BratmanXj

That's my 20 mo. old, every bike he runs to the front door and waves and watches them pass by. Also, all my friends are in the fire services so he does the same with any ambulance or fire apparatus.

83-86 1st Gen - Mk I 87-93 1st Gen - Mk II 96-up 2nd Gen

about 10 years ago I bought a full set of DowCo Iron Rider travel bags second hand. Women had a mid-size cruiser and rode cross country once or twice and was switching to an adventure bike; bought the 5 bag set for $100!!! I use them regularly lending them to friends for day trips or packing up the Baggers for a long road trip. On their own they are fairly rain-proof but do come with rain covers for those bad storms. DowCo products are sturdy and have held up well, you can regularly find them on clearance for good prices.

Upgrading to Late 90's/Early 2000's R1 or R6 calipers while still using the stock 5/8" master improves braking performance but leaves you with vague brake feel. As @Atoolnut, I also swapped out an entire setup, calipers and master, from an 02-05 Road Star WARRIOR; 06-up Road Star also have the 14mm Master & 4-pot calipers. These generations of the Road Star & Warrior are the same calipers as the previous generation 4-pot sport bike calipers.

IF you hit traffic just right the Ride down Lake Shore Drive (Rt 41) is nice but watch out for the south side. The neighborhoods get bad, but they will mostly leave you alone. The hit the highway and skip over the South Burbs & near northwest indiana; Exit Ripply St in Gary, zig-zag to County Line Rd then up to Rt 12 Dunes Highway all the way through Michigan City and up keep following up the MI West coast.

When will you be comming through Chicago? Weekend traffic on 294 isn't bad but you'll pay tolls, stay away from the city on 94 if you want to keep rolling. The UP is a beautiful ride but Hiawatha Forrest starts to drag on after the 1st few miles. Its all open road and you can keep moving.

Sorry, my color comment was only in regards to the 2 photo's that i put up to show the different calipers/forks relative to the year of the bike. Agreed...

Both R1 & R6 in 2005 (blue bike) were Radial Mounted Calipers that won't fit out bikes and You'll have to find a set from an older bike like the 2001 (red bike) that mount horizontally to the fork leg.

I purchased a Heavy Duty Hagon last spring for the $520-ish that's regularly quoted on this forum. After the fact someone mentioned that Works has lowered their prices from the $700+ to almost the same price as the Hagon, I have not verified this but you might want to look into it. The only real difference I've found between the Hagon & Works is IF you need to rebuild; Hagon has to be sent in where Works will sell you a rebuild kit.

Most good brand 4" marine speakers with a real cone (not paper) and tweeter will be an improvement. But as Freebird stated it's still only a 4" speaker and there's only so far you can go with that small of a cone. I've been waiting for winter to split my fairing and install Blaupunkt MSX402 speakers, about $55 on Amazon.

I was able to find and ENTIRE front setup for $65 shipped from a wrecked Warrior, that's less than most eBay prices for just the calipers. You can do the swap with just the 4-pot calipers but if you can find a 14mm master for a reasonable price it does further improves the brake system.

That is a 12.85% difference in volume, and in the world of fluid dynamics that would be a significant variation...granted I'm far removed from my mechanical engineering days so I'm not going to go that far into detail. Ma Yamaha outfits any bike with 4-pot calipers with a 14mm master, and all 2-pot calipers with a 5/8" master. I'm sure for a reason. Will R6/R1/Road Star calipers by them selves be an upgrade on a Venture/TD? Yes, but the system is not optimized for the pressure and volume necessary.

I believe the stock Venture master is 5/8" so it moves (slightly) less volume per stroke than the 14mm. You're now moving 4 pistons vs 2 and the lever "feel" is slighly better, the "take up" in the lever is better. I was able to find an entire front brake system for $60, but many people have done the swap with only the calipers.

Whiting Indiana (10 min from my house, and I know a few of the plant engineers) BP Refinery is down like 40% of production...All while having low crude prices. No, there's no price fixing going on. Prices around here went from $2.41 to $3.19

IF you want to down the road of upgrading the brake system (as I did) from the stock 2-piston calipers to 4-piston calioers you will also need to swap to the 14mm master cylinder. Easiest is to find a whole front brake system from an 02-05 road star Warrior or 06-up Road star. The calipers are either black or silver and it has a master that is an exact swap for the Venture.

Isn't the "Watering" Hole an appropriate enough forum for boating? Those superchaged SeaDoo can hit 72ish on smototh water, they've got some giddy-up. Great if you want to pull a tube or even a fat guy water skiing (I only say it because I am that guy). Most boat shops do oil changes from above with a vacuum pump rather than through the oil pan drain as its simpler and cleaner, doesnt leave an oily mess in the hull. You put the vac tube down the dipstick or fill tube and pump it out, otherwise all the same as other oil changes.

Tcro still makes stick coils bit it's just as easy to make them yourselves with some eBay shopping

I've been running a the Skydock heavy duty diaphragm spring on both the RS Venture as well as a reasonably stock Road Star Warrior, now my buddies heavily modified Road Star Warrior eats diaphragm springs and we were forced to go with the Barnett kit with Heavy Duty springs.

Yamaha is known for weak clutch diaphragms (springs) that loose their clamping power with age. I've done both a Barnett pressure plate swap on a built Road Star Warrior 1700cc as well as Skydocks Heavy Duty diaphragm & similar EBC diaphragms. It's easy to do the work on the side-stand with simple hand tools with out loosing any oil.

Volo is over an hour drive northwest of downtown Chicago in light traffic, HD in Milwaukee can be more than 2 hours if you hit traffic. If you are driving in from Ohio: Studebaker Museum in South Bend, Indiana RV Museum in Elkhart, IN Auburn, Cord, Duesenburg Musesum in Auburn, IN (just north of Ft Wayne) Early Ford Museum in Auburn National Auto & Truck in Auburn

My Yamah GP1200s are notorious for bouncing and porpoising. If you're having problems with keeping the ski in the water in chop you can shim down the tail of the ride plate with some stainless washers, same as triming an outboard. I spend Saturday manhanding my dock and peir back up on their trailers. Mom's place flooded and the peir almost floated way with the skies and pontoon attached. Luckily we grabbed them and tied them off to the shed.

With the amount of R&D Polaris put in to making Indian it's own stand alone brand I could really see this working. The Electric TT bikes that Victory put together shows an interest in the sport bike market and with Eric's engineering prowess there are major possibilities. I hope they give him the freedom that H.D. never did.

Not sure what you're referring to with the "bags" but my experiences with touring: Ask the attended at the hotel if there is a secure place to park, ie by the front door. My ram mount for the GPS & Phone stay on the handlebars, but any and all electronics get locked away in the saddlebag for the night. Tank bag gets locked away for the night Disk lock & cable lock to the other bike I'm usually touring with Lock the saddlebags Now, I live in the greater Chicago area...I take as much off the bike as I can. Once I get out into the "country" a bit I'm a lot more lax on what i keep on the bike.

I can't help but laugh that it has a listing for Archer Avenue in Chicago because it's HAUNTED! I references Resurrection Cemetery, that I was working at earlier today and the ghost of Resurrection Mary that I know OH SO WELL. http://www.dangerousroads.org/haunted-roads/4917-archer-avenue.html

Especially with the Keggy-Fuel tank on the back of that thing, that's no fair weather bikers...