is EXACTLY what I do!! After noticing my computer slowing down - almost exactly in the way Randy mentions - I went to Wall Mart and picked up a 1 terabyte external hard drive (on sale for 24 bucks), moved all my pictures/vids/documents I wanted to save (actually it's a good idea to have anything you really care about backed up on an external drive anyway - some pictures and vids are PRICELESS IMHO). I then moved everything over to the external and removed them from my Computer. Then I did a system reinstall and WOWZY WOW WOW WOW was I shocked at how much better performance I got. Now I keep the external updated and use my computer storage for short term use, it's not that time consuming if I stay on top of it IMHO.. I swear,, some of this computers are more sensitive than the quarter turn throttle on my old CR250..

ABSOLUTELY spot on @Kretz!! I already got a pile of 2x4 cut off blocks for him to stack in the back for playing with loading and unloading his dump box but I gotta hunch its gonna be a while before we get to that point.. I locked the steering purposely with hopes that, being 2 years old - the lil lop eared Grandson varmint can focus on just throttle technique for a while (he may have to make a few laps with the throttle locked too just to experience the movement without sitting on my knee while mowing the grass). Figured I work my way up do a dirt pile like you suggest and then, after that,, pick up a real deal Miniture back hoe with a diesel engine so he can finish my back yard for me,,,, ALWAYS thinkin that Supergramps Grampa Puc is,, always thinkin!! By the way, his Mom made a video of him watching this video and sent it to me,, she says "he wont put the phone down, he's been watching this video of his truck going round and round over and over.. I noticed when he got 30 seconds in where I say "hey Birdie" and then stick my tongue out at him in glee,,, he sticks his tongue out back at me and starts laughing... My daughter missed it,, sort of a Grampa/Grandson bonding moment

Personally I REALLY like the looks of what cha got happening there brother = sort of a back to basics, no frills rider,,,, a Motorcycle in it's purist form !! NICE!!

:sign yeah that: And cleaned up and operating correctly, your best stopping power is with just those front brakes and should be a one finger (maybe 2 if you dont have good strength in your pointer finger) instantanious affair. Learning to use your throttle with one finger free to do all the braking is great cause you never have to wake your right foot up while it's sleeping draped over the front crash bars and also an excellent friend while stopped on a hillside waiting for the traffic to move forward:biker:. Learning to use/depend on the front brake can save your life!!! Track/Street or even just fun in the woods on a dirt bike,, IMHO, the only real good use of the rear brake is for steering the bike.. I have a gut feeling that the only reason Mom Yam went with linked brakes on these big ol amazing touring bikes is that more and more people were forgetting the fine art of front brake usage and determined to rely on the back brakes for stopping power..

She certainly looks like an Annie Oakley in the makings dont she brother WOWZY WOW WOW WOW,, GORGEOUS little Black Powder shooter you landed there Jack!!!!! Be GREAT to see a before and after when you, the Master of Cowboy shooters gets done with it if you decide to mess with it!! On the same token though,, I REALLY love the pitina,, sort of give it's that "Lets toss some lead the Cowboy way" feeling IMHO.. Either way,,, BEAUTIFUL IMHO!!

Donated to the cause by a neighbor, I got a hunch our Grandson is going to have a hoot when he comes to play next week!!

IMHO, no you dont necessarially have to bleed the brakes or swap in new fluid when swapping pads (it is sealed hydraulic system that should not require bleeding/fluid swap just to put in new pads), doing so would be more of a maintenance purpose than anything else.. Normally all that would be needed to slap on new pads would be removal of the caliper, popping off the old pads, compressing the pistons so the new pads will slide over the rotor, cleaning the rotor real well with brake cleaner, putting the new pads back into the caliper, slipping the caliper with new pads back over the rotor, tightening the bolts, pumping the pedal while spinning the wheel to make sure the brake is engaging and releasing properly and hitting the road to fun.. It's a funky habit I got into a longggg time ago and also not a "have to do" either but I ALWAYS clean the pistons when doing a pad swap. This has served me well thru the years in avoiding sticky caliper pistons (resulting in all kinds of calamity on either dirt bikes or street) and doing so has worked well in my case. On my 1st Gens, doing this has allowed me to be able to run original calipers and pistons with no rebuilds thru my process of wearing out 6 1st Gens.. Here is a short video of what I am referring to - this is on my R1 but same idea applies across the board.. If your going to do this, please be aware that you do not want to push the pistons all the way out!! If you are going to do that, you may as well get new seals and be prepared to rebuild the calipers while your at it = this will also REGUIRE you to refill with fresh fluid as this is opening the sealed brakes system and fluid will be everywhere. Just be careful when pumping out the pistons to only push them out to the distance of the width of the pad on a new brake pad (not including backing plate). After cleaning one piston (do them one at a time), force it back in and pump it back out and check it for smearing,, if it shows contamination = reclean, push the piston back out and check it again..

Seems like it would be easy enough to figure out which switch is getting bumped,,, maybe just set the cruise and support the levers one at a time with a finger (or lift up on the rear brake with a toe) while hitting a bump or two or three and see if it helps.. My one first 1st Gen was a Royale and after it got a couple hundred thousand miles on it, it started doing this,, turned out to be the clutch lever pivot was tired and the slop let it bump the switch when bounced at all.. Good point you lop eared varmints!

NICE!!!!!!! No idea on the AIS but someone much more with it will certainly know!! Hey Bill,, when was the last time you checked the brake pad's for both wear and contamination? You ever put new pads on it? Maybe all it needs is a set of new pads and a good rotor cleaning... I always clean my caliper pistons when I do that (put in new pads) to keep em from getting sticky,, may or may not be applicable in your case..