BratmanXj

Have you ever tried a sidecar? Other than the concept of "not needing to hold the bike up at a light" I wouldn't necessarily describe it as an easier riding experience than a 2-wheeler. I have an '07 Ural Tourist that is a factory designed sidecar rig with a leading link front suspension that both lightens the steering effort AND has better lateral load handling than a conventional fork. I've piloted converted Ultra Classic & Goldwings with both the standard triple clamp and the "Ez Steer" clamps. A sidecar is a-symmetrical and will pitch and yaw at every throttle or brake input, there is no subtle body lean you can put in to counter a side-wind; everything takes upper body strength to hold your line.

The bro-in-law purchased a Stratoliner in the fall, he's big shouldered like me and the stock mirrors are a little low. The Ventures come with a stock riser to the mirrors, but those suckers are $16 a piece plus shipping! I can find black ones on Amazon for under $15 a pair, but no luck matching the LH / RH thread in chrome. Has anyone found an aftermarket left & right thread replacement chrome mirror riser?

Right click and download the file vs trying to open the PDF on-line.

I've had my '99 for about 10yrs now, bought it with a touch over 50k miles and no plans to give it up any time soon. I've had both sport tourers and big twin cruisers, this bike splits the difference.... As noted the engine likes to rev so don't be shy. It looks like that bike has aftermarket mufflers already on it, Harley touring mufflers are a nearly direct swap and I'm sure you can source some OEMs on here if need be to change the sound if you don't like it. Leaking rear shock was problem #1 when I purchased mine. There's people on this forum who repair them, I bought a Hagon replacement and I think RaceTech still makes an option too. Yamaha's (an a lot of metric bikes) are known to loose clutch spring pressure with age. Don't worry if you feel a little clutch slip at the top end of the rev range. EBC makes an updated clutch spring that is simple and inexpensive to replace. There is a good tech article forum here, you should be able to find the service manual for download and most of the maintenance has been straight forward.

I have an Ivan's jet kit sitting on my desk right now... the left bank and right bank are jetted differently from the factory. I'll post a bit of the instructions later tonight.

Same lever between 1700 Road Stars & the '99-'13 Ventures.

I'm not sure if you're "gaining anything" on an RSV with a LI battery. The cyclist I've know to use them were for custom builds where they needed small (& light) packaging without a spill aspect to hide the battery. They were more expensive and required a specialty charger to use. There's nothing light weight or needing a small space in an RSV that would need that specialty.

1/2" Copper plumbing caps were a snug fit with the factory stainless webbing "gaskets" for the AIS ports on the heads. 10 yrs later and they're still there.

I think i linked mine front to rear on each side of the engine. There was an article on one of the tech forms about "balancing" the engine pulses to the carbs, but I've read on other forums debunking any improvements and never really worried about it since on the Venture. I'm digging into my carbs this winter so maybe I'll eliminate the cross-over hoses.

The brother-in-law just bought a used Stratoliner that has some aged rubber on it, I'm also looking to maybe change tires on the Venture (not a fan of how these Dunlop E4s handle). I was looking at Shinko 777s for the Strat and maybe try the 999 for the Venture, but we're not sold on anything specific at this time. If anyone happens to see a flyer come out for a Black Friday sale please post up. Thanks

I purchased Wix 51356... they fit last year and I'm hoping they didn't change them recently

The part number in '14 when I ordered mine - M62097

There were Inner & Outer seals on mine, but its been a few years since I've been in there. I bought a complete rebuild kit from All Balls when I did mine https://www.allballsracing.com/18-3194.html

I know a lot of us here have put a Harley touring muffler on our bikes with no change in carburation... I agree that you can probably go back to stock mufflers without an issues.

2nd this... my '99 left me stranded earlier this year with a bad clutch switch after stopping for gas. Bike would power on just fine, but absolutely nothing when you hit the starter. Ended up a with a shorted clutch safety switch shutting down the whole starting system.